Originally Posted by
moondog
Assuming flights within the US...
If the delay is beyond their control (a claim they can often make, whether or not common sense agrees), they aren't obligated to provide much of anything. If it is clearly under their control (e.g. broken airplane), I don't think you have much legal right to redress either, but many airlines have customer service commitments that facilitate duty of care.
My approach is to book hotels myself in such situations (unless they are handing out vouchers in an efficient manner), and then submit receipts after the fact. About 50% of the time, I get reimbursed, and when that doesn't happen, some miles or travel credits often show up in my account.
I'm not really bummed if I don't get reimbursed though because getting good sleep is worth paying for IMO. But, this means that I try to keep the hotel cost reasonable (e.g. Hampton Inn instead of Grand Hyatt). This, austerity, itself increases the likelihood of reimbursement.
Does this apply when only one leg of the flight is international?
What happens when you go to a flight, and it's cancelled/delayed and you just take the refund and book a different airline the next day? I assume in that instance, it's not eligible? Not even the uber ride back home? Or is it again just a try and see situation.
Can you ever ask the airline itself to put you on another flight on another airline?
I was thinking about this more with the delta 4+ day crowdstrike incident. And I saw it happen with southwest in the past.
Originally Posted by
Heyden
The point where I get a hotel room is when I realize I'm not getting home that night and need a place to stay. I solve my immediate problem first and worry about the paperwork later. I don't need airline vouchers as I always travel with sufficient room on my credit cards to cover the cost of a flight disruption including booking a flight on a different airline.
I guess the voucher is a guaranteed payout though whereas requesting isn't? Unless it's the case that when an airline gives vouchers, they also honor hotel refund requests.