Flight cancelled or delayed? Your refund rights flying out of Las Vegas
In plain words: if your airline cancels your flight, or changes or delays it so you land 3 or more hours late on a domestic trip (6 on an international one), and you choose not to fly or not to take a voucher, the airline owes you a full refund in money, taxes and bag or seat fees included. On a credit card the refund is due within 7 business days; paid any other way, within 20 days (49 U.S.C. 42305).
Do you get your money back?
- The airline cancelled the flight
- A domestic flight would land 3 or more hours after its scheduled arrival
- An international flight would land 6 or more hours late
- And you don't fly, don't accept rebooking and don't accept a voucher
- The fare, even on a nonrefundable ticket
- Taxes
- Ancillary fees the airline charged, such as bags or seats
- It applies to flights to, from or within the United States (49 U.S.C. 42305(a))
- Paid by credit card: within 7 business days
- Paid by cash or any other way: within 20 days
- The clock starts on the date you're treated as having asked (49 U.S.C. 42305(b))
- The airline cancelled and offered you no other flight or voucher
- You turned down the new flight, rebooking or voucher
- You didn't answer and the new flight left without you (49 U.S.C. 42305(f))
At the airport right now
If you take a voucher instead
- The offer must spell out its terms and your right to a refund
- The voucher or credit must stay good for at least 5 years from the day it's issued
- The airline must tell you its expiration date (49 U.S.C. 42305(c))
- A voucher only helps if you'll fly that airline again
- Once you accept it, you've chosen it over the refund
- Ask whether it covers taxes and the fees you paid
Stuck on the plane, or the whole airline is down
Long wait on the tarmac
Airlines must have an approved plan for each airport covering food, drinking water, restrooms, comfortable cabin temperatures and access to medical care when you're held on board. You must be offered the chance to get off and return to the terminal: the plane must start heading back no later than 3 hours after the door closed on a domestic flight, 4 hours on an international one. Air traffic control or the pilot can override that for safety or major airport disruption (49 U.S.C. 42301(b)).
The airline's computers went down
When a computer failure stops all or nearly all of an airline's flights, it must post a prominent statement on its website saying whether it will pay for hotels, ground transportation and meal vouchers, book you on another airline, or provide sleeping space in the terminal (49 U.S.C. 42304). Read that statement before you pay for a hotel, and keep every receipt.
Booked through a travel site
Congress told the Department of Transportation to write a rule applying these refund duties to ticket agents, with the same 7-business-day and 20-day timing and voucher terms, and to make airlines pass the money to an agent who is responsible for the refund but doesn't hold it (49 U.S.C. 42305(e)). Ask the site and the airline in writing, and keep both answers.
Didn't get your refund?
- Every large airline must post on its website where to send complaints, and a link to the federal complaint site (49 U.S.C. 42302(b))
- Large, medium and small hub airports must post Know Your Rights posters at ticket counters, security and gates (49 U.S.C. 42306)
- The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Consumer Protection takes airline passenger complaints online (49 U.S.C. 42302(a))
- Paid by credit card: you can also dispute the charge; steps are on returns, refunds and card disputes
Stuck in Las Vegas overnight with no money?
Call 211 for help nearby. A hotel that overcharges you has to answer to Nevada's posted-rate rules: hotel guest rights. Renting a car to drive home instead: rental car fees and damage rules.
Read 2026-11-05 from the United States Code on this house's law shelf (2024 edition): 49 U.S.C. 42301, 42302, 42304, 42305, 42306 and 42307.