NEW YORK (NewsNation) — Across the U.S., travelers have been frustrated and fed up with long delays and short explanations from the airlines.
More frequently this summer, take-off and touch-down times have been plagued with delays and cancellations, leaving passengers feeling trapped as crew members ask for their patience.
Travelers have been left waiting inside airports all day and night to find out if they’ll ever reach their destination.
“We were getting ready to board and they said your flight is canceled,” one traveler told NewsNation. “There are no other flights today or tomorrow.”
Severe weather and a shortage of air traffic controllers are partly to blame, but passengers are fed up with long, exhausting waits on the tarmac.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating why a Delta Air Lines flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta earlier this month sat on the tarmac for almost three hours in sweltering triple-digit heat. Some passengers even fainted.
So, what rights do passengers have, and do airlines owe more than an explanation? Also, at what point should the pilot taxi back to the gate for passenger deboarding?
“I think the first, the most important thing for airlines to do is to communicate clearly with passengers because I feel like sometimes that’s the problem, that they’re just letting passengers sit there without any sort of guidance about what’s going on,” Clint Henderson, managing editor of The Points Guy, said.
For domestic flights, the DOT requires airlines to allow passengers to deboard after waiting longer than three hours on the tarmac. For international flights, it increases to four hours.
The airline has to provide food and water no later than two hours after the tarmac wait begins. In addition, the bathrooms on the aircraft must be operating, the cabin temperature comfortable and medical help brought in immediately if needed.
“They’re supposed to be communicating with passengers every half an hour. So if they’re not doing that, passengers should be complaining to the airline, and passengers do have a right to ask the airline for compensation, even if the airline doesn’t officially have to give it to them,” Henderson said.
As for that compensation, the airline may give you a food or hotel voucher because your flight has been canceled.
But that’s only when the cancellation is caused by the airline. Weather-related issues, or what they call an act of God, isn’t covered.