Is there in a point in in time, Just a standard delay weather, or mechanical or just whatsoever. you can tell the gate agent... never mind. Cancel my ticket and refund my money (Not a triple priced refundable type ticket), Ill fly tomorrow or another airline or never.

Is that a possibility or are we just held hostage at the airport, or should I say, is our money held hostage?

Interesting way of phrasing the question.

Your ticket is non-refundable. When you call, they will cancel the ticket but value will remain. The value of the ticket minus the cancel/change fee (say, $250) is what you can use towards a new ticket, that does not necessarily have to be to the same destination.

So we have no real rights?


Say, I book a last minute flight that is supposed to fly at 3:30 and land in Chicago at 5:35. get through the airport and go to the united center to scalp some hawks tickets.
I get to the airport 10 minutes late and I miss the plane and the game.

On the other hand, I am there on time and they first delay the flight by 50 minutes, then we finally start to board over an hour late which means the plane does not land until after 7. That means you land at the airport after the game starts and you'll miss it anyways.

So my choices are fly anyways and catch the last half on the TV in the airport lounge or lose the bulk of the value of my ticket.
So we have no recourse if they cannot complete their appointed rounds on time?

Just curious as I know if they bump us or cancel the flight we have some recourse..

Maybe you need to consider either a full fare ticket and/or travel insurance.

If you didn't want to fly, or at least were willing to buy another ticket later if you did,you could try to ask them to apply the "trip in vain rule", though I don't know that it is necessarily a rule per se. Many airlines will give you a refund if the reason for your trip was time sensitive and the flight is too late to get you to your appointment.

I would suggest that if you take this approach that you leave the sour attitude of your post in your pocket and be nice in asking. Since it is not a real rule, you would be more at the mercy of the airline staff to grant you this.

Good luck.

Read the Contract of Carriage for your airline. It does spell out circumstances in which you are entitled to cancel for a full refund even if you are not on a refundable ticket. With most carriers, a delay of 60-90 minutes is sufficient to trigger this.

It depends. I had a UA flt that was going to be delayed 4-5 hours due to mechanical. I called and said it was now going to be a trip in vain, as UA could not protect us anything else, as everything was sold out, and I got a full refund

Thanks... It wasn't a sour attitude by the way. You get bumped they owe you compensation. They lose your luggage, you get compensated. You miss your connection due to the airline fault, You get meal vouchers and a hotel.

But if they delay a flight can I say, never mind, since you cannot get me there when you said you would... . seriously, how is that a sour attitude? I paid, my CC cleared, I was there on time.... why should I expect less from a company than they expect from me?
How is this different than a restaurant telling you, after you have parked and arrived and are waiting, at the bar, for you reservation at seven, that it will not be honored until 8:45 or 9:00, however if you leave they will charge you for meal you chose not to wait ?

Here an exerpt from AA contact of carriage.... And not being a lawyer I cannot tell if if means Yes i can change my mind at the gate and get a refund or voucher in the original value

Force majeure events
American may, in the event of a force majeure event, without notice, cancel, terminate, divert, postpone or delay any flight or the right of carriage or reservation of traffic accommodations without liability except to issue an involuntary refund. The involuntary refund will be made in the original form of payment in accordance with involuntary refund rules for any unused portion of the ticket. American will also reserve the right to determine if any departure or landing should be made without any liability except the afore mentioned involuntary refund.

Force majeure event means:

Any condition beyond American's control including, but without limitation, meteorological conditions, acts of God, riots, civil commotion, embargoes, wars, hostilities, disturbances or unsettled international conditions - actual threatened or reported. Also, because of any delay, demand, circumstances or requirement due, directly or indirectly to such conditions; or
Any strike, work stoppage, slowdown, lockout or any other labor related dispute involving or affecting American's service; or
Any government regulation, demand or requirement; or
Any shortage of labor, fuel or facilities of American or others; or
Any fact not reasonably foreseen, anticipated or predicted by American

Maybe this answers my question, but I don't know for the life of me how to translate involuntary refund in this sense.

BTW, thanks for the help. Very Much!! I am not trying to be argumentative. I am just trying to find out what to do. And who to ask?

As you can see in AA Contact of carriage its pretty vague

It's a bit different in Europe, thanks (?) to EC261/2004, but there is inherent risk in air travel everywhere, and no carrier will promise to get you from A to B by a certain time. So, plan your meetings, weddings, ballgames accordingly, and understand that there is always the possibility that things don't work out the way they should. As was said upthread, fully-flex tickets and good travel insurance are there for a reason.

Probably depends somewhat on the airline. But I've gotten full refunds due to weather delays without any issue. Ultimately it helps the airline since it's one fewer pax they have to worry about rescheduling or accommodating.

Thanks

How long were the delays?

You do not have a right to on-time performance. Your ticket is not refundable in the event of a delay. You ticket buys you a right to transport to your destination at a time, and via mode of transport, that is at the airline's discretion. There is no recourse when weather, technical, or air traffic control difficulty makes you run late.

You are correct to observe that when you want to change YOUR schedule, the airline charges a large fee for the privilege that may exceed the ticket cost itself... but when the AIRLINE cannot keep its schedule, you have no reciprocal lever.

You can always ask. It depends on the carrier on how long the delay needs to be for a refund. If you didn't give yourself an hour buffer in case of delays you likely won't get money back.

AA used to have an agency reference that addressed lent of delay but they took it our of public eye. I think it was 90 min but I'm not sure.

For Delta it's 90 min or delayed long enough that you will miss a connection, you can get a refund

My case is very similar to the OP's hypothetical situation: I was to take a redeye on US PHX-CLT, connect to CLT-TPA, go to a Rays 1pm game, then fly nonstop TPA-PHX that evening.

PHX-CLT cancelled due to maintenence and the next flight I could get was in the morning, arriving mid-afternoon. I called US and they refunded the whole trip no questions asked. Only money I was out was the $45 game ticket.