> My 11:30 pm connecting flight out of Los Angeles International Airport was delayed by 24 hours, forcing me to rest in the airport.

If you ever find yourself in this position, just leave the airport and get a motel room. The US doesn't even have exit immigration, so it's not like they were stuck on the wrong side with a used visa.

The OP's About page notes that they're currently unemployed and living off savings, so I'll cut them some slack, although I'm not entirely sure how that's compatible with international travel from New Zealand to the US.

I also find it incredible that the airline can just delay a flight by 24 hours and offer no compensation or accommodation whatsoever, since in most of the world this would absolutely not, ahem, fly.

As I understand it, they’re only legally required to offer it in the US if the delay is caused by mechanical, staffing, or other issues in their control, but not if e.g. outgoing fights flights are grounded due to weather. They do tend to give lodging at least if you’re stuck at a layover even for weather though. But they also usually try to get out of their obligation to pay for bumping people off over booked flights by reverse auctioning with company credit.

In the US it basically comes down to, is the delay the airline's fault? If no (eg weather, ATC), then nothing. However, most US travel credit card comes with trip delay insurance which would cover the cost of an overnight stay, regardless of the reason of the delay.

It doesn’t in the US either. There’s technically no law requiring it, but every major airline provides accommodation for delays/cancellations. Unless they were doing some kind of self-transfer shenanigans with separate tickets, they should’ve gotten a hotel.

They absolutely will compensate you. Often they will just give you a voucher. I've even been compensated to pay for a rental car to drive myself home when things were REALLY hosed during this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Southwest_Airlines_schedu...

In the US, you can just get a refund if you decide not to fly (by law) or a rebooking.

Premium airlines usually offer you compensation: a meal, and a voucher for a hotel stay, depending on the cause of the delay. Very likely miles or voucher for a future flight.

If your flight is to or from EU, you are entitled to more compensation by law IIRC.