TSA Made You Miss Your Flight – Are You Entitled to A Refund

by SharonKurheg

A while back we posted a guide for how early you should get to the airport nowadays. Obviously, it’s not foolproof. If you’re flying out of, say, this airport, you can give yourself significantly less time than if you’re flying out of ATL or JFK. But if nothing else, it gives you an idea.

To give credit where credit is due (and because not everyone has read our post about how early to arrive at the airport), the TSA does its best to give you an idea of how long you can expect to wait at their security checkpoint. For better or for worse, the MyTSA app has gotten really good at telling you how long the approximate waits are for the TSA security checkpoint at your U.S. airport of choice.

Getting through the airport SHOULD work quickly and efficiently. That being said, as the old saying goes, ca-ca happens, and sometimes there are delays.

Sometimes the delays are because there are just too many people. It could be a holiday season. It might be a mass exodus after a special event like the Super Bowl. Sometimes it’s just because the airport is in the midst of construction and cars simply can’t get through.

But sometimes a long delay is specifically because of something that happened at TSA.

  • Crowds. Just like at the rest of the airport, if there are big crowds at TSA, that’s going to slow down everyone.
  • An emergency. I remember when someone jumped off the on-site Hyatt at MCO. The Hyatt faces TSA; the checkpoint was closed for quite some time.
  • You get to the checkpoint and something happens. Your ID is gone. You have SSSS on your boarding pass. You forgot you had a gun with you (I can’t believe it either but yeah, it apparently does happen). Something (or everything) on you has to be re-screened.

If the delay is enough, being stuck at TSA for “X” amount of time could cause you to miss your flight.

Are you entitled to a refund?

In a word, no.

This page has things the U.S. Dep’t of Transportation says make you eligible for a refund and the things that make you ineligible.

The airlines’ stance

As far as the airlines are concerned, if you don’t show up to the gate in time, you’re a no-show. And that counts even if you checked in. They don’t care if your reason for being late was TSA; if you’re not there, you’re not there. You’re a no-show.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, heads up that if you’re officially a “no-show” in their eyes, besides canceling your ticket, they’ll also cancel the rest of your itinerary. And they may or may not continue to send your checked luggage to your final destination. Good times.

But anyway, if you’re a no-show, you can’t be compensated, even if it was because of the TSA.

The TSA’s stance

The TSA also has no plans to offer you compensation if you miss your flight, even if it’s TSA’s fault.

TSA says you can file a claim if you’re injured or your property is lost or damaged during the security screening process. They say nothing about compensation because you missed your flight because of their processes.

What You Can Do to Avoid TSA-Related Delays

Most of what you can do is pro-active so that you’re not stuck at TSA for an inordinate amount of time.

  • Make sure you’ve taken care of anything and everything that could get you delayed at the checkpoint. Ensure you have your ID. If you typically carry a gun, make sure you leave it and all bullets at home (or pack it all as allowed). Be aware of the things that could flag your bags (including your medication) or could cause you to have to go through secondary screening.
  • If you seem to always get SSSS on your boarding pass, follow these instructions.
  • And finally, give yourself PLENTY of time, so if you’re delayed at TSA, you’ll (hopefully) still make your plane.

Of course, if there’s some sort of airport-wide emergency, that’s a whole other ballgame and what would or wouldn’t be done then would probably be specific to the circumstances at hand.

Feature Photo: quinnanya / flickr / CC BY SA-2.0

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