In the grand scheme of things, most airlines are simply reaffirming what they have long offered: meal vouchers and hotel rooms for delays within their control. Even so, memorializing it in a written policy is a positive step in reducing the sort of shcnenanginas that so often play out when operations go sideways.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Meal Vouchers And Hotel Rooms During Flight Delays – Why Written Policies Matter
Just a week ago, I wrote about the ultimatum handed down by U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ahead of the Labor Day Weekend, calling upon airlines to offer more transparency and accountability to customers who are impacted by flight delays that are within the carrier’s control.
> Read More: Buttigieg Gives U.S. Airlines An “Ultimatum”
“At a minimum,” Buttigieg asked airlines to provide meal vouchers for delays of three hours or more and lodging accommodations for passengers stuck overnight because of disruptions within the carrier’s control.
Yesterday, U.S. carriers jointly agreed to this minimum level of protection.
On the one hand, this isn’t exactly breaking news. Even the budget carriers already offer you a token meal voucher and space permitting, a hotel voucher for incidents within its control. In that sense, the agreement by U.S. carriers is a nothingburger.
But I actually label this a small but substantial victory for airline customers because it will now be clearly memorialized on airline websites and on a central repository of airline compensation information on the Department of Transportation website.
One reason we love airline award charts is because of the accountability that produces. With explicit policies governing meal vouchers and hotels for delays, a consumer is more likely to encounter a better outcome and the threat of further government coercion will make airlines think twice before lying about reasons for flight delays.
It’s true that for delays like weather and Air Traffic Control, no assistance is required. Maybe that’s for the best, but I hope this new written policy will make carriers far more hesitant to engage in the sort of unethical practice Air Canada is currently engaging in (the Canadian flag carrier is saying that virtually any operational problem is due to COVID-19, and therefore beyond its control).
Airline Negotiated Rates: Untapped Potential
Let’s talk about those weather delays and other delays that fall outside of an airline’s control.
While not a perfect analogy, just like it’s about the time the U.S. federal government starts negotiating for prescription drug prices, now is the time that airlines should negotiate distress rates for consumers (as they do for their own employees). Sure, if a thursndersom cancels your flight you might be on your own for a hotel, but at least you can take advantage of United or Delta or American’s purchasing power to save on your hotel room. To prevent people from using this rate code (I would think a standard rate code would be needed), a same-day boarding pass could be required at check-in.
My hazy memory seems to recall green slips of paper that airlines used to hand out that promised “discounted” hotel rates. These days, we just go to Agota or Hotwire to search for last-minute hotel deals, but there is a better way that could leave consumers feeling taken care of without the airlines being forced to act by the feds.
CONCLUSION
While carriers are only officially agreeing to what most already do, there is a great advantage to having policies clearly spelled out in writing. Airlines that rely so much upon taxpayer support for everything from infrastructure to research and development to payroll support should agree to basic levels of care for consumers. I hope this is just the beginning, not the end…
@ Matthew — I haven’t read any of these new rules/policies, but I would FAR prefer a $50-$100 airline credit over an airline-paid hotel room. Last month, we were provided 2 hotel rooms after being involuntarily bumped from our F seats. The hotel was horrible, and it apparently cost the airline $99+tax (~$113) per room. We would have gladly paid $250+tax to stay somewhere that wasn’t a total dump.
In addition, we were given $24/person for meals (supposedly to cover 2 meals per person in the airport). This was a total joke, as you could barely buy a coffee for $12. Again, we would have preferred $20 each in an airline voucher.
In all, we would have been much happier with an $100 airline credit each over the $137 each that the airlines doled out. Of course, we DID receive a $300 voucher each for the total service failure, but taking care of our own room and board and receiving $400 would have been a preferable outcome.
I get what you are saying about the hotel room 100%.
I don’t want airline vouchers for small amounts of money though- like $20. The problem with that type of voucher is if you don’t fly the carrier with any regularity you end up having to pay for the food, and you get a voucher that may be worthless to you because you can’t use it.
Right now I have a voucher for $50 on an airline I rarely fly, and it’s not enough of an incentive for me to go out of my way to use on one of their flights– it will expire before I use it, meaning it cost the airline nothing and provided me with nothing.
I believe the slip of paper you are referring to came in many different colors.
I still have a pink colored one from over 20 years ago, but I remember green and blue ones as well.
IME the distressed hotel rate were great prior to the hotels having robust websites.
This is better than what is currently in place.
Delta loves to drag out cancelling a flight. Even if the flight looks impossible, they’ll continue to delay until it’s 10:00 pm and you’re forced to stay at the airport hotel at a crazy rate because the other airlines had already cancelled their flight, rebooked the passengers’ flights, and even had the courtesy to give their passengers hotel vouchers. I remember flying out of YYZ twice and my afternoon flights were canceled due to weather. While AA, UA, WS, and even Flair airlines gave passengers hotel vouchers to spend the night at YYZ, DL said that “they don’t control the weather” when they cancelled our flight at 10:00 pm and 11:15 pm respectively. By this point, every other hotel was full except the Sheraton, and they charged $400 because it was last minute. I was compensated by my employers, but imagine other folks who burned $400 due to something that wasn’t their fault…
This is yet another total fail by the US Congress and Biden Administration. This will be impossible to enforce, a $7 dinner at any airport will only buy a cup of coffee. We need every flight classified by the DOT with a reason code so there are no shenanigan’s on “weather”‘ delays (i.e, a snow storm in the Rockies somehow affects my regional jet shuttle from LGA to DCA? BS)
We need EU 261 type CASH PAYMENTS. Airlines got $54 billion in US tax dollars and then proceeded to rip our faces off on fares this past year while providing substandard service. Not OK.
Mayor Pete will crow about success but this is a TOATL FAIL.
Hey silly! Must you blame Biden for everything bad in your life? Your I.Q. must equal your shoe size dummy!
I guess I’ve been pretty lucky and haven’t had a ton of bad delay experiences, but I’ve had a few compensated delays. Each time I felt the compensation wasn’t enough, but was still grateful to get something.
I agree with Matthew that it’s good to have compensation as a policy, but I think it also has the potential for the airlines to use it as an excuse to provide the bare minimum whenever they can – “Look at us, we’re complying!”
Time will tell.
I’m on the other end of the spectrum. I have never once received a hotel voucher– not for a lack of overnight delays. I’ve done enough sleeping on airport floors and in baggage claims to plan insanely to avoid this. Once or twice a year I’ll end up paying for a hotel room that I never even check into, but had on reserve in case it was needed. To me it’s just part of the cost of traveling.
Good luck trying to get a hotel, food, etc…voucher. Thy send you to a rebooking line with 450 ppl in line and 2 agents handling the voucher distribution…hours later it just becomes useless and you give up.
My personal experience flying paid 1st PHL-MIA June of this year. My onward connection they finally cancelled at 1AM, no flight crew!
They’re doing this because the government might and probably will, step in and threaten them with fines if they don’t. Not because they want to.
It’s about time. Airlines need to realize not everyone can just take a vacation on a whim. There are many that save for years for this. And when things go wrong because of the airlines they need to make it right.
“My hazy memory seems to recall green slips of paper that airlines used to hand out that promised “discounted” hotel rates.”
Yes! As a young Airman (circa 2002) just out of training I remember heading to STL airport the day before my flight just to escape the misery that was Ft. Leonard Wood. A very nice AA employee noticed me in uniform, wandering the terminal late at night. They offered me a green slip with information for the airport Hilton or such on it with a discounted rate offer. It was like staying in the Waldorf Astoria after the prior few months.