If a long delay is not the airline's fault, the airline may not pay for your meals or hotel. Trip delay cover, from a credit card or a travel insurance policy, can fill that gap. It only helps if you know you have it and meet its conditions before you need it.
Where it fits
When a flight is delayed, help can come from three places:
- Federal rules. If the flight is cancelled, or delayed three hours or more on a domestic flight (six on an international one), you can choose a refund instead of traveling. See US passenger rights.
- The airline's own commitments. For delays within its control, most large US airlines commit to meals and, overnight, a hotel. See how to check your airline's policy.
- Your own cover. Trip delay cover pays for reasonable expenses when the first two do not, most importantly for delays caused by weather.
What trip delay cover usually pays for
Typically, reasonable extra costs caused by a covered delay: meals, a hotel room, toiletries and essential clothing, and local transport such as a taxi to the hotel. It does not usually pay compensation for the time you lost.
Credit card cover: what to check
- The waiting period. Cover usually starts only after a set number of hours of delay, or when the delay requires an overnight stay. Thresholds of 6 or 12 hours are common.
- How the trip was paid for. Most cards require you to have paid for the ticket, or at least part of it, with that card. Some include award tickets where you paid the taxes and fees with it.
- Who is covered. Often the cardholder plus a spouse or partner and dependent children, but not always.
- The limit. There is usually a maximum per ticket or per trip.
- Covered reasons. Weather and mechanical problems are commonly included. Check the list.
- Whether it is secondary. Some benefits pay only what the airline or another policy did not.
Travel insurance
A travel insurance policy may include trip delay, missed connection and trip interruption benefits. Missed connection cover is particularly useful if you have booked separate tickets. Buy it soon after booking: cover for a storm that has already been named or forecast is often excluded.
Before you travel
- Find your card's benefit guide or your policy document and note the waiting period, the limit and the claim deadline.
- Pay for the flight with the card whose cover you intend to use.
- Save the claims phone number and website somewhere you can reach offline.
If your flight is delayed
- Ask the airline what it is providing first. Claim what the airline owes you before you rely on your own cover. See meal and hotel vouchers during delays.
- Keep every receipt, and keep spending reasonable.
- Get written confirmation of the delay and its cause. A screenshot of the airline's notice or an email from the airline usually works.
- Keep your boarding passes and booking confirmation.
- Claim promptly. Deadlines apply.
The same records help if you later need to complain to the airline or the DOT. See step 8 of what to do when your flight is delayed.
This guide is general information for US travelers, not legal advice. Rules and airline commitments change; check with your airline or the US Department of Transportation for your specific situation.