--- title: Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights | TIME description: The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation. canonical: https://time.com/video/W72gg66h/ og:title: Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights og:description: The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation. og:url: https://time.com/video/W72gg66h/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/W72gg66h/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights twitter:description: The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/W72gg66h/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * U.S. # Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights [Watch (HLS stream): Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/W72gg66h.m3u8) (3:28)  _Published 2024-04-24. The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation._ --- Apr 24, 2024 5:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [American Airlines Cancels 1,000-Plus Flights Due to Weather](/video/dCQw8fDV/) ### American Airlines Cancels 1,000-Plus Flights Due to Weather [Chaos at Florida Airport As Spirit Airlines Flight Cancellations Lead to Multiple Arrests](/video/wWmYPbxo/) ### Chaos at Florida Airport As Spirit Airlines Flight Cancellations Lead to Multiple Arrests [Walmart Wants To Cash Your Tax Refund Check](/video/TvDk0Pz9/) ### Walmart Wants To Cash Your Tax Refund Check --- ## Transcript A lot of what we hear from passengers and balls refunds or the lack thereof for passengers to experience cancellations and disruptions in theory passengers are already supposed to be refunded for cancellation or a major delay in practice. It often doesn't work. That way we hear again and again from passengers who described how hard they have to push just to get the refund was that are owed to them and often our consumer protection team has had to impose multimillion-dollar penalties on airline just to get them to do what should already be required in the first rule that we are announcing today to Biden Harris Administration is now requiring that if an airline cancels or significantly delayed your flight within 7 days, they will be required to provide automatic refund to the credit card that you used to book it without you having to call or wait on hold or sort through digital paperwork or haggle with that Airline importantly. We are also changing. The refund to clarify that it must be by cash that you must be in cash by default unless a passenger actively chooses another form of compensation rather than the other way around no more defaulting to vouchers or credits when consumers may not even realize that they are entitled to cash. Also putting another rule on the book protecting airline passengers from being surprised by sees these charges can really add up for things like a check bag carry on bag change these cancellation fees healthy competition requires that as a consumer you comparison shop which means knowing the real price of a trip before and not after you buy three lines will now be required to show you these costs upfront. So you have all the information you need to decide what travel option is best for you. We estimate this will save Americans over a half a billion dollars every year, but we know there is more to do and we're not done. We are working on a rulemaking to expand right? To protect the safety and dignity of passengers who use Wheelchairs and another one to ban Airlines from charging you a junk fee to sit together as a family. It's all in keeping with President Biden's Vision on competition and consumer protection including cracking down on junk fees to make everything from concerts to inhalers more affordable these dollars and cents add up for millions of Americans and our laser focus on making it easier and more affordable and more convenient to navigate every system in America from Healthcare to banking to air travel will contain. So the bulk of these protections will kick in in about six months from the rule goes into the Federal Register. We have been working on this for more than a year of a now it's time to take action. We know it'll take a little time to develop the mechanisms for that money to get back but we really don't want the sector to drag its feet because of passengers want and expect their money back now unsurprisingly airlines are not enthusiastic about us holding them to a higher standard, but I believe this is in the interest of the airline sector because it builds passenger confidence in Airlines as a whole and I also know that they'll be able to adapt to this remember when it comes to things like a refund for a cancellation technically That was supposed to be the case the whole time. It's just it wasn't actually happening in practice. That's part of what this does it also clarifies. What a significant delay is because up until now it's been up to the airline to decide if the delay was significant enough that you get your money back. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Airlines Will Now Have to Give Automatic Cash Refunds for Canceled and Delayed Flights","description":"The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation. ","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/W72gg66h/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-04-24T16:54:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/W72gg66h.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/W72gg66h/","duration":"PT3M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/W72gg66h/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```