When airline vouchers meet reality
A financial services company learned about the delay insurance the hard way. A canceled flight cost nearly $3,000 in expenses they couldn’t recover.
Cal Singh, who runs the company says, “Weeks of preparation can be lost by one delay.”
He’s rebuilt his entire travel operation around that lesson. Every business trip now includes backup flights, refundable bookings, and extra insurance. Because he learned what airlines don’t want you to know: They’re not in the business of making you whole. They’re in the business of getting you from point A to point B. Everything else is your problem.
It’s not just business travelers, of course. Donna Glass’ experience with United tells the same story. Her recent flight from San Francisco to Orlando was delayed multiple times and then switched to a completely different aircraft. She arrived in Florida early the next morning, having spent more than 12 hours in the airport.
Her airline offered her two $15 food vouchers and 7,500 frequent-flyer miles.
“We lost an entire day in Orlando,” Donna said. “The airline basically blew us off.”
Here’s the real question regulators refuse to ask: Is that fair?
The compensation illusion
When airlines talk about “reasonable compensation,” they’re working from a narrow playbook. The DOT focuses on immediate, basic costs like the price of your airfare. Europe goes further with its consumer protections, offering compensation for delays. But even the strictest rules exclude the real-world damage caused by delays.
Airlines are just following the law. But the law was written in a different era, when travel was simpler and airlines were more generous with their passengers. Now, delays are chronic and airlines are watching every penny. Regulators haven’t caught up.
Jacob Wedderburn-Day, CEO of Stasher, an airport luggage storage network, sees the ripple effects every day. He’s watched thousands of passengers absorb costs that go way beyond a meal voucher.
The hidden costs are very high, and the passengers pay nearly all of them.
“The hidden costs are very high, and the passengers pay nearly all of them,” Wedderburn-Day said. “Airlines are basing fair compensation on their own operating expenses and regulatory requirements, rather than actual economic impact on travelers.”
Maybe that’s the problem. The delay tax exists because airlines calculate compensation based on what it costs themto reschedule flights, not what it costs you to miss the reason you flew in the first place.
TinLeg, a travel insurance company, has the receipts: In 2025, the average payout was $388 per claim. The single biggest culprit was airline delays. TinLeg found nearly 28 percent of all claims were tied to flight delays, up from 26 percent in 2024.
Sometimes, airlines will voluntarily cover some of your expenses, such as toiletries or a change of clothes, to a point.
Even when airlines are generous, there’s a catch
If you can get an airline to compensate you for your expenses, which can happen, there’s a problem that customers create for themselves. Raymond Yorke at Redpoint Resolutions has watched travelers leave money on the table because they didn’t document everything.
“The travelers who get reimbursed quickest are almost always those who kept receipts, took photos, saved emails, and wrote down what happened, in real time,” Yorke says.
A safer bet is to buy travel insurance, but you still have to keep your documentation for some claims. (With bigger travel insurance companies, flight delay claims are automatic and don’t require any documentation.)
“A proper travel protection plan can fill the gap airlines won’t,” says Carlos Cividanes, vice president of business strategy and development at TravelSafe Travel Insurance.
But even travel insurance won’t end the delay tax.
What needs to change?
Justice’s point about the cascading effects of delays is central to understanding why the current system is broken. It treats delays as isolated incidents affecting one person. But when you’re running a company, leading a team, or managing a critical life moment, a delay ripples outward.
Michal Strahilevitz, a professor of marketing at Saint Mary’s College of California who studies business ethics, thinks the whole compensation framework is backwards.
“Airlines do not compensate passengers for pain, suffering, or emotional distress caused by delays,” she says. “But in an ideal world, they would at least try.”
The data backs that up. AirHelp surveyed Americans and found that 41 percent lost money on their last flight disruption. Meanwhile, 91 percent believe airlines should pay compensation for disruptions. And 84 percent of Americans would support an EU-style compensation model, one that actually accounts for losses.
Airlines need to be financially responsible for the total economic cost of delays that they incur.
“Airlines need to be financially responsible for the total economic cost of delays that they incur, and not merely direct costs,” says Wedderburn-Day of Stasher. “There is no incentive yet to change because travelers all bear downstream costs. The model changes only when airlines start to experience the financial bite of chronic unreliability.”
That’s true. Right now, airlines have no reason to operate more reliably because they don’t pay the true cost of delays. The expense is yours to bear. Until that changes, expect more delay taxes.
So here’s my advice: If you’re planning to fly, build redundancy into your bookings. Get insurance. And document everything. Because airlines aren’t going to make you whole. The system isn’t designed to.
At least, not yet.
Christopher Elliott
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can’t. He’s the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can’t solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter.
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