Frontier is the only airline that does not guarantee complimentary hotel accommodations to passengers affected by an overnight delay. Photo Credit: Kyo46 for Adobe Stock
The Department of Transportation has rolled out a dashboard that allows travelers to see airlines' policies on delays, cancellations and family seating. The new service is part of a push by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for airlines to improve their customer-service commitments and to provide travelers with easy access to information about services that U.S. airlines provide. The dashboard tracks Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United airlines.
In the event of controllable cancellations and delays — meaning the action was caused by the airline (maintenance/crew problems, cabin cleaning, fueling, etc.) — all 10 domestic carriers have committed to rebooking passengers on the same airline at no additional cost and to provide a meal/meal voucher when a delay is three hours or more.
Frontier is the only airline of the 10 that has not committed to providing complimentary hotel accommodations and complimentary ground transportation to and from the hotel for passengers who are affected by an overnight delay. Only half of the carriers – Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue and United – will rebook travelers on a partner airline or another airline with which it has an agreement at no additional cost.
For families traveling with children under 14, Alaska, American and Frontier are the only airlines that guarantee adults can sit next to their child without a fee.
"Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees," Buttigieg said in a release announcing the dashboard. "Now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change."
On the Transportation Department website, it states that airlines will be held accountable if they fail to uphold their commitments.