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Podcasts Take Two
When an airline cancels mass flights, what are your rights as a traveler?
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Aug 9, 2016
Listen • 7:17
When an airline cancels mass flights, what are your rights as a traveler?
More flights from Delta airlines are facing cancellations and delays today as passengers scramble to re-book. Here are some tips if you're affected.
A man checks the arrivals board in Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday in Newark, N.J. The spate of flight cancellations over the past week is expected to wreak havoc on airline bottom lines, but U.S. airlines aren't expected to be as badly affected as their European counterparts.
A man checks the arrivals board in Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday in Newark, N.J. The spate of flight cancellations over the past week is expected to wreak havoc on airline bottom lines, but U.S. airlines aren't expected to be as badly affected as their European counterparts.
(
Joe Epstein/AP
)

More flights from Delta airlines are facing cancellations and delays today as passengers scramble to re-book. Here are some tips if you're affected.

More flights from Delta airlines are facing cancellations and delays today as passengers scramble to re-book. According to the airline, an outage knocked out its ticketing and booking system early Monday morning.

But the airline is not the only carrier to have trouble with technology during the busy summer travel system. Southwest had to cancel hundreds of flights last month after a router failed.

So what's going on? And what are your rights as a traveller when mass flights are cancelled?

George Hobica, founder of airfarewatchdog.com, has a few points to keep in mind the next time your flight gets cancelled:

  • If you have travel insurance, some polices do cover cancellations. For example, if you missed a cruise, be sure to look into the fine print of your insurance policy.
  • Some credit card companies will cover delays under certain circumstances, so you can take a look back at your latest credit card statement to see what your consumer protection covers.
  • And if your flight connects to a European destination, the EU has a policy to compensate a traveler up to 600 Euros and may include hotel accommodations.

You can check out more tips from Hobica's latest post here.