Here’s what airlines must do if a cancellation or delay is their fault

Most of the largest U.S. airlines will cover some expenses if a cancellation or “significant delay” is their fault. A significant delay is defined by Congress as one where the plane will arrive three hours or more later than scheduled.

The types of issues that are considered “controllable” include: staffing, plane malfunction, scheduling that’s too tight, getting travelers off a plane and getting it cleaned and refueled, and so on.

The expenses they’ll cover:

• Rebooking on same airline at no additional cost: All 9 will. (Spirit is gone.)
• Rebooking with another airline at no additional cost: 6 of 9 will.
• Meal or meal voucher: All 9 will.
• Hotel accommodations if stranded overnight: All but Frontier will.
• Ground transportation to and from that hotel: All but Frontier will.

The caveat here: Airlines will cover these expenses if they’ve made this commitment to the DOT. Once an airline has done that, it becomes part of the airline’s “contract of carriage,” meaning it’s required.

Here’s a look at which airlines will do what, taken from the DOT’s air travel dashboard.

The commitments are the same for controllable cancellations and delays.

This is important: Even if a cancellation or delay is not the fault of an airline — say it’s because of bad weather —  you should still ask nicely whether they will rebook you or provide a hotel room, meal voucher or ground transportation. In many cases, they will.