Whether you’re a student studying in North America, traveling for work, taking a vacation, or visiting family, flying is often unavoidable—especially since the U.S. rail system is not very well developed. And one of the most frustrating parts of air travel is dealing with long delays, cancellations, and poor service attitudes from ground staff or cabin crews. This post explains how to identify compensable situations, respond effectively, and request compensation in a reasonable and well-supported way.

Common Reasons You May Be Eligible for Compensation

1. Flight delays or cancellations caused by aircraft mechanical issues;

2. Flight delays or cancellations caused by shortages, illness, or shift changes involving pilots or flight attendants;

3. Missing a connecting flight because the previous flight was delayed (must be ticketed or operated by the same airline);

4. Being denied a seat or removed from a flight because of overselling:(;

5. Lost or delayed baggage during a connection;

6. Ground or onboard service facilities not working properly, or rude behavior from ground staff or inflight crew;

Situations that may not qualify for compensation include delays or cancellations caused by weather, earthquakes, tsunamis, strikes, and other force majeure events. That said, some airlines still do provide compensation in these cases. Because these exceptions are often written into laws and regulations, compensation usually cannot be demanded as a matter of right. One important reminder: even if the original cause is not compensable, you may still be able to request compensation if other issues occur, such as poor staff attitude or mishandling of the situation.

How to Ask for Compensation

Ask Directly at the Airport

Because airport ground staff and on-duty airline personnel often have limited authority, the compensation they can offer is usually fairly modest. In terms of priority, what you should ask for at the airport is: an overnight hotel, meal vouchers, local transportation reimbursement (round-trip between the airport and hotel), and then delay compensation.

A more efficient strategy is to use your airline status or credit card benefits to access the airline lounge, if possible. Lounge lines are often shorter, service is usually better, and agents there may be able to arrange things in a more reasonable and customer-friendly way. By contrast, regular transfer desks and service counters are often crowded, have less authority, and may not be able to provide better service or higher compensation.

If you plan to request compensation or rebooking help at the gate or service counter, do it as early as possible. Once the crowd builds up, you may waste a lot of time waiting—and if you miss the first shuttle or hotel transport, you could end up waiting another hour.

Request Compensation After the Trip

You can also file a compensation request after your trip by phone or through the airline’s website. Since airport compensation is often just a quick attempt to brush passengers off, it may not meet your needs. Following up afterward by phone or through the airline’s website is both reasonable and often necessary.

Personally, I recommend using the airline website, since phone agents may also try to brush you off. Most major airlines have a customer care department that accepts both complaints and compliments. If you are seeking compensation, choose complaint and clearly describe what happened with your delay or cancellation. In my experience, compensation may be higher if the delay or cancellation caused you to miss something important, such as a birthday, wedding, meeting, or funeral.

Below are the customer care pages for the Big Three U.S. airlines. If your flight is delayed or canceled and you need to file a claim, start with these links.

In addition to online forms, UA and AA now also offer online customer service. You can find the relevant phone number in the app and select message us to contact customer service by text. If you need to upload records or supporting documentation, using message may be a bit more convenient.

BBB and Small Claims Court

If your losses are substantial and the airline refuses to compensate you, you may want to consider filing a complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) or pursuing the matter in small claims court. Once these organizations get involved, airlines often respond more seriously, and you may end up with a better result than expected.

A Few Tips for Filing a Claim

Tip 1: Airport claims and customer care claims can be pursued in parallel, so it makes sense to try both.

Tip 2: If you ask for compensation after the fact, one of the most important things is to preserve your evidence. This includes your boarding pass, a delay verification letter from airport staff (which may also be obtainable online through customer care), and your itinerary before and after the delay (also potentially obtainable through customer care). The latter two are especially useful if you want to file a claim under your credit card’s trip delay insurance. Also, keep all receipts for expenses caused by the delay—you may need them later.

Tip 3: In appropriate situations, you can also seek help from government transportation regulators and ask them to put pressure on airlines that are not complying with applicable laws and regulations. This is usually a strategy to use when the airline refuses to compensate you. Every country has aviation and transportation rules, and airlines sometimes ignore them—especially when it comes to passenger compensation, since doing so helps reduce their costs. But as consumers, if our rights are harmed, we still need to stand up for them; otherwise airlines will keep taking advantage of passengers. For specific scenarios where it may make sense to seek help from a government transportation authority, please refer to the examples in the section below.

U.S. Department of Transportation page on air travel rights and complaint channels:

European Union air passenger rights page and complaint channels:

Civil Aviation Administration of China complaint channel:

Examples of Successful Claims

1. One experience from Ymlulu: while returning from the U.S. to China, the pilot happened to fall ill, and a replacement pilot had to be brought in from Chicago. As a result, the onward flight back to China was missed and rebooked for a few days later. Ymlulu submitted a “complaint” through the online customer care channel and emphasized that the counter staff had a poor attitude and did not actively help resolve the issue. Even though there had originally been a 4-hour connection window, the traveler still could not make the flight to China. Compensation was received after the complaint.

2. Three years ago, during the National Day holiday, I flew from Beijing to DEN with a connection at ORD. I was seated in the first row of economy class, where the TV screen folds up and down. That screen would not stay in place the entire trip, so I was unable to watch TV at all. After filing a complaint with customer care on the airline’s website, I received a $100 voucher.

3. Last year I flew from DC back to DEN with a connection at DTW. The connection time was only 50 minutes, and the first flight was delayed by 40 minutes, causing me to miss the onward flight. At the Delta club, I was able to get one night at the Westin inside DTW airport, plus 15 (dinner) + 15 (breakfast) in vouchers. After returning to DEN, I wrote to customer care again, and 3 days later I received 20,000 Delta miles as compensation. (This may have been helped by my Delta plat status, but the process is still worth trying.)

4. Another experience from Ymlulu: the airline delayed the flight, causing them to miss the next connecting flight home as well. At the same time, the checked baggage took a very long time to come out, and the staff were quite indifferent. After waiting more than 2 hours, Ymlulu submitted a “complaint” through the airline’s online customer care channel regarding these fairly poor service issues, and in the end each person received $100-150 in compensation.

5. A friend flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt back to Beijing. During the trip, the flight was delayed by 7 hours due to a mechanical issue. Originally, under EU regulation EC261/2004 (which will be explained in detail in the advanced version of this article), they should have been able to obtain €600 in compensation directly through the online customer care channel. However, Lufthansa refused to compensate. So the friend filed a complaint with the relevant European/EU transportation authority and forwarded the complaint details to Lufthansa customer care. Lufthansa paid the compensation the very next day, totaling €600.

6. Community member Huangtao Guantou: In 2019, after taking Delta back to Shanghai and landing at Pudong, one corner of the suitcase was cracked. Delta reimbursed the full amount. You need to provide a screenshot of the original order used to purchase the suitcase, and compensation is based on the original purchase price.

7. Community member xie: On a trip from the US back to China, delayed baggage arrived 5 days late. The airline gave $100 credit and reimbursed $60 for daily necessities. They contacted UA customer service via iMessage while in China (tel:800-864-8331). If you do not want to fill out the form on the official website, you can use this method instead; having a customer service agent assist you can be more convenient.

Credit card trip delay insurance

If the airline refuses to compensate you, or if the compensation does not fully cover your loss, you can make smart use of your credit card’s trip delay insurance to reduce the extra expenses caused by a flight delay or cancellation. There are quite a few credit cards on the market now that can help “offset” the unnecessary expenses caused by flight delays and cancellations. However, you generally need to pay for the flight with that credit card or with its corresponding points. These cards range from premium to mid-tier, while no-annual-fee credit cards usually do not include this type of coverage.

Premium cards (annual fee >$300) generally provide reimbursement for delays of more than 6 hours. Coverage varies by card, but some common and useful options include

Mid-tier cards (annual fee <$300) generally provide reimbursement for delays of more than 12 hours. Common useful options include

The reimbursement here generally refers to extra expenses caused by the delay, such as meals, lodging, transportation, and so on. You can contact the relevant credit card customer service department to learn about the claim process and required documents. For specific claim examples, see

Of course, trip delay insurance should not be abused. For example,

Summary

If you unfortunately run into a flight delay, cancellation, or poor service attitude, do not panic. Based on the guidance in this blog post, seek the compensation you are entitled to in a reasonable, lawful, and courteous way. If you would like to learn more ways to pursue compensation, see