Air Travel and Passenger Rights: Delays, Bumping, Baggage, and Refunds

Summary. The handful of rights that are real, the document that governs everything else, and why the state-law claim you want to bring is probably preempted.

Start with what is not true

Two beliefs make air travel disputes go badly.

The first: that an airline owes you something for a delay. In the United States, for a domestic flight, there is generally no regulatory entitlement to compensation for a delay — no matter how long, no matter the cause. Airlines have policies. Policies are not rights.

The second: that you can sue over how you were treated. Federal law preempts most state-law claims against airlines relating to "a price, route, or service." 49 U.S.C. § 41713 was read broadly in Morales v. Trans World Airlines, 504 U.S. 374 (1992), which struck down state enforcement of advertising guidelines as related to airline rates.

The important exception comes from American Airlines v. Wolens, 513 U.S. 219 (1995): preemption does not bar a routine breach-of-contract claim seeking to enforce the parties' own self-imposed undertakings. And Northwest, Inc. v. Ginsberg, 572 U.S. 273 (2014), held that a claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing — a state-imposed obligation rather than a self-imposed one — was preempted in that case.

The practical translation: your claim against an airline is generally a contract claim, and the contract is the contract of carriage. Not the advertisement, not what the gate agent said, not what is fair.

So the two things to know are: which rights come from regulation, and what the contract of carriage actually promises.

The rights that come from regulation

Denied boarding compensation

The one place where cash is owed by rule. The oversales regulation is 14 C.F.R. Part 250.

How it works:

When a flight is oversold, the carrier must first seek volunteers willing to give up their seats in exchange for compensation the carrier and the volunteer agree on.
A volunteer's compensation is whatever they negotiate. There is no floor and no ceiling — which is why the first offer is never the last offer.
If not enough volunteers come forward, the carrier may involuntarily deny boarding according to its published boarding priority rules, which must be in the contract of carriage.
An involuntarily bumped passenger is owed compensation on a regulatory formula, tiered by how long the delay in arrival is, with a cap, and paid in cash or check — not a voucher — on request.
The carrier must give the passenger a written statement of denied boarding compensation rights.

Key distinctions people get wrong:

Volunteering forfeits the formula. Take a voucher voluntarily and you have made a deal; the regulatory compensation no longer applies. Ask what the involuntary compensation would be before volunteering.
Compensation is separate from the refund. You are entitled to the compensation and to be transported or refunded.
The rule does not apply to every situation — there are exceptions, including certain aircraft substitutions for safety and, in some circumstances, smaller aircraft.
It does not apply if you were late to the gate. Check-in and boarding deadlines are in the contract of carriage and they are enforced.

Refunds

This is the most valuable and least understood right in the field.

If the airline cancels your flight, or makes a significant change and you do not accept it, you are entitled to a refund — to the original form of payment, in cash rather than a voucher — for the unused portion of the ticket. This applies regardless of whether the ticket was "non-refundable."

"Non-refundable" describes what happens when you change your mind. It does not describe what happens when the airline does not fly you.

The refund framework, including refunds of ancillary fees, appears at 14 C.F.R. Part 260.

Ancillary fees are refundable when the service is not provided. A checked bag fee when the bag does not arrive within the applicable window. A seat selection fee when you are moved. Wi-Fi that does not work. These are separately refundable and airlines rarely volunteer them.

What to do: ask for a refund, explicitly, in those words. Airlines routinely offer a voucher or "travel credit" first, and accepting one is a choice you cannot easily reverse. "I am requesting a refund to my original form of payment, not a voucher."

Tarmac delays

14 C.F.R. Part 259 requires covered carriers to adopt a tarmac delay contingency plan and to abide by it. The core commitments:

An opportunity to deplane before a specified elapsed time on the tarmac — with limits differing for domestic and international flights, and exceptions for safety, security, and air traffic control instructions
Adequate food and potable water within a specified period
Operable lavatories, and medical attention if needed
Notification to passengers of the delay status at defined intervals
Part 259 also requires customer service plans, responses to complaints within defined periods, and prompt refunds

Violations are enforced by the Department of Transportation, with substantial civil penalties. There is no private right of action — which is precisely why the DOT complaint matters.

The disability rules

Air travel accessibility is governed by the Air Carrier Access Act, 49 U.S.C. § 41705, with regulations at 14 C.F.R. Part 382 — not the ADA.

What it requires:

Assistance with boarding, deplaning, and connecting, including wheelchair assistance
Acceptance and priority stowage of assistive devices, and mobility devices generally do not count against baggage allowances
Seating accommodations
Accessible lavatories on certain aircraft
A Complaints Resolution Official available at every airport, in person or by phone, at all times the carrier is operating — this is the most useful and least known provision in the whole field
Prohibition on requiring advance notice for most services, with limited exceptions
Service animals: currently defined as dogs individually trained to do work or perform tasks, with airlines permitted to require standardized DOT forms in advance. Emotional support animals are no longer required to be accommodated as service animals.

Mobility device damage is the most consequential failure in this area. Wheelchairs are frequently damaged in transport, and a damaged custom wheelchair can immobilize its user for weeks. Carriers have specific obligations to repair or replace, and for domestic flights the liability limit for baggage does not apply to assistive devices — the carrier is responsible for the original purchase price or the cost of repair.

The contract of carriage

This is the actual agreement, and almost nobody has read it.

It is published on every airline's website — sometimes buried, always available — and it governs everything the regulations do not: schedule changes, delays, cancellations, rebooking, refunds beyond the regulatory minimum, baggage acceptance and liability, check-in deadlines, boarding priority, denied boarding procedures, involuntary route changes, ticket validity, name changes, and the airline's remedies for passenger conduct.

Read these sections before you need them:

Schedule irregularities — what the airline promises when it delays or cancels. This is where the differences between carriers actually live.
Refusal to transport — the conduct provisions
Baggage — acceptance, liability, excluded items, and the claim deadline
Check-in and boarding deadlines — enforced strictly, and the reason many claims fail
Boarding priority — who gets bumped, and in what order
Liability limitations

Why it matters: under Wolens, a claim that the airline breached its own contract of carriage survives preemption. A claim that the airline treated you unfairly generally does not. The contract is the hook.

And a practical note: carriers frequently promise more in the contract of carriage — and in the customer service plan required by Part 259 — than they volunteer at the counter. Meals, hotels, and ground transportation for controllable delays are commitments in some carriers' plans, and asking for them by reference to the plan produces them.

Baggage

Domestic

Carrier liability for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage on domestic flights is subject to a maximum liability limit set by regulation, adjusted periodically. Within that limit the carrier is liable for provable loss.

What is generally excluded by contracts of carriage: fragile items, electronics, jewelry, cash, documents, medication, keys, and perishables. Which means the things you most want protected are the things you must carry on.

Deadlines are short. Report damage or loss before leaving the airport if you can, and in any event within the period in the contract of carriage — frequently 24 hours for damage and a matter of days for a written claim. A late claim is routinely denied on that ground alone.

Delayed baggage: carriers must make reasonable efforts to deliver it, and reasonable interim expenses are generally reimbursable — ask, keep receipts, and know that "reasonable" is negotiable. And where a bag is delayed beyond the applicable window, the checked bag fee is refundable.

International

Different regime entirely. International carriage is governed by treaty, with liability limits expressed in Special Drawing Rights and generally higher than the domestic limit, along with distinct provisions on delay, death and injury, and short notice deadlines.

The practical points: the deadlines are strict and shorter than people assume; the limits are per passenger; and a special declaration of value at check-in, for a fee, raises the limit — which almost nobody does and which is worth it for genuinely valuable checked items.

Where the enforcement is

There is no private right of action under most of these regulations. The enforcement mechanism is the Department of Transportation, under 49 U.S.C. § 41712, which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices and unfair methods of competition by air carriers. The policy framework is at 49 U.S.C. § 40101.

The DOT complaint is the operative tool, and it works better than passengers expect:

It is free and filed online
The airline is required to respond, in writing, within a defined period under Part 259 — which by itself resolves a large share of complaints
Complaints aggregate, and patterns drive enforcement actions and civil penalties
Disability complaints go to the same place and get particular attention

What else is available:

Small claims court, on a contract theory — the contract of carriage is the agreement, and Wolens preserves the claim
A credit card chargeback, for services paid for and not delivered
Travel insurance, if purchased
The airline's own escalation — a written complaint to the customer relations department, which most carriers must acknowledge and answer under Part 259

Four disruptions

The voucher that should have been $1,400

Ottoline Nakamura-Bell was at the gate for a full flight when the agent announced they were seeking volunteers and offered a $400 travel voucher. Nobody moved. The offer went to $650. Two people took it. It was still short.

She was then involuntarily denied boarding — she was among the last to check in, and the carrier's boarding priority rules in the contract of carriage put her near the bottom.

What she knew that most passengers do not:

Involuntary denied boarding carries compensation on a regulatory formula, tiered by how long her arrival was delayed, and payable in cash or by check on request — not in a voucher.

The compensation is separate from the ticket. She was still entitled to be rebooked or refunded.

The carrier had to give her a written statement of her denied boarding compensation rights.

She was rebooked five hours later, requested cash rather than the voucher, and received the formula amount — several times the $650 the volunteers had accepted.

The lesson that costs passengers the most money: volunteering forfeits the formula. Before accepting any voluntary offer, the question is "What is the involuntary denied boarding compensation on this flight, and would I qualify for it?" If the answer is a larger number than the voucher, do not volunteer.

"Non-refundable" was not the answer

Fitzgerald Achebe-Whitcombe's flight was cancelled the night before. The airline app offered rebooking two days later or a $300 travel credit. His ticket said non-refundable.

He took neither.

"Non-refundable" describes what happens when the passenger changes their mind. It does not describe what happens when the airline does not fly. When a carrier cancels, or makes a significant change the passenger does not accept, a refund to the original form of payment is owed — in cash, not a voucher.

He called and said, in these words: "I am requesting a refund to my original form of payment. I am not accepting a voucher or a travel credit."

He also asked for — and got — refunds of the ancillary fees: the seat selection fee and the checked bag fee, neither of which purchased anything.

The refund posted in eleven days.

Two lessons. Say the word refund, explicitly, and decline the voucher explicitly. And ancillary fees are separately refundable when the service is not delivered, which airlines essentially never volunteer.

The wheelchair

Perpetua Ilunga-Sandoval travels with a custom power wheelchair valued at about $27,000. It arrived at the gate on a connecting flight with the joystick assembly sheared off and the frame bent.

What she did, in the right order:

Asked for the Complaints Resolution Official — by title — before leaving the gate. Every carrier must have one available at every airport whenever it is operating, and saying the title changes the conversation immediately.

Reported the damage before leaving the airport, and got a written damage report with a file number.

Photographed everything — the chair, the damage, and the serial and model plate.

Stated the key fact: for domestic flights, the ordinary baggage liability limit does not apply to assistive devices. The carrier's responsibility runs to the original purchase price or the cost of repair.

Asked for interim mobility — a loaner chair — while hers was repaired, which the carrier arranged.

Filed a DOT disability complaint, which is handled through a distinct process and gets particular attention.

The chair was repaired at the carrier's expense and she received compensation for the eleven days she was without it.

The lesson. Mobility device damage is the most consequential failure in air travel, it is treated differently from ordinary baggage, and the Complaints Resolution Official is the fastest route to a real answer.

Small claims on the contract

Cassius Beauvais-Vance's carrier cancelled his flight for a mechanical issue, rebooked him two days later, and refused to cover a hotel — despite its own customer service plan, published under the enhanced protections rule, committing to hotel accommodation for overnight delays within the carrier's control.

He was not going to win a claim that the airline had been unfair; most state-law claims relating to price, route, or service are preempted.

He won a claim that the airline breached its own contract. Under Wolens, a routine breach-of-contract action enforcing an airline's self-imposed undertakings survives preemption — and the contract of carriage and the customer service plan are exactly that.

He filed in small claims for the hotel, the meals, and the ground transportation, attached the relevant provisions of the customer service plan, and attached the cancellation notice showing a mechanical cause. The airline paid before the hearing.

The lesson. The claim is a contract claim, and the contract is the contract of carriage plus the customer service plan. Read them, quote them, and attach them.

What to do at the moment of disruption

Most of the value in this area is captured in the first thirty minutes, at the airport, before anyone has left.

1. Find out the cause, and get it in writing. "Controllable" versus "uncontrollable" — a mechanical issue or crew scheduling versus weather or air traffic control — determines what many carriers' customer service plans commit to. Screenshot the app's stated reason. It frequently changes later.

2. Get in two lines at once. Stand in the gate agent line and call the airline's phone number simultaneously. Phone agents can frequently rebook faster than a gate agent facing two hundred people. Some carriers' international call centers have shorter waits than the domestic number.

3. Ask for the specific thing, by name. Not "what can you do for me," which invites nothing. "I'd like to be rebooked on the 7:40, and I'd like a hotel voucher and meal vouchers under your customer service plan since this is a controllable delay."

4. Ask about other carriers. Some contracts of carriage permit reaccommodation on another airline. Ask explicitly: "Do you have an interline agreement that lets you rebook me on another carrier?"

5. Do not accept a voucher without asking about the cash alternative. For involuntary denied boarding, cash is available on request. For a cancellation, a refund is available instead of a credit.

6. Get names and times. Every agent, every promise, with the time. The record is what makes the later claim.

7. Keep every receipt. Hotel, meals, ground transportation, replacement clothing and toiletries if a bag is delayed. Reimbursement is negotiable and it is impossible without receipts.

8. If a bag is involved, report before leaving the airport. Damage and loss both. Get a file number in writing.

9. If a disability service failed, ask for the Complaints Resolution Official by title, before leaving.

10. Book the alternative yourself if you have to — a different flight, a rental car, a train. Then claim it. It is far easier to seek reimbursement for a reasonable expense than to recover the value of a trip that never happened.

What is genuinely uncertain

Two areas deserve honesty rather than confident summary.

The rules change. Refund requirements, compensation for controllable delays and cancellations, ancillary fee refunds, and family seating have all been the subject of rulemaking, and the position has moved more than once in recent years. Check the Department of Transportation's current aviation consumer protection guidance before relying on a summary, including this one, and check your carrier's current contract of carriage and customer service plan — which are the operative documents whatever the regulatory floor happens to be.

Carrier commitments differ substantially from each other. The Department has published comparisons of what individual airlines commit to for controllable delays and cancellations — meals, hotels, ground transportation, rebooking on other carriers — and the differences are real and material. A passenger choosing between two similar fares is frequently choosing between very different commitments, and that information is public and rarely consulted before booking.

One thing that has not changed: the enforceable core is narrow and specific. Involuntary denied boarding compensation on a formula. A cash refund when the airline does not fly you. Refunds of fees for services not delivered. The tarmac delay rule. The disability provisions. And the contract of carriage, which is a real contract that a court will enforce.

Everything else is a matter of what a particular airline has promised — which is why reading the promise is the whole game.

The other players

An air travel dispute frequently involves someone other than the airline, and knowing who is responsible for what prevents months of being routed in circles.

Online travel agencies and consolidators. A ticket bought through a third party is frequently serviced by that party rather than by the airline, and the airline will say so. The refund obligation still runs to the ticket, but the mechanics may run through the seller. Where a third party holds the money, it must remit the refund it receives. Buy directly from the airline when the price is close — the servicing difference is worth real money during a disruption.

Codeshare and interline flights. The operating carrier is not always the marketing carrier, and which one's contract of carriage governs is a genuine question that carriers answer inconsistently. Ask at the moment of disruption: "Who is the operating carrier, and whose contract of carriage governs this segment?"

The Transportation Security Administration. Delays and property damage at the checkpoint are TSA's, not the airline's. TSA has its own claims process for property lost or damaged in screening, with its own deadlines, and its own civil rights process for screening complaints — including for passengers with disabilities and medical devices. TSA Cares provides advance assistance for travelers with disabilities or medical conditions, arranged before the trip.

The airport authority, for terminal accessibility, parking, and ground transportation.

Customs and Border Protection, for entry processing, which is not the airline's responsibility and not the airline's to fix.

Credit card benefits. Many cards include trip delay, trip cancellation, and baggage coverage that pays when the airline does not — and it is claimed far less often than it applies. Check the card's benefits guide, which is a real insurance document with real deadlines, and note that paying for the trip with that card is usually the condition.

Travel insurance, which covers things regulation does not — including the trip itself rather than the transportation.

And a note on chargebacks. For a service paid for and not delivered — a cancelled flight with no refund, a bag fee for a bag that never came — a credit card dispute is a real and frequently faster remedy. It has its own deadline, usually measured from the statement date, and it should be used before that window closes rather than after months of unsuccessful correspondence.

Traveling with a disability, in more detail

This deserves expansion because the rules are strong, specific, and widely unknown — including to the people administering them.

Before the trip:

Request assistance when booking and again at check-in, and get a confirmation. The regulation generally prohibits requiring advance notice for most services, but requesting it improves the odds.
Certain services do permit an advance notice requirement — commonly 48 hours — including an in-cabin respirator or oxygen concentrator, hookup for a ventilator, transport of an electric wheelchair on an aircraft with fewer than 60 seats, accommodation for a group, and an on-board wheelchair on an aircraft without an accessible lavatory. Ask which apply to you.
Service animals: currently a dog individually trained to do work or tasks, with airlines permitted to require the standardized DOT forms in advance. Submit them the day you book, not the day you fly.
Battery-powered mobility devices have specific handling requirements depending on battery type. Tell the airline the battery chemistry and configuration in advance.
Photograph your mobility device, including the serial and model plate, before every trip. It takes thirty seconds and it is the entire evidentiary basis of a damage claim.

At the airport:

Ask for the Complaints Resolution Official by title for any problem. Every carrier must have one available at every airport whenever it is operating, in person or by phone. This is the single most useful sentence in air travel disability law.
Insist on gate-checking a mobility device where possible rather than checking it at the counter, and ask for it to be returned at the gate.
Do not let a device be disassembled without documentation of how it was configured.
If assistance does not arrive, ask again and note the time. A record of a thirty-five minute wait is a complaint; "they took forever" is not.

Seating and boarding:

Certain seating accommodations must be provided, including for a passenger with a fused or immobilized leg, a service animal, or an attendant.
Pre-boarding must be offered to passengers who need additional time or assistance.
A carrier generally may not require a passenger to travel with an attendant, and where it insists on one over the passenger's objection, it generally may not charge for the attendant's seat.

After a failure:

Report before leaving the airport and get a written report with a file number
Photograph everything
File a complaint with the carrier in writing, which triggers a required response
File a DOT disability complaint — these are handled distinctly and receive particular attention
For a damaged mobility device, note that on domestic flights the ordinary baggage liability limit does not apply, and ask about interim mobility — a loaner — while yours is repaired

Booking decisions that determine outcomes

Most of what determines how a disruption goes is decided before the trip, at the moment of booking, and almost none of it is about price.

Compare carrier commitments, not just fares. The Department has published comparisons of what individual airlines commit to for controllable delays and cancellations — meals, hotel accommodation, ground transportation, and rebooking on other carriers. The differences between carriers on that last item in particular are large, and a $40 fare difference is nothing against being stranded for two days.

Book directly with the airline when the price is close. A ticket bought through a third party is frequently serviced by that third party during a disruption, and that is exactly when you want to be talking to the airline.

Prefer nonstop. Every connection is a place a trip breaks, and a missed connection late in the day frequently means an overnight.

Book early in the day. A morning flight that cancels has later flights behind it. An evening flight that cancels has tomorrow.

Avoid the last flight of the day on any segment that matters.

Leave a real connection buffer on international arrivals, where immigration and customs are outside the airline's control and outside its minimum connection time assumptions.

Check what the operating carrier is on a codeshare. You may be booking one airline's service standards and flying another's aircraft, crew, and contract.

Pay with a card that carries trip delay and baggage coverage, and read what it actually covers. This is frequently better protection than anything the airline offers, and it is claimed far less often than it applies.

Carry on what you cannot lose. Medication, documents, electronics, jewelry, keys, and anything fragile — all of which are commonly excluded from baggage liability by the contract of carriage. A day of clothing in a carry-on solves most delayed-bag problems before they start.

Photograph your checked bag and its contents before the trip, and know that a special declaration of value at check-in — for a fee — raises the international liability limit for genuinely valuable items.

And know your carrier's check-in and boarding deadlines, which are in the contract of carriage, are enforced strictly, and are the reason a substantial share of denied boarding claims fail before they start.

The preemption problem, in practical terms

Because it governs what claim you can actually bring, it is worth being precise about where the line falls.

The statute preempts state law "related to a price, route, or service of an air carrier." That phrase has been read broadly.

What is generally preempted: state consumer protection claims about advertising, fares, and service quality · negligence claims arising from service decisions · state statutes imposing obligations on how airlines operate · and, per Ginsberg, a claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, where that covenant is imposed by state law rather than adopted by the parties.

What survives: a routine breach-of-contract claim enforcing the airline's own self-imposed undertakings — Wolens. Personal injury claims arising from operational safety are generally handled differently. And federal claims and remedies are not preempted by a statute about state law.

Why this matters at the practical level:

Frame the claim as contract. Not "they treated me unfairly," which invites a preemption defense. "The contract of carriage, section 8, provides X. They did not do X."

Attach the document. The contract of carriage and the customer service plan are published, and quoting the operative provision converts a grievance into a claim.

Use small claims. It is a contract action, the amounts are usually within the limit, no lawyer is needed, and airlines frequently settle before the hearing rather than send counsel to a small claims docket over a hotel bill.

And where there is no contract hook, the route is the Department of Transportation complaint — which is not a lawsuit and does not need to be. The airline must respond in writing, the response frequently resolves the matter, and the aggregate drives enforcement with real civil penalties behind it.

The uncomfortable summary: in air travel the passenger's leverage comes from three narrow places — the regulations that grant specific entitlements, the contract the airline wrote itself, and a federal regulator that airlines take seriously. Fairness, as such, is not one of them, and a claim built on it will lose. A claim built on the airline's own words wins with some regularity.

Situations with their own rules

Traveling with children. Family seating has been the subject of both regulatory attention and voluntary carrier commitments, and several carriers now commit to seating a young child adjacent to an accompanying adult at no additional fee. Ask before paying a seat selection fee, and if you paid one and were separated anyway, that fee is a candidate for refund.

Unaccompanied minors. A separate service with a separate fee, separate rules about connections, and separate rules about who may collect the child. Read the carrier's policy — the restrictions on connecting flights and last flights of the day are stricter than parents expect.

Traveling while pregnant. Carriers set their own policies, which vary and are in the contract of carriage. Some require documentation past a certain point. Check before booking, not at the gate.

Medical devices and oxygen. Portable oxygen concentrators are permitted subject to model approval and advance notice requirements. Compressed oxygen is generally not permitted. Batteries must be sufficient for the duration plus a margin. Ask what the carrier requires, in writing, well before travel.

Pets in the cabin and as cargo. Governed by the carrier's own policy, not by the disability rules — a pet is not a service animal. Breed restrictions, temperature embargoes, and container requirements are real and are enforced. Live animal transport has its own reporting requirements and its own risks.

Bereavement and medical emergencies. Most carriers no longer offer bereavement fares, but change-fee waivers and flexibility exist informally. Ask, and ask for a supervisor. Documentation helps.

Involuntary removal from an aircraft. Refusal to transport provisions in the contract of carriage are broad, and the carrier's discretion is wide. If it happens, get the stated reason in writing, get names, and note that a removal that was unjustified under the contract is a contract claim.

Weather and air traffic control. Genuinely outside the carrier's control, and most customer service plans distinguish sharply between controllable and uncontrollable causes. This is why the stated reason matters and why you should screenshot it — the reason given at the time frequently differs from the reason given later.

Overnight strandings. Even where no obligation applies, ask for a distressed passenger rate at nearby hotels, which many carriers can arrange even when they will not pay.

And a general point: in almost every one of these, the answer is in the carrier's own published policy, and the carrier's own published policy is a document you can read before you travel.

Frequently asked questions

My flight was delayed six hours. What am I owed? For a domestic flight, generally nothing by regulation. Check the contract of carriage and the customer service plan — some carriers commit to meals, hotels, and ground transportation for controllable delays. Ask by reference to the plan.

My flight was cancelled and they offered a voucher. Ask for a refund to your original form of payment. You are entitled to one for the unused portion, in cash, regardless of whether the ticket was non-refundable.

They bumped me. If involuntarily, you are owed compensation on a regulatory formula, payable in cash or check on request, tiered by delay length, and separate from your refund or rebooking. Ask what the involuntary compensation would be before you volunteer.

My bag is late. Ask about interim expense reimbursement, keep receipts, and note that the checked bag fee is refundable if the bag is delayed beyond the applicable window.

My bag was damaged. Report it before leaving the airport, get a written report, and file the claim within the contract's deadline — which is short.

They broke my wheelchair. Carriers have specific obligations for assistive devices, and the ordinary baggage liability limit does not apply to them on domestic flights. Ask for the Complaints Resolution Official immediately, report before leaving the airport, and file with the DOT.

Can I sue? Generally on a contract theory only — most state-law claims relating to price, route, or service are preempted. Small claims court on the contract of carriage is realistic.

Does the DOT complaint do anything? Yes. The airline must respond in writing, and that alone resolves many complaints. And patterns drive enforcement.