What Are Your Rights When Your Flight Misconnects And It Is The Airline's Fault?

TPG follower Raj had some flight trouble earlier this week and wanted to know what his options were:

"@thepointsguy on a United flight sitting here with maintenance issues. If I miss my connection, what am I entitled to? Just standby?"

In a situation like this in the US, technically nothing is legally owed to you in terms of compensation. In Europe, it is a bit different because airlines are required by law to take care of their passengers more comprehensively than the laws in the US require.

Within the United States the airlines have Contracts of Carriage, which are basically agreements between the airline and you as a passenger. With most airlines, if the delay or cancellation is their fault (even if it's due to weather) and you misconnect, they will try to get you on the next available flight. However, when there are a ton of people that need to get on that same flight, or flights are full for several days, you can get stuck on a standby list for days with no luck.

If it is their fault, the airline should put you on the next departing flight to your destination even if it is with a competitor. Putting a passenger on a different carrier and getting them re-ticketed will cost the airline money, so usually the representative will just look to do what is easiest and cheapest for them, and it is much easier to put you on a standby list than search for other available carriers and get you ticketed with them instead.

You are definitely going to have know what is available and what your options are so when you ask the gate agent, you have an exact plan. A cousin of mine recently posted on Facebook that she was stuck waiting at the Dallas airport for hours on end because there was a missing part on the plane. They had her on a standby list, but when I saw her post I told her to ask to be put on an available US Airways flight to Phoenix and gave her the flight number and time of departure. Originally when my cousin asked if should could be ticketed on another carrier the agent said there was nothing available and blew her off, probably not wanting to deal with it. Once she went back to the representative with the available flight information they booked her on it with no problem while the other passengers were stuck waiting in Dallas.

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Doing your own research can definitely help when you get stuck in a situation like this. That's why I use ExpertFlyer when I'm traveling to check out my routing options just in case. If you find yourself in a situation similar to Raj, here are some tips to keep in mind:

Ask to go to a different airport or to connect through a different city: If you go to the agent with ideas instead of just leaving it up to the airline, your chances of getting on an earlier flight will increase dramatically.

Get help in the club lounge: The customer service representatives in lounges are usually veterans and know how to handle these situations better than some of the front line staff so if you can get access to the club lounge, even if it means paying sometimes, this might be a good option.

Elite status definitely helps: Having elite status or even just having a seat in first or business class can give you better chances of being accommodated by the airline. Some airlines even have better compensation for premium passengers in their contract of carriage.

Basically when an airline has a problem, you are pretty much out there on your own and you have to fight for what you want. As long as you know what you're fighting for (and ask nicely!) you should be in a much better position to avoid the dreaded standby line. Do any of you have additional advice to avoid being put on standby in a situation like this?
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