Hundreds of thousands of U.S. travelers have suffered flight delays or cancellations from mid-December through today because of snowstorms.
From Chicago to New York to Atlanta, thousands have been left stranded at snowbound airports or hunkered down in hotels, sometimes for days, having to pay hundreds of dollars more than they’d planned for food and lodging while awaiting booking on another flight to get to their destinations.
Airlines have waived fees — ranging from $50 to $150 for a domestic flight and up to $300 for an international flight — they ordinarily charge passengers to rebook flights. But they don’t usually reimburse passengers for the cost of extra meals or nights in a hotel while they wait for a flight. Nor do they pay other compensation to passengers whose travel is disrupted by bad weather.
If this were Europe, the situation might be different. There, European Union regulations require airlines to assist and compensate passengers when there are long delays and cancellations. But the U.S. has no rules requiring compensation for delayed or canceled flights, and the Transportation Department has no plans to add such a requirement when it issues a final rule strengthening passenger protections this spring.
That’s something some passengers such as Lars Klingstedt — who spent eight frustrating days on his cellphone trying to rebook his canceled Dec. 26 JetBlue Airways flight from Houston to New York — say they’d like to see changed.
“I totally feel they should compensate me for the aggravation, the time lost on the phone and the cellphone expenses,” says Klingstedt, a New York fashion designer who says he was unable to reach a JetBlue phone agent and finally was rebooked after sending an e-mail to the airline’s CEO, David Barger.
Passenger-rights advocates such as Kate Hanni of FlyersRights.org says Congress should implement some sort of compensation. Airlines,…