Flyers' Rights: You Don't Have Many

Every airline has what's called a contract of carriage. It's always on the company's website, though it's often in fine print and sometimes difficult to navigate to. The contract details what the airline's responsibilities are to a customer when bags are lost, when a flight is overbooked, or when a flight is cancelled. An article on USAToday.com says, "Although the federal government has increased protection for passengers in the last two years, the legal fine print in airlines' contracts of carriage really spells out the agreement you've got with the carrier when you buy a ticket. In a nutshell: The airlines promise to get you from one place to another — but they don't guarantee they'll do so on time."

In an attempt to make things more fair for flyers, the Transportation Department now requires airlines to refund baggage fees if luggage is lost and to advertise all prices with government taxes and fees included. Other changes in the customers favor include making sure passengers receive food, water, and bathroom access if a plane has been on the tarmac for more than two hours, allowing customers to change reservations within 24 hours with no rebooking fees, and increasing the amount of money a customer receives if they are involuntarily booted from an overbooked flight. While the maximum amount used to be $800, it is now $1,300.

In spite of these regulations, however, there were 865 complaints against this country's airline carriers in April of this year alone. That's over 100 more complaints than in April 2011.

"In the U.S., it is effectively a free-for-all," says Andrew Thomas, author of Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety. "Passengers are at the mercy of the carrier. The airlines have blocked any substantial attempt by the government to make it similar to the E.U."

In Europe, for example, if a flight is delayed the passengers can be entitled to reimbursement for what they've spent on food and drinks, telephone calls, faxes, and e-mails. In the event of a cancellation that wasn't due to extraordinary circumstances, airline companies are required to financially compensate customers as well as to offer to pay for food, lodging, and phone calls.

In contrast, whether a customer get similar amenities in the United States is dependent on where the flight originated, the individual's frequent-flier status and class of service, the length of the disruption, and whether the disruption was within the airline's control. Weather, earthquakes, and wars are not things that the airline has control over, and, according to Southwest Airlines, they also don't have control over "mechanical difficulties by entities other than the Carrier."

George Novak, the director of Safety, Borders, and Security for InterVISTAS Consulting, says that airlines aren't trying to upset their clientele. "They do want return customers," he says. "They don't throw around free tickets like they used to, but they do try to work with passengers for the most part."

Fly.com's vice president Warren Chang says that the best defense against a frustrating flight experience is to look up the company's contract of carriage to see what you're entitled to in a situation, and then ask for it calmly.