Flight outage refunds: How to get your money back

(NEXSTAR) – Travelers worldwide were delayed or left stranded by a massive tech outage that was still being resolved Friday.

The trouble was sparked by an update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. It only affected its customers running Microsoft Windows, but as the world’s most popular operating system for personal computers it created widespread disruption. Businesses and governments worldwide experienced hours-long disruptions — their computer monitors glowing blue with error messages — and scrambled to deal with the fallout.

Thousands of flights were canceled and tens of thousands were delayed, leading to long lines at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Airlines lost access to check-in and booking services in the heart of the summer travel season.

Of the major U.S. carriers, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue were not impacted by the outage, CNN reported. However, the FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded for some period of time Friday.

While many airlines were recovering from the issues by Friday afternoon, the domino effect of problems could last for a week or longer, Anton Radchenko, CEO of airline compensation company AirAdvisor, told the Washington Post.

Am I eligible for compensation if my flight was delayed or canceled?

Under a new Department of Transportation rule, which went into effect this year, you are entitled to a full refund when your flight is canceled, regardless of the reason. If you’d rather be rebooked to your destination, you can also choose to accept another flight, travel credit or alternative transportation offered by the airline.

The new rule also requires airlines to offer refunds when a flight itinerary is “significantly changed.” That means you can opt to get your money back if your departure or arrival time is changed by 3 hours or more on domestic flights, or 6 hours on international flights.

As is the case with canceled flights, passengers are entitled to the refund only if “they do not accept alternative transportation or travel credits offered,” DOT says.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pointed travelers affected by Friday’s outage to FlightRights.gov to learn more about their rights.

What are the airlines offering?

The DOT confirmed to the Washington Post that Friday’s CrowdStrike outage is considered a “controllable” delay or cancellation. Each airline offers a different set of commitments to passengers in these cases, such as meal vouchers, hotel stays, and transportation to and from the hotel.

Charts from the DOT (which you can see in full here) show what Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United each offer.