US airline complaints have gone up by 270%

According to a Department of Transportation (DOT) air travel consumer report, airline complaints have jumped by a staggering 270% in June 2022 compared to June 2019. There were also more complaints in the first half of this year than all of 2019.

As expected, there’s a wide range of reasons for the complaints. 29% of complaints made mentioned flight cancellations, delays, and schedule changes. Another 24% of the complaints were related to refunds. 

Between May and June of this year alone, passenger complaints went up by nearly 35%. That increase makes a lot of sense, given that in June more than 3,000 flights were canceled and 19,000 flights were delayed. 

A majority of the complaints in June – over 57% – were made against US carriers while only about 34% were against foreign airlines. The high rate of delays and cancellations shows no signs of stopping, but the DOT has been putting pressure on airlines to be more diligent about refunds. They are even in the process of creating a new dashboard to show passengers what airlines owe them when travel issues arise.