TAMPA, Fla. — Thanksgiving week is known to break travel records for airlines, but rough weather expected in different parts of the country could be cause for some travel delays.

Parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes regions have snow in the forecast early in the week while the east coast has its share of weather concerns on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

What You Need To Know

  •  DOT's new rule creates standard protocol for all airlines regarding refunds

  •  Refunds must be issued if flight is canceled and customer doesn't want to take re-booked flight 

  •  Refunds must be in the form of original payments 

  • READ MORE: DOT’s Automatic Refund Rule

This is the first holiday travel season that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s new rule is in effect that requires airlines to give automatic refunds to passengers with serious flight disruptions.

As of late October, airlines now have consistent standards and must give refunds in the original form of payment within 20 days or less.

A passenger can receive the automatic refund if they choose not to fly on a re-booked flight and choose not to accept flight vouchers or miles as alternative compensation.

Baggage fees can also be refunded if your bag is not delivered within 12 hours of a domestic flight arriving at the gate, or within 30 hours of an international flight arriving.

In addition to having rules on what constitutes a refund, all airlines now have to use the same definition of "significant" delay, which is defined by the D.O.T as delayed by three hours for domestic flights and 6 hours for international flights.

Under the new rule, airlines must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used.

The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees.