In November 2024, one of my relatives travelled from the United States to Asia and encountered a long delay.
The first leg of the flight was delayed by an hour and a half after two changes. This left a layover of a 45 minutes, which is difficult to consider smooth in SFO, the layover airport.
Although the traveler initially worried while at SFO, because time was ticking and no deboarding had happened yet, we soon discovered that the second leg— the final leg— of the flight was delayed. First, it was for a mechanical issue. Then, a new crew had to be called in. The departure time was rescheduled from 11 at night to 9 in the morning.
While this meant the traveler would not miss the second leg, this 10 hour delay also meant overnight in San Francisco.
United Airlines offered a hotel for the night. The traveler was cautious of cities and declined. (I had to persuade the traveler that San Francisco’s airport would be safe as a layover in the first place: I argued that anyone past security had to pass security.) United Airlines did give the traveler $60 in food vouchers.
The traveler went on their way in the morning, and that was that.
So… how did it work?
United Airlines, along with the other US airlines, committed to certain things in 2023 under pressure from the then Secretary of Transportation. Each US airline committed to different combinations, but you can look it up on the US Department of Transportation’s website: https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-cancellation-delay-dashboard.
Just go to the drop-down to select the airline you are interested in. This same information is available in the airlines’ carriage agreements, but the government website helpfully summarizes in one easy place.
A controllable cancellation or controllable delay means the cancellation is one of the airline could have avoided. For example, mechanical issues or unavailable crew. That is what happened here.
An uncontrollable issue is bad weather or civil unrest. You usually get nothing, but some airlines will still give you something out of good will. That is where airline status often matters!
