US investigating airlines over slow refunds during pandemic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Department is detailing efforts it’s making to help airline customers who didn’t get refunds after their flights were canceled during the early days of the pandemic last year. The department says in a new report that it investigated 20 airlines over failures to issue prompt refunds to customers, and 18 of those probes are still going on. A probe of United Airlines was dropped in January after the airline took steps to give refunds to “thousands” of customers, and the Transportation Department is seeking a $25.5 million fine against Air Canada. The Canadian carrier is appealing. The department says it got more than 30,000 complaints over airline refunds.