good to know... Thanks

OP - You are still letting attitude get in the way of plain English. Presuming that you choose to purchase a deeply discounted non-refundable ticket and save money by doing so (generally a good decision), you take on the risks of some delay. Those are generally right in the COC. So, paying close attention to them matters.

If you fly a lot, as most people on FT do, it doesn't matter whether you get a refund or a credit because you simply use the credit the next time you fly. That's why some of the attitude on the other side.

But, presuming that you meet the COC criteria, you get a full refund to your original form of payment and all you are out is some hassle and whatever it is that can't be cancelled on the other end of the trip (thus, the value of travel insurance which is cheap).

I am trying to determine just what the actual COC entail.
Delta spells out 90 minutes
AA: Very Vague and no time limit.

Involuntary refunds
In the event the refund is required because of American's failure to operate on schedule or refusal to transport, the following refund will be made directly to you.

If the ticket is totally unused, the full amount paid (with no service charge or refund penalty), or
If the ticket is partially used, the applicable fare for the unused segment(s)
American shall not be obligated to refund any portion(s) of a ticket which does not reflect a confirmed reservation on an American flight involved in a schedule irregularity, unless such ticket was issued by American..

I am going through UA COC but I have to wait on my law degree from Loyola to decipher it out...

Needless to say, I do take a lot of last minute trips if I have the free time on a whim. That last ticket I bought the day before the flight and while not top dollar it wasn't bargain basement either.

I am not asking for anything else, but I don't think its asking too much... If the plane is over an hour late to get to say no thanks, Ill fly another day? Give me a voucher or refund. It's not like this is their first rodeo trying to get us off the ground and I also don't think every single time I want to go do something, I need to fly a day early. You don't leave an extra hour or two early to go to the airport for every flight do you?

And they leave the COC so vague, other than DL, or so it seems. The terms are so vague that it really isn't a contract. it's a challenge.

Obviously I am in the minority here, so I'll drop it.

It was Air Canada and the inbound was stuck at YYZ. The flight was canceled and they were rebooking people onto other flights. Since it was a weekend trip it wasn't going to be worthwhile to me to go through with the trip so I told them I'd prefer a refund instead of rebooking.

What exactly do you get when you buy a ticket then? What do they promise you?

It depends on the individual CoC, but according to IATA just gluts get transport from A to B, not necessarily by air, and not within a fixed timeframe.

They promise to get you there sometime. Full stop.

They never accept consequential damages - missed cruise ships, meetings, weddings, ticket scalping deadlines, etc. Never.

The best way to understand air travel is to know there are often delays - weather, occasional breakdowns, crews running out of permissible air time at the month's end, Air Traffic Control ground holds, airport congestion, etc. etc. and therefore build in plenty of "buffer" time, plus be as knowledgeable as possible so you can have input into the results and not be a hapless victim of circumstances.

Fortunately, reading FlyerTalk can help one learn valuable information and coping kills.

E.g. On a BA ticket to Venice for a cruise, our connection at DFW was obviously not going to work out due to a significantly delayed arriving flight and no available seats onward from LHR (or even LGW) to VCE for two days, causing us to miss our cruise departure and lose nonrefundable hotel arrangements. (EC compensation wouldn't have been much help in these circumstances.)

I researched using available tools and found alternate flights, told a BA agent what the consequences were to us because of the delay and requested BA endorse my ticket to LH (Lufthansa) and flew DFW-FRA-VCE, arriving close to our originally scheduled time.