Most of what you can do about a delay has to happen in the first half hour, before the rebooking line forms and the remaining seats on other flights are gone. Work through these steps in order.
1. Confirm what is actually happening
Check the airline's app and the airport departure board, and compare them. The app usually updates first. Then look at where your aircraft is coming from: if the inbound flight has not left yet, the posted departure time is optimistic.
The FAA publishes live airport status at nasstatus.faa.gov. If your departure or arrival airport shows a ground stop or ground delay program, the delay is system-wide and likely to move in steps.
2. Find out why
Ask the gate agent for the reason and note the answer. Airlines sort delays into two groups, and the group decides what you can ask for:
- Within the airline's control: maintenance, crew scheduling, cleaning, fuelling, baggage loading.
- Outside its control: weather, air traffic control restrictions, security events.
"Late arriving aircraft" is not a cause in itself. Ask what delayed the earlier flight. See controllable vs. uncontrollable delays, and if the answer is weather, how to check it.
3. Know the refund threshold
Under Department of Transportation rules, a delay of three hours or more on a domestic flight, or six hours or more on an international flight, counts as a significant change. If you decide not to travel and do not accept the alternative offered, you are owed a refund to your original form of payment, including on a non-refundable ticket. This applies whatever the cause of the delay. See the DOT refund rule.
You do not have to take a voucher or travel credit in place of that refund. For everything else you may be owed, see flight delay compensation in the US.
4. Look at your alternatives before you ask
Agents can help fastest when you arrive with a specific request. Before you reach the desk, check:
- Later flights on the same airline, including to nearby airports at your destination.
- Flights on other airlines on the same route. Some carriers commit to rebooking you on a competitor when the delay is within their control.
- Other departure airports within driving distance. See our airport pages for realistic options at each major hub, and flying from a nearby airport.
Use every channel at once: stand in line, call the airline, and try the app or chat. Whichever answers first wins. Here is what to say to the gate agent.
5. Ask for meals and a hotel when the delay is the airline's
There is no federal requirement to feed or house delayed passengers. Instead, each large US airline has made written commitments for controllable delays, typically a meal voucher after three hours and a hotel for an overnight delay. The DOT lists them side by side on its Airline Customer Service Dashboard.
These are rarely offered unprompted. Ask directly, and refer to the airline's customer service plan by name. See meal and hotel vouchers during delays.
6. Protect your connection
If you have a connecting flight, work out your new layover from the revised arrival time, not the scheduled one. If it has dropped close to the airport's minimum connection time, ask to be moved to a later connection now. On a single ticket the airline will rebook a missed connection at no charge, but the seats you want may be gone by the time you land. See tight layover: how to tell if you will make it.
7. Know the tarmac limits
If you are held on the aircraft, the airline must offer food and water within two hours and must give you the chance to get off before three hours on a domestic flight or four hours on an international one, unless there is a safety, security or air traffic control reason it cannot. See tarmac delay rules.
If your flight lands somewhere other than its destination, see what happens after a diversion.
8. Keep a record
Screenshot the delay notices and the reasons given, keep receipts for anything you buy, and write down the names of staff you speak to. If the airline does not honor a commitment, complain to the airline in writing first, then file with the DOT (here is how to file one).
Not delayed yet?
Steps 1, 4 and 6 are far easier if you have done them in advance. If you are reading this before a trip, work through the pre-trip checklist instead: it takes a few minutes and covers what to check when you book, the day before and on the day.
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.