I love getting inside info from flight attendants about what really goes on behind the scenes at airports.

And this is a pretty big one!

A flight attendant posted a video on TikTok and claimed that some flight delays aren’t actually what they seem…

Her name is Cierra and in her video, she said, “Commercial airlines know when a flight should have gotten canceled, but they’ll still put it on a delay, and they won’t tell you how long it’s going to take you, because there’s actually a loophole in the FAA rules.”

Cierra continued, “Per FAA federal regulation, if a flight has to take a delay and the reason for that delay is ‘outside of the airline’s control,’ like weather or an employee strike, whatever the case may be, then the FAA has made it so where the airlines don’t have to give refunds to their passengers. However, if a flight is canceled, it doesn’t matter what reason they give—they’re still obligated to pay each passenger a full refund.”

Cierra said that to prevent paying a full refund, airlines will continue the delay until a fix can be implemented even though the flight should have been canceled.

But Cierra has some advice about how to deal with this.

She said that people should look for three replacement flights from their current airport to their final destination and they don’t even have to be with the same airline. She also said to book three additional passengers instead of your actual party size and there will likely be more seats for you on the flights that pop up.

Cierra then said people should look up the policy for delays for their airline and talk to the gate agent at the airport and say they’d like to be booked on one of the three flights they found and, if necessary, tell the agent that there are extra seats on those flights and they know the airline’s policy on delays.

She concluded, “The gate agent or the customer service agent has nothing to argue against you, and they have to rebook your flight.”

Let’s take a look at her video.

@cierra_mistt

#stitch with @Taco reacts flight attendant secrets (part 6) ✈️

♬ original sound – Cierra Mistt

Here’s what folks had to say.

One person said they laws need to change in regard to this.

Another viewer said you might get a meal voucher if you play nice.

And this TikTokker dealt with something like this recently.

Good luck traveling out there!

We all know how things can go sideways without any warning.