I’m a finance expert… here’s the airline to avoid if you want money back after a flight is canceled

A finance expert has shared how to ensure you have a stress-free vacation – and the airline to avoid in order to do so.

Vivian Tu, who shares her savvy advice under the username Your Rich BFF, offered some guidance for those desperate to avoid flight delays or cancelations. 

‘All is not lost,’ Vivian assured viewers, adding she’s going to show people a ‘little tool’ to help them rebound from a cancelled flight.

‘[The tool] is gonna help you know what you deserve and what you ask from these airlines,’ Vivian explained.

First, Vivian said to go to Google and search for the Department of Travel Dashboard. 

The site, she explained, gives a breakdown of compensation available for various air travel issues.

‘This dashboard was designed to provide air travelers easy access to comparison information on the services that the airlines are required to offer you in these scenarios when something bad happens to you,’ she explained.

To access the information, you go to the website and pick which airline you’re flying with.

She then instructed users to look to the left side of the site to see what you’re eligible for – listing meal vouchers, hotel accommodation or ground transportation as examples.

‘A quick scan [of the dashboard] tells me you should never fly with Frontier,’ she chimed in.

‘A lot of the time if you don’t know that you’re eligible for these things, the airlines aren’t gonna offer them up willy nilly,’ she quipped.

‘Just make sure to check the dashboard and know what you’re owed and what to ask for,’ she urged.

‘With holiday travel coming up, don’t get screwed by airlines! Find out what you’re owed when your flight is delayed or canceled!’ Vivian captioned the clip.

And it seems that flight delays are only getting worse with experts recently revealing a sneaky trick that airlines are using to hide lengthy delays, with average flight times significantly longer than they were three decades ago.

Based on data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, planes flying from John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in 1995 were behind schedule 51 per cent of the time.

Airlines have created the illusion of increased efficiency by adding ‘padding’ to their schedules. 

Vivian suggests using the DoT Travel Dashboard, which gives a breakdown of compensation available for air travel issues (stock image)

In 2023, delays only occurred on 37 per cent of flights, even though these trips are more drawn out than they were 28 years ago.

The average span of a gate departure delay in 1995 was eight minutes. In 2023, that average rose to 13 minutes.

Passengers’ trips from JFK to LAX were generally five hours and 20 minutes in 1995. Planes in 2023 were spending about nine more minutes in the air.

Overall, the entire journey from New York to Los Angeles was a six-hour ordeal in 1995. Last year, 18 more minutes were added to the average trip.

Ironically, by telling passengers flights will be longer than they need to be, airlines have achieved fewer delays.