New rules established by the Department of Transportation(DOT) assert that airlines will soon need to instantly refund passengers upon flightcancelations, delays, or making significant changes; regardless of the reasons.

The refund, DOT states, will be required to be done in theform of cash or the original form of payment, and not vouchers. Passengerscould also be offered alternatives such as travel credit, other transportation options,or another flight offered by the airline.

DOT highlights “significant changes” as some specific situations,in which cases passengers will be expected to be refunded. These scenarios canbe, for instance, changes in the flight’s arrival or departure time by three ormore hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights, or achange in the departure or arrival airport.

In addition to these rules, airlines will also be requiredto refund for passengers’ baggage fee in case their paid checked bags are significantlydelayed. In such a situation, the passenger will first need to file amishandled baggage report and if they don’t receive their luggage within 12hours of their domestic flight arriving at the gate (15–30 hours in case of internationalflight), they will be refunded.

Another refund rules applies to absence of delivery of paidin-flight extras, (such as seat assignments, Wi-Fi, and entertainment). And airlinesmust let passengers know the additional fees for checked bags, cancellingreservations and other things, before they purchase their tickets.

DOT’s new policies are expected to come into effect over aspan of 6 -12 months from now.