eCFR, quoted verbatim
Air passenger rights in United States
What the United States regime gives a disrupted passenger, event by event, quoted from eCFR and dated.
- rules quoted word for word
- 6
- questions the instrument does not answer
- 4
- the day these pages were read
- 2026-09-10
Every disruption, as the instrument states it
| What went wrong | What the instrument says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| How much the payment is | Compensation shall be at least 400 percent of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, or $2,150, whichever is lower | 14 CFR 250.5, Amount of denied boarding compensation (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| A long delay | 14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR) carries no such rule on the section read here (14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR), read September 2026). Part 260 is titled Refunds and its rule for a significantly delayed flight is a refund of the fare, not a payment on top of it: the consumer either flies, or takes their money back. There is no US analogue of the UK261 delay payment, and the passenger who wants one has to be flying on a route the UK or EU regime reaches. Read on the section that would carry it if it existed. | 14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| A cancelled flight | 14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR) carries no such rule on the section read here (14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR), read September 2026). The same section that entitles a passenger to their fare back for a cancelled flight stops there. A US carrier owes a refund and, under its own Customer Service Plan, whatever it has promised; it does not owe a statutory sum for the cancellation itself. | 14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| Being denied boarding | a carrier to whom this part applies as described in § 250.2 shall pay compensation in interstate air transportation to passengers who are denied boarding involuntarily from an oversold flight | 14 CFR 250.5, Amount of denied boarding compensation (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| Getting your money back | must provide a full and prompt refund of the airfare, including any taxes and ancillary fees, as set forth in paragraph (a)(2) of this section to a consumer that holds a nonrefundable ticket on a scheduled flight to, from, or within the United States for any cancelled flight or significantly delayed or changed flight | 14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| Being flown another way | A consumer rejects the significantly delayed or changed flight, rebooking on an alternative flight, or any voucher, credit, or other form of compensation offered by the covered carrier | 14 CFR 260.6, Refunding fare for flights cancelled or significantly delayed or changed by carriers (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| Meals, a hotel and transport while you wait | 14 CFR 259.5, Customer Service Plan (eCFR) carries no such rule on the section read here (14 CFR 259.5, Customer Service Plan (eCFR), read September 2026). Section 259.5 lists the fourteen subjects a carrier's Customer Service Plan must address and sets a minimum standard for each. Meals, hotel accommodation and ground transport during a delay are not among them. Several US carriers promise them in their own plans, which makes the promise contractual rather than statutory, and the plan is the document to read. | 14 CFR 259.5, Customer Service Plan (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| When the airline does not have to pay | 14 CFR 250.5, Amount of denied boarding compensation (eCFR) carries no such rule on the section read here (14 CFR 250.5, Amount of denied boarding compensation (eCFR), read September 2026). The exceptions in Part 250 are about the passenger and the aircraft rather than about the weather: they turn on whether the passenger met the check-in deadline, whether they were offered comparable transport, and whether a smaller aircraft was substituted for safety. Nothing in the US scheme asks whether a disruption was within the carrier's control. | 14 CFR 250.5, Amount of denied boarding compensation (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| Being asked to give up your seat | In the event of an oversold flight, every carrier shall request volunteers for denied boarding before using any other boarding priority. | 14 CFR 250.2b, Carriers to request volunteers for denied boarding (eCFR) read September 2026 |
| How long the airline has to answer you | Each covered carrier shall acknowledge in writing receipt of each complaint regarding its scheduled service to the complainant within 30 days of receiving it and shall send a substantive written response to each complainant within 60 days of receiving the complaint. | 14 CFR 259.7, Response to consumer problems (eCFR) read September 2026 |
An absence here means the instrument carries no such rule, never that an airline will not pay: several carriers promise more than the law requires in their own conditions of carriage, and that promise is contractual.
Cite or embed this figure
United States: 6 air passenger entitlement rules quoted verbatim from the instrument itself and 4 recorded absences (FlightDelayHQ Air Passenger Entitlement Index).
Cite as: "FlightDelayHQ Air Passenger Entitlement Index: United States", updated 2026-09-10, https://flightdelayhq.com/rights/united-states/.
Download the United States table (CSV), free to reuse with citation.