Continental To Cancel Flights Instead of Pay Fines

[Annette]

I don't think it's going to have any impact on if your flight is delayed more than 3 hours and you're in the airport. But hopefully what it will do is force airlines not to keep passengers captive in locked planes on the ground for 3 or 4 or 7 hours.

[Kairho]

Originally Posted by Ned

We'll see what how legislators will react to the threat, as this is certainly not what they had in mind.

Just wanted to note that congress wasn't involved in the ruling, it was a DOT thing. ...unless they decide to legislate (or lobby) against it and they way they are acting these days, any definitive action would take years.

[Ned]

Absolutely true. These are DOT rules. That being said, Congress is notorious for making grand stand plays when they think they can get some votes for reelection out of it.

When it comes to getting votes, Congress often compresses years into weeks and sometimes even days.

Originally Posted by Kairho

Just wanted to note that congress wasn't involved in the ruling, it was a DOT thing. ...unless they decide to legislate (or lobby) against it and they way they are acting these days, any definitive action would take years.

[icymrot]

Originally Posted by Kairho

And, L, I believe that if there is a cancellation under this rule it would obviously be because of a rule outside the control of the airline. It would (should) be handled the same as a weather/ATC delay or cancellation because that's what it surely is.

This just adds to the necessity of buying travel insurance through a 3rd party provider. As most policies stand right now this would fall under the cancellation due to weather clause - or trip delay and missed connection depending on the how long your delay is. Considering the cutback on capacity it will make it difficult for people to rebook within the 24 hour period which you need to reach to be eligible for trip cancellation in most insurance policies.

One other important factor to consider when booking your insurance policy is lets say you are booked on the 9pm flight and it gets canceled but the airline can get you on the 7am flight the next morning. If you have a policy that has a 12 hour trigger for trip delay you run the risk of not having your overnight hotel covered because your delay was not more then 12 hours. Don't just look at the amount of coverage you receive but make sure you also look at time frames.

Lastly, just because the agent at the counter tells you your insurance policy will cover you PLEASE do not listen to them because most of the time they are not accurate.

[bodega]

This where insurance is a PITA as 12-24 hours is too long of time until coverage kicks in.

[icymrot]

Most insurance policies offer trip delay coverage after 5-6 hours, however there are budget policies and some tour supplier policies that don't kick in until a 12 hour delay. You usually don't have to do a lot of digging in the policy to find the time frame either, it should be listed next to the dollar amount of coverage. Continentals new policy about canceling flights will probably open up the trip cancellation benefit to more people as their delays will last for more then 24 consecutive hours based on how hard it can be to rebook a flight.