Scott Laird | TravelPulse (TNS)

If you travel by air enough, delays are inevitable. However, how airlines handle delays can vary depending on the circumstances of the delay, including the reason, city and even the passenger’s frequent flier status.

In Europe, the question of passenger compensation for delays and cancellations is straightforward: the European Union has consumer protection laws that require airlines to compensate passengers in cash for delays within the airline’s control.

Unlike in the European Union, the U.S. has no standard for what airlines must provide passengers in case of a delay or cancellation. In the United States, each carrier decides how to accommodate passengers affected by what the airlines call “irregular operations,” and the Department of Transportation (DOT) oversees its efforts.

That virtually never includes cash compensation, although some airlines, like Alaska, will issue travel credit for delays over three hours for circumstances within their control. The DOT has said airlines should cover passenger expenses for lengthy delays within the airlines’ control, but each airline has its own criteria for handling such requests.

Types of delays

The first consideration for airlines deciding whether to offer a voucher for meals or hotels will be what caused the delay. Most airlines do not provide vouchers or expense reimbursements for delays they term uncontrollable, such as those related to weather, air traffic control, or catastrophic events like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Another uncontrollable delay cause is what’s known as force majeure, which could be like a general strike, riot or coup that would compromise safe airline operations.

Airlines have, in the past, unsuccessfully argued that some situations, like the most recent IT outages that affected many U.S. airlines, were force majeure, but regulators have largely disagreed and considered those controllable delays, which also include reasons such as crew scheduling, aircraft availability, unscheduled maintenance and other things within an airline’s control.

Some airlines will list the reason for a delay on their app or website, while others will make announcements. It’s worth noting that not all carriers are forthcoming on the reasons for delays. American Airlines, for example, doesn’t give reasons for delays in their app or on their website, while United typically explains on their flight status page.

When to ask for a voucher

U.S. carriers vary on the circumstances under which they’ll issue a voucher to cover a meal or a hotel overnight stay. In a delay situation, the first place to look would be the airline’s Customer Service Commitment, which is normally posted on its website. That document typically outlines the situations under which an airline will issue a voucher.

Generally speaking, a delay must be significant — several hours or more — and controllable for an airline to issue a voucher. Some, like United, will automatically send vouchers to passengers via text or through their mobile app if their reservation contains an eligible flight delay. Other times, passengers may need to inquire if a voucher applies to their situation — American’s Customer Service Commitment states that these accommodations are available “on request.”

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If an agent cannot issue a voucher, it’s perfectly OK to inquire why. Agents should offer to explain the contents of the Customer Service Commitment when asked. It can also be worthwhile to check back if a delay lengthens, as a delay that started out uncontrollable (weather, for example) can sometimes snowball into other reasons (like crew accommodations).

Many airlines will also reimburse “reasonable” expenses if they cannot issue vouchers or if issuing a voucher would be difficult (for example, if the line to speak to an agent is so long, it would cut into half an available hotel night). This generally means meals for meal periods during the delay, and if a delay is overnight, a nearby hotel, plus transportation between the airport and the hotel. Airlines typically allow passengers to submit receipts post-travel for reimbursement.

Terminology matters

Using the right words can save time and frustration when speaking with airline staff, either at the airport or in post-travel correspondence. Many travelers tend to use the terms reimbursement and refund interchangeably, but they mean different things in the context of air travel.

A refund means returning the money you paid for the plane ticket. Airlines will typically only refund a nonrefundable ticket if the flight is delayed or canceled and they’re ultimately unable to get passengers to the destination on their ticket. Refunding a flown ticket is rare because the service the passenger paid for was provided, albeit delayed.

A reimbursement means returning the money you paid for expenses related to your delay, other than your original plane ticket. Suppose you incur expenses for meals, transportation and lodging during a controllable delay, and the airline could not (but didn’t refuse to) issue a voucher. In that case, a reimbursement is what you’re requesting, not a refund.

©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ALI SWENSON and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Roughly 3 in 4 American adults believe the upcoming presidential election is vital to the future of U.S. democracy, although which candidate they think poses the greater threat depends on their political leanings, according to a poll.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Democrats, Republicans and independents see the election as “very important” or “extremely important” to democracy, while Democrats have a higher level of intensity about the issue. More than half of Democrats say the November election is “extremely important” to the future of U.S. democracy, compared to about 4 in 10 independents and Republicans.

Democrat Pamela Hanson, 67, of Amery, Wisconsin, said she has grave concerns for the future of democracy in the country if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gets elected.

“His statements tend towards him being a king or a dictator, a person in charge by himself,” Hanson said. “I mean, the man is unhinged in my opinion.”

But Republican Ernie Wagner from Liberty, New York, said it’s President Joe Biden’s administration — of which Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is a part — that has abused the power of the executive branch.

“Biden has tried to erase the student loans, and he’s been told by the courts that it’s unconstitutional to do that,” said Wagner, 85. “He’s weaponized the FBI to get at his political opponents.”

The poll findings suggest that many Democrats continue to view Trump as a threat to democracy after he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, embraced the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and threatened to seek retribution against his opponents if he wins reelection.

But they also indicate that many of Trump’s supporters agree with him that Biden is the real threat to democracy. Trump and his allies have accused Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department as it has pursued charges against the former president over his effort to halt certification of the 2020 election and keeping classified documents, though there is no evidence Biden has had any involvement or influence in the cases.

Trump has framed himself as a defender of American values and portrayed Biden as a “destroyer” of democracy. He said multiple times after he survived an assassination attempt last month that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

FILE – Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrive a campaign rally, July 20, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The poll, conducted in the days after Biden dropped out of the race and Harris announced her campaign, is an early glimpse of Americans’ views of a reshaped contest.

Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say democracy could be at risk in this election depending on who wins the presidency, responses generally in line with the findings when the question was last asked in an AP-NORC poll in December 2023.

Hanson, the Wisconsin Democrat, said she worries Trump in a second term would use the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court to overrule important freedoms. She also is concerned that he would fill his Cabinet with loyalists who don’t care about the well-being of everyone in the country and defund agencies that regulate key functions of society.

But Wagner, the New York Republican, brushed off those concerns and pointed to Trump’s time in office.

“When he was in the White House, we had peace, we had prosperity, we had energy independence,” he said. “What’s undemocratic about that?”

He said he didn’t think Trump’s intentions leading up to and on Jan. 6 were criminal.

“I just think he was misguided,” Wagner said.

Some independents also are carefully considering the stakes of the upcoming election on the country’s democratic future.

“I believe that this is the most important election of my lifetime,” said 53-year-old Patricia Seliga-Williams of LaVale, Maryland, an independent who is leaning toward voting for Harris.

Seliga-Williams said she’s barely scraping by on $15 an hour as a hotel breakfast attendant and remembers Trump handling the economy and immigration well. But she didn’t like it when he recently quipped that he plans to be a “dictator” on day one in office.

“We all know Donald Trump could run the country,” she said. “But he’s just too aggressive anymore, and I don’t think I can trust that as a voter.”

Not everyone agrees that this year’s presidential election will be an inflection point for the country’s democracy, offering starkly different reasons, according to the AP-NORC poll. About 2 in 10 Americans say democracy in the U.S. is strong enough to withstand the outcome of the election no matter who wins, while another 2 in 10 believe democracy is already so seriously broken that the outcome doesn’t matter.

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The poll also shows the stakes of democracy in the election are felt more by older adults rather than younger ones. About half of adults 45 and older say the outcome of the election is extremely important for the future of democracy, compared to about 4 in 10 adults under 45.

“Making the claim that the other candidate is trying to destroy democracy, it doesn’t really land for me,” said Daniel Oliver, 26, an independent from suburban Detroit. “I think that we have things in place that should safeguard against when you kind of play at destroying democracy. We have other branches of government. We have people that believe in voting. So, it would be hard for a candidate to take over and become some kind of dictator.”

He said he’ll be looking for candidates to talk about issues he’s more interested in, such as reducing inflation and investing in clean energy sources.

Biden and Trump spent months sparring over whose second term would be worse for democracy. The president nodded to the consequences when he ended his campaign last month, saying in his Oval Office address that “the defense of democracy is more important than any title.”

Harris has focused more on the concept of “freedom” in the early days of her campaign. She has said Trump’s reelection could result in Americans losing the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence and the freedom for women to make decisions about their own bodies. Her debut campaign ad last month was set to Beyoncé’s 2016 track “Freedom,” and it has become a campaign anthem for her at rallies ever since.

Harris didn’t mention democracy in her first two presidential campaign rallies, but she returned to the topic in remarks to Sigma Gamma Rho sorority members in Houston last week, saying “our fundamental freedoms are on the ballot, and so is our democracy.”

The poll of 1,143 adults was conducted July 25-29, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.