Answer a few questions about a delayed or cancelled US flight. We check it against federal refund rules and your credit card’s published benefits, then show you the amounts, the deadlines, and the exact rule behind each one.
Free. No account. Takes about two minutes.
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What we checkAS 12 · BOS → SEA · 7h late
We checked 2 things
A real result from the checker, using sample trip details.
What we check
None of these are hidden. They’re spread across federal regulations and the fine print of your card’s benefits guide, and almost nobody reads both.
If the airline cancels or significantly changes your flight and you choose not to travel, a cash refund to your original payment method is mandatory. Not a voucher.
Minimum 3 hours domestic, 6 internationalInvoluntary denied boarding is where US law pays real cash: double your one-way fare for a shorter delay, quadruple for a longer one.
Up to $2,150 in cashLong delays trigger reimbursement for meals and hotels — but only when the cause is one your card actually covers, which is where most claims quietly fail.
Up to $500 per travelerFile a mishandled-bag report and the fee becomes refundable once the bag is late enough. The report is what almost everyone skips.
Minimum 12 hours lateSeparate from the fee refund: your card may reimburse the essentials you had to buy while your bag caught up with you.
As little as 20 days to fileTaking rebooking or a travel credit generally releases the airline from paying cash. We’ll tell you if that happened, and what’s left.
Sometimes still recoverableFree and paid
The checker is free and stays free — the whole thing, including the deadlines and the claim packet. What you pay for is not having to remember.
Free · available now
You had a bad flight, you look it up, you find out where you stand. No account, no card.
$0
No signup. About two minutes.
Nothing stored unless you ask us to email your results.
Membership · available now
Most claims don’t fail because they were wrong. They fail because nobody remembered in time.
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The difference in one line: the free checker answers “am I owed something for this flight?” The paid one answers “what have I been missing, and what closes next?”
How it works
Airline, route, date, and what went wrong. We only ask follow-up questions that can actually change the answer.
Your answers run against DOT regulations and the current Guide to Benefits for your card — the real document, with its version recorded.
What you may be owed, who to contact, which documents you need, and the date the window closes. Add a reminder to your calendar in one tap.
Why we say no
A delayed flight doesn’t entitle you to your ticket back. If you flew and landed, you got what you paid for — and any tool that tells you otherwise is setting you up for a denied claim and a wasted afternoon.
So RefundTrip shows the no’s alongside the yes’s, with the specific rule or card condition that wasn’t met and what would have changed it. When a filing deadline has already passed, we say that too, and we leave the amount out of your total instead of padding it.
Questions
Usually not for the fare itself. DOT rules refund your ticket when the airline cancels or significantly changes your flight and you choose not to travel. If you flew and reached your destination, you received the transportation you paid for.
What a long delay can trigger is your credit card’s trip delay coverage, which reimburses meals and hotels rather than the ticket. That’s often several hundred dollars, and it’s the part people miss.
Three hours or more on domestic itineraries, six or more on international ones, measured at your final destination. A cancellation, a change of departure or arrival airport, an added connection, or a downgrade in class of service also qualify.
For involuntary denied boarding on a flight departing a US airport, compensation is twice your one-way fare for shorter delays and four times for longer ones, capped at $1,075 and $2,150.
If you volunteered to give up your seat, you negotiated your own deal and the fixed schedule doesn’t apply.
Yes, and it’s the most common way people lose money. Accepting rebooking or a travel credit generally discharges the airline’s obligation to pay cash. After that, recovering it depends on the airline agreeing or on a card dispute.
No. We tell you what you may be owed, who to contact, what to attach, and by when. You file it yourself.
RefundTrip is not a law firm and doesn’t provide legal advice. Whether a claim is paid is decided by the airline or your card’s benefit administrator.
You can select any major US travel card. We only produce coverage amounts for cards we’ve verified line by line against the issuer’s current Guide to Benefits — for the rest we say so plainly rather than guessing.
That caution is warranted: two cards from the same issuer can differ sharply. One Chase product covers delays over six hours; another needs twelve.
Checking a flight is free, and that includes the whole thing — every amount, the deadlines, the rule behind each answer, and the claim packet. We don’t blur numbers or hold results behind a payment.
A paid tier is in development for the part the free tool structurally can’t do: sweeping years of past travel you’d never think to check one flight at a time, and reminding you before a filing window closes. Most valid claims fail because the clock ran out, not because they were wrong. It isn’t available yet — the free checker is.
Checking a flight is free and needs no account. We store nothing unless you ask us to email your results.
Because it’s often true, and finding out in two minutes beats finding out after a month of chasing. When the answer is no, we show which condition wasn’t met and what would have changed it.
Card filing deadlines run as short as 20 days from the incident, and most valid claims fail because the clock ran out rather than because they were wrong.
Check my flight — free