Airline problems, ranked
Ordered by what people complain to the Department of Transportation about most. Each guide quotes the regulation or the airline's own policy, links it, and says what to do next.
Flight cancelled or delayed
When you're owed a cash refund instead of a credit, what airlines promise for meals and hotels, and the 3-hour tarmac rule.
Lost, delayed or damaged bag
File the report first, get your bag fee back after 12 hours, and what airlines must pay: up to $4,700 domestic, 1,519 SDR international.
Checked bag fees by airline
What each US airline charges for bags 1, 2 and 3, and which price applies based on the day you bought your ticket.
Refund refused or stuck as a credit
The 7-business-day and 20-day refund deadlines, and when a voucher has to last five years.
Bumped from an oversold flight
Denied-boarding compensation: 200% or 400% of your fare, capped at $1,075 or $2,150.
Stuck on the tarmac
Deplaning limits (3 hours domestic, 4 international) and food and water within 2 hours.
Seats split up / family seating
What each airline's policy says about seating children with a parent for free.
Wheelchair or disability help went wrong
Your rights under the Air Carrier Access Act rules and how to reach a Complaints Resolution Official.
How to file a complaint with DOT
When to complain, what to include, and the 30/60-day deadlines airlines must meet.
How this list is ordered
DOT's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report counts complaints by category. For January–June 2026, refunds led with 12,557 cases, then flight schedule problems with 9,477 (3,744 about cancellations, 2,991 about delays, 991 about missed connections and 462 about tarmac delays), then baggage with 6,459. Those figures are AirAdvisor's tally of the August 2026 report; transportation.gov blocks our reader, so we couldn't open DOT's table directly. We'll replace this with our own read of the report as soon as we can.
The same complaints show up on X every day. Between Oct 22 and Oct 29, 2026 (UTC), we counted 562 English posts using phrases like "flight cancelled" or "cancelled my flight", and 248 using "lost my luggage", "lost baggage" or "delayed bag". We counted those ourselves with X's post-count search.
What these guides are (and aren't)
They tell you what a regulation, a DOT notice or an airline's published policy says, quote it and link it, with the date we read it. They aren't legal advice. If a lot of money is at stake, the source documents we link are the ones to show an airline, DOT or a lawyer.