When a massive travel meltdown leaves thousands of flights grounded across the country, the instinctive reaction for many frustrated travelers is to open their airline app and hit “cancel” so they can rebook elsewhere or salvage their weekend at home. According to flight expert Derek Cann of Going, doing that prematurely is one of the costliest mistakes you can make.
Following Friday’s rare four-hour FAA nationwide ground stop—only the third such shutdown since September 11, 2001, alongside a January 2023 pilot-alert outage—millions of weekend flyers are navigating schedule changes, missed connections and overnight layovers.
If you are debating whether to pull the plug on an upcoming trip, Cann urges travelers to hold steady and let the carrier make the first move. “If you’re flying in the next day or two, keep an eye on your airline’s app and advisories for waivers. One important tip: don’t cancel a flight yourself,” Cann warns. “If the airline cancels it, you’re generally owed a refund, but if you cancel first, you may give that up and only get a credit, depending on your fare.”
Under Department of Transportation rules, if an airline cancels your flight—or significantly delays it—and you choose not to travel or accept an alternative flight, you are entitled to a full refund back to your original form of payment rather than a future travel voucher. “If the airline cancels your flight and you decide not to travel or accept an alternative, you’re generally owed a refund under DOT rules. You don’t have to accept a voucher or credit instead,” Cann notes. “If you choose to travel on the alternative flight, you generally aren’t entitled to a refund for the disrupted one.”
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Where things get trickier is overnight accommodations and airport dining. Because Friday’s telecommunications failure originated with FAA air traffic control facilities rather than a mechanical issue or staffing shortage inside an individual airline, carriers are generally not required under federal rules to foot the bill for hotels or meals.
“Hotels and meals are less clear-cut. Because this disruption comes from air traffic control rather than the airline, those extras depend on each airline’s policy, so ask your airline directly what it’s offering,” Cann says. “Also check credit card travel policies if you’ve booked via a credit card–they might cover more ancillaries than the airline and you can be applicable for both.”
Before booking an airport hotel out of pocket, check the trip delay insurance terms on the credit card you used to purchase your ticket—many popular travel cards reimburse meals, lodging and ground transportation once a delay crosses six or twelve hours, even when air traffic control is to blame.
Related: FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop For All Flights
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