Almost nobody claims it. We check delayed flights, cancellations and lost bags against US federal refund rules and your credit card’s trip delay benefits, then show the amounts, the deadlines, and the exact rule behind each one.
Most people never file. Not because they were not owed it, but because the window closed.
The airline’s refund and your card’s benefit are separate claims, paid by different people. Most travelers take the first and never file the second, which is usually the larger one.
For card benefits it often is: those windows are 20 to 100 days from the flight. But a fare refund has no federal deadline, and an unexpired voucher is still money. We show you which is which.
Not for the card half. That claim goes to your card’s benefit administrator on a form. The airline is not involved and cannot refuse it.
We read the benefit guides for 22 cards, from the issuers’ own documents. Several pay from six hours. Checking costs nothing.
Card trip delay cover
Every card we check falls into one of the rows below. The figures are read from each card’s own benefits guide, which is where most people never look, because they sit forty pages into a PDF that no search engine indexes.
Type any part of the name.
| After a delay of | Pays up to | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| 6 hoursor an overnight stay | $500 |
|
| 12 hoursor an overnight stay | $500 |
|
| 12 hours | $300 |
Cards shown in lighter type (5 of 26) carry figures compiled from a third-party summary rather than the issuer’s own guide. Treat those amounts as indicative until we have read the guide itself.
These are limits, not payouts. Trip delay cover reimburses what you actually spent during the delay, such as meals, a hotel and toiletries, up to the figure shown. Spend $80 on dinner and you claim $80, not the cap.
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.
A cash refund is mandatory if you choose not to travel. Not a voucher.
Minimum 3 hours domestic, 6 internationalInvoluntary denied boarding is where US law pays real cash.
Up to $1,075 or $2,150Meals, a hotel, a toothbrush. Paid by the card, not the airline.
Up to $500 per travelerRefundable when the bag is late, and almost nobody asks.
Minimum 12 hours lateClothes and essentials while your bag catches up.
As little as 20 days to fileTaking one does not always waive what you were owed in cash.
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
Every card benefit expires between 20 and 100 days after the flight. The airline won’t remind you and neither will your card. Most valid claims fail because the clock ran out, not because they were wrong.
$49 / year
Everything below, for every trip. Cancel anytime.
Free to run. Add the flights that went wrong and watch the total add up.
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.
Your inbox
If you connect Gmail, RefundTrip searches it for confirmation emails from a fixed list of airlines, hotels and travel agencies. Those are the only messages we ever open. Everything else in your mailbox is never fetched, never read, and never leaves Google.
From a confirmation we keep seven things: the airline, the flight number, the route, the dates, the confirmation code, the fare, and the last four digits of the card that paid. We keep the last four because card travel protections only apply to the card that bought the ticket. We do not store the message itself. We keep a short audit line for each message we open: who sent it, its subject, and the date. That is so you can see exactly what was read and challenge anything that looks wrong.
Our access is read-only by construction. We never ask for permission to send, change or delete mail, so nothing here can alter your mailbox. We do not use your email to train AI models, and we do not transfer it for advertising. Disconnecting revokes our access at Google first, then deletes the connection. Full detail is in our privacy policy.
A note for people who travel for work. If your email is a company account, your IT administrator may have blocked outside apps from reading it. That is their decision, not something we can change or work around, and it is common at larger firms. You will see an error from Google rather than a consent screen. A personal account connects normally.
You can still use it. Forward a confirmation to your RefundTrip address from any account, work or personal, and we will check that flight the same way. No permission needed from anyone.
Questions
Many travel cards include trip delay insurance, and most cardholders never claim it. Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X, Citi Strata Elite and The Platinum Card from American Express each pay up to $500 once a flight is delayed more than six hours. Chase Sapphire Preferred and American Express Gold pay after twelve. The cover reimburses what you actually spent during the delay, such as meals and a hotel, up to that limit.
It depends on the card, and the two common thresholds are six hours and twelve. Cards with a six-hour trigger include Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X and The Platinum Card from American Express. Cards with a twelve-hour trigger include Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Gold and American Express Green. Several also pay when the delay forces an overnight stay, regardless of length.
Yes. The Chase Sapphire Reserve trip delay benefit pays up to $500 per traveler when a flight is delayed more than six hours or requires an overnight stay. It reimburses documented expenses such as meals, lodging, toiletries and medication, and the fare must have been charged to the card. It is secondary cover, so any other applicable insurance is claimed first.
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.
Membership is $49 a year and covers the part the free tool structurally can’t do: reading twelve months of your inbox for flights you’d never think to check one at a time, watching every future flight, and reminding you before a filing window closes. Most valid claims fail because the clock ran out, not because they were wrong.
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