Airlines Ordered To Refund Customers For Canceled Flights
PAUL: So, in case you hadn't heard, the federal government has ordered airlines to refund customers for canceled flights.</s>BLACKWELL: An airline industry group, says carriers are flying about half their schedules and only about one in ten of the seats are filled. CNN Business Correspondent, Alison Kosik is with us now. Alison, good morning to you. Government received this massive number of complaints about canceled flights. What are they doing about it?</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning Victor and Christi. Yes, and so, it's the Department of Transportation that actually got inundated with so many complaints from customers who are looking to fly on airlines. That now, the federal government is stepping in and telling airlines, look, if you go ahead and cancel flights or significantly delay a flight, you can't give a credit or a voucher to the customer. You have to give a refund, and by the way, give the refund in a timely manner. You see as the economy has been put on pause, a demand for flights has plummeted. So, we've seen airlines cut their schedules back dramatically and they've gone ahead and canceled flights, but they've given credits and vouchers. So, as far as right now, no more. It means the airlines have to give -- they have to give an actual refund, they have to give money back to the customer. Now, there is one caveat here, the rules don't apply to customers who decide on their own that they don't want to fly, let's say because of the coronavirus. But, by the way, the airlines are on the hook for a lot of money, $35 billion in credits and refunds are owed to customers, customers worldwide just this quarter. Victor and Christi?</s>PAUL: All righty. Hey, Alison, the federal government's program to help small businesses started yesterday. Understand and encountered a litany of problems. What do you know?</s>KOSIK: Yes, I heard words like chaotic. I heard that it was kind of like a wild, wild, west. Look, this government program by the federal government was a huge portion of the stimulus bill. $350 billion in loan expected to go out to small businesses. These are businesses with 500 employees or fewer. And they can get -- if they're eligible, they can get loans at a one percent interest rate, or they can be loans that can be forgiven if they don't lay off workers, and they don't reduce pay of their workers. But the thing is, there are lots of questions whether this, this was even ready for primetime. Because, you know, from the banks who look to lend the money to the small business, because there was just a lot of confusion, a lot of frustration, and I didn't get to the technical problems with the application process. I mean, the U.S. Treasury is telling banks to go ahead and make these loans, but banks are concerned about being on the hook. How are they going to recapitalize? Who is going to take on the risk? These questions from what I'm hearing from banks, they aren't being directly answered. And then the small businesses. There are huge hurdles to try to get these loans. They've got to go online, fill out this application. But even doing that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get that loan. One example, a small business went to a bank, they said they can't go ahead and give the loan, so they went to another bank who said, now, they have a requirement that the business had to have had previous business wick that banked in order to get that loan. So, a lot of questions. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, tweeting yesterday. He actually praised the first day of the program, which once again was yesterday, saying that more lenders should be available on Monday. Victor and Christi?</s>BLACKWELL: Alison, before we let you go, the question now about when a neighbors -- when our friends, people who are not in small business, they will get their checks, the $1,200. Steve Mnuchin, says it will be a matter of weeks. What's the truth here about when these checks will be sent out?</s>KOSIK: So, we -- CNN has learned in a memo from Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee that these direct deposits should go about during the week of April 13th. So, that's -- you know, about 10 days from now. But we're also learning that it could take a total of 20 weeks for all the payments to be distributed, which means tens of millions of Americans are going to have to wait for this badly needed assistance. And it looks like it's going to come in ways. So, during the week of April 13th, the IRS is going to send out those 60 million payments via direct deposit. And then, three weeks later, during the week of May 4th, then, will come those paper checks. Now, if you filed your tax return in the past with the IRS, but you didn't give your banking information, you will have an opportunity to go on a secure portal on irs.gov. But the thing is, that portal is not going to be available until the middle of April. Once again, though, if you can't keep your banking information to the IRS, they will go ahead and just mail you the check, but it could take up to 20 weeks. Victor and Christi?</s>BLACKWELL: Alison Kosik, thank you.</s>PAUL: Thanks, Alison. So, you know, fewer planes in the air means that we aren't getting as much data about the weather. Something maybe you didn't think about, but a lot of people are. I've gotten a couple of tweets from people who are saying, what does this mean for hurricane season which is coming up? We'll talk about that. Stay close.