Know Your Rights When You Fly

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at [email protected].

See recent posts by Christine Sarkis

Bracing yourself for winter travel? Then here’s a story you’ll want to check out—one that offers a ton of tips about your rights as an airline passenger, written by Airfarewatchdog’s George Hobica for USA Today.

The ultimate win is to have such great flying experiences that you never have to use this information. But it’s not a bad idea to know your basic rights in case you do run into trouble on a future flight. And since a number of the topics mentioned were affected by recent passenger rights laws, this quick primer is a good read even for seasoned travelers.

Hobica tackles involuntary bumping (“You may be entitled to cash compensation”), tarmac delays (“You have the right to request to deplane” … eventually), delayed flights (“under some circumstances … you can tell the airline to take a hike and get your money and ancillary fees back”), and canceled flights (“There’s no government regulation that applies”), plus more tips on lost luggage, mistaken flight purchases, seat selection, routing changes, schedule changes, and being seated next to large passengers who encroach on your seat.

Since in most cases, your carrier isn’t going to helpfully outline your recourse options if something goes wrong, it will be up to you to push for your rights. The trick, then, is knowing what they are.

What has been your most memorable travel snafu to date? What were you able to do about it?

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