October 19: Your broken plane becomes the airline's get-out-of-hotel-free card.
Starting October 19, the DOT's new rule reclassifies certain unscheduled maintenance delays as uncontrollable, meaning airlines no longer owe you a meal voucher or hotel room when your plane breaks down. The rule carves out ten specific events, including non-deferrable maintenance, cyberattacks, and medical emergencies. The DOT explicitly calls this a transfer of value from passengers to airlines, and expects fewer hotels and meals to be provided. Your credit card's trip delay insurance now becomes your primary safety net.
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Review your credit card's trip delay coverage before October 19, and consider carrying a card that covers $200+ in hotels and meals for delays over 6 or 12 hours.
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This drop was reframed from a real reader question asked around the web. Written with the assistance of a language model in the voice of Flynn Ryder.