Airlines must refund you automatically when they cancel your flight

This rule made refunds to your original form of payment the default instead of something you have to chase. If an airline cancels your flight or significantly changes it, and you don’t accept the rebooking or other offer, the airline owes you a refund. That includes taxes and fees.

A significant change includes moving a departure at least 3 hours earlier or an arrival at least 3 hours later on a domestic itinerary. The threshold is 6 hours for an international itinerary. If your checked bag is not delivered within 12 hours of your final flight segment’s arrival on a domestic itinerary, file a mishandled-baggage report; the bag fee must be refunded. International itineraries have longer limits. If you paid for an extra service and the airline didn’t provide it, that fee comes back too. Airlines must pay within 7 business days for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.

President Joe Biden’s 2021 competition order directed the Department of Transportation to propose refund rules for delayed bags and paid extras, and Secretary Pete Buttigieg issued this rule in April 2024. Congress then wrote ticket-refund rights into the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley filed a bipartisan amendment to preserve automatic refunds after an earlier draft required passengers to request them, and Senate negotiators adopted the protection. Sen. Maria Cantwell led negotiations on the broader FAA bill. It passed with large bipartisan majorities, and Biden signed it in May 2024.