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(NEW YORK) — Kaitlin Armstrong, a fugitive wanted in the murder of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson, has been captured in Costa Rica after a 43-day search, authorities announced Thursday.

Armstrong, 34, was arrested Wednesday at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas, the U.S. Marshals Service said. She will be deported and returned to the U.S.

Austin police had issued a warrant on May 17 for the arrest of Armstrong on a first-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting of Wilson, 25, who they determined was romantically linked to Armstrong’s boyfriend, professional cyclist Colin Strickland.

Wilson was found bleeding and unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds at a friend’s home in Austin on May 11.

A car resembling Armstrong’s 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was captured on surveillance footage from a neighboring residence stopping outside the friend’s home the night of the shooting, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

When police interviewed Armstrong on May 12, she was “confronted with video evidence of her vehicle” but “she had no explanation as to why it was in the area and did not make any denials surrounding the statements,” the affidavit stated. After further questioning, Armstrong requested to leave, according to the affidavit.

The U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force located Armstrong’s Jeep Grand Cherokee last week. Armstrong sold the vehicle on May 13 to a CarMax dealership in Austin for $12,200 before flying out of an Austin airport on May 14, authorities said. Investigators believe she then boarded a Southwest Airlines flight to Houston Hobby Airport, before connecting on a flight to New York LaGuardia Airport.

Investigators learned Armstrong was provided transportation to Newark Liberty International Airport on May 18 and, using a fraudulent passport, boarded a United Airlines flight that day to San Jose, Costa Rica, according to U.S. Marshals.

The U.S. Marshals had appealed to the public in their search for Armstrong, a realtor and yoga instructor, and had offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.

It is unclear if Armstrong has an attorney.

The Austin woman accused of killing world class cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson May 11 has been captured in Costa Rica.https://t.co/fz9FiUyWjQ pic.twitter.com/jkRzqqgv90

— U.S. Marshals (@USMarshalsHQ) June 30, 2022

The Marshals Service fugitive case had been elevated the investigation to “major case status” early on, “which likely played a key role in her capture after a 43-day run,” Susan Pamerleau, the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas, said in a statement. “This is an example of combining the resources of local, state, federal and international authorities to apprehend a violent fugitive, bring an end to that run and hopefully a sense of closure to the victim’s family.”

Wilson, a rising elite cyclist, was visiting Austin from San Francisco for a gravel bike race. She was found shot hours after meeting up with Strickland, police said. Austin police said at the time that the shooting did not appear to be random and they had a person of interest in the incident.

Strickland told police he hadn’t seen Armstrong since May 13, according to the affidavit. He said he has been cooperating fully with detectives in the investigation.

“There is no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime,” Strickland said in a statement to ABC News Austin affiliate KVUE. “I am sorry, and I simply cannot make sense of this unfathomable tragedy.”

Wilson’s family expressed relief following news of Armstrong’s capture.

“We’re relieved to know this phase of uncertainty is now behind us, and we trust that justice will prevail,” the family said in a statement.

ABC News’ Lisa Sivertsen contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Eli Lilly has announced the U.S. government is buying an additional 150,000 courses of the only monoclonal antibody therapy left that still holds up against all COVID-19 variants of concern, including BA.2.

The new purchase of the therapy, called bebtelovimab, is costing the government roughly $275 million.

This comes after the White House has repeatedly warned the money is running out to buy new vaccines and treatments, including antiviral therapies like Paxlovid and the monoclonal antibodies, without additional relief funds.

This new purchase was paid for out of the $10 billion in COVID funding, which the White House diverted earlier this month to pay for more vaccines and treatments.

Officials said at the time they were left with “no choice” but to shift those dollars, since Congress has not yet approved additional funding.

That redirected $10 billion included $300 million to buy more monoclonal antibody treatments — a cache now all but exhausted by Wednesday’s purchase.

The U.S.’s existing supply of this treatment, including the new purchase, is expected to meet present demand through late August, an Eli Lilly spokesperson told ABC.

Previously this spring, and before the White House diverted the $10 billion in funds, President Joe Biden said the U.S. could run out of monoclonal supplies “by the end of May,” if further funding wasn’t secured, and that planned orders would have to be canceled.

In March, ABC News obtained internal documents showing the administration planned to start significantly cutting the number of viral treatments available to states, and would begin reclaiming and reabsorbing unused doses for later redistribution, in light of the relief funding that had stalled in Congress.

Delivery of this new order of 150,000 courses is supposed to finish no later than Aug. 5, Eli Lilly said. That’s the date Lilly will get them to the Health and Human Services Department, which will then be responsible for allocating doses to states.

There is an option in this new purchase agreement for the government to order an additional 350,000 doses, which would need to be exercised “no later than Sept. 14,” Eli Lilly said.

“Lilly and its collaborators have partnered closely with the federal government throughout the pandemic to ensure broad and equitable access to our monoclonal antibodies,” Eli Lilly’s chair and CEO David Ricks said in a statement to ABC News. “While Congress works toward additional COVID-19 funding, Lilly and the U.S. government will continue to work together to support the availability of bebtelovimab to maximize equity and accessibility in the U.S. market.”

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(NEW YORK) — This Fourth of July is expected to be the second-busiest for travel since 2000, with 47.9 million Americans taking trips, according to AAA.

Here’s what to know before you head to the airport or hit the highways.

Air travel

Friday, July 1 is shaping up to be the busiest day for air travel during the holiday weekend. Monday, July 4 will likely be the lightest, according to AAA booking data.

The top domestic destinations for the holiday this year are: Orlando; Seattle; New York; Anaheim, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Ft. Lauderdale; Las Vegas; Honolulu; Denver; and Chicago, according to AAA.

Fourth of July airfare is up 45% compared to 2019, now at an average of $437 for a domestic roundtrip, according to Hopper.

But the best prices for domestic trips can be found with a quick weekend trip, flying on Saturday, July 2 and returning on Monday, July 4, according to Hopper.

Road travel

The afternoons of Thursday, June 30 and Friday, July 1 are anticipated to be the most crowded days on the road as commuters leave work early and mix with holiday travelers, according to AAA.

If you’re going to brave the roads on Friday, before 10 a.m. or after 9 p.m. is best, according to analytics company INRIX. On Thursday, before 7 a.m. or after 8 p.m. is best.

July 3 and July 4 are expected to be the best days for traffic, according to INRIX.

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(WASHINGTON) — Police have released images of a person of interest wanted in connection to a mass shooting in Washington, D.C., that killed a 15-year-old boy.

The June 19 shooting took place during a festival called “Moechella,” which was celebrating Juneteenth, officials said.

At about 8:48 p.m., as police were telling organizers to shut the event down, gunshots rang out, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department said.

Teenager Chase Poole was killed and three others, including a D.C. police officer, were shot and injured, police said.

On Thursday, the authorities posted video of a person of interest they said they’re looking to identify.

MPD seeks a Person of Interest in a Homicide offense that occurred on 6/19/22, in the 2000 block of 14th Street, NW.

Have info? Call (202) 727-9099/text 50411

Video: https://t.co/czZcxSnwoN pic.twitter.com/nzGivqfIQP

— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) June 30, 2022

“The young man in this photo, you may have run from U Street. But you cannot run from accountability, and you cannot hide from the citizens of the District of Columbia,” D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said at a news conference Thursday. “I’m asking anyone who recognizes this young man to please reach out to us.”

Poole is one of 651 children ages 12 to 17 who have died from gun violence this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Another 176 children that were 11 years old or younger have died from guns.

ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Toxic toads are returning to South Florida in growing numbers as the region falls back into its warm, rainy summer season, experts say, and they want people to be aware of the risk to pets.

The bufo toad, also known as the cane toad, is a common summer sight in South Florida, but experts in the area believe the species is returning in larger numbers than in previous years.

Jeannine Tilford, owner of local toad management company Toad Busters, said that the changing climate has impacted the population of bufo toads in the area.

Tilford told ABC News that because the region’s temperatures did not drop as consistently as they usually do in winter months, toads that usually would have been too weak or young to survive the winter in the past were able to make it to spring this year.

A main component of Toad Busters’ work is moving toads to habitats where they aren’t a danger to other animals, especially dogs, which can be killed by licking or eating the toads.

Tilford explained that the organization has been expanding west in Florida, and establishing more habitats with properly contained areas and lakes.

She said Toad Busters has shown over the last seven years that management is possible by safely collecting the toads.

The key to containment, Tilford said, is consistency.

“As long as you maintain it, we go from collecting hundreds one night to 30 the next. If you let it go for eight months, a couple cycles go by and they reproduce into large numbers,” Tilford told ABC News.

Tilford said that an influx of people relocating from states like California, New York and New Jersey to Florida has further contributed to dogs dying due to the poisonous toads.

“We had a lot more dog deaths this year,” Tilford said. “People don’t know about the toads, let their dogs out in the backyard and it only takes a couple of minutes.”

Tilford said the best thing for new residents is education.

“They need to understand what we have here, what [the toads] look like and what to do if you have a dog and a backyard,” she said.

Dogs are more likely than cats to try and attack or eat a bufo toad, which poisons the dog, data from the University of Florida showed. Depending on the amount of poison ingested, symptoms often include pink or red gums, drooling or frothing at the mouth, pawing at the mouth, seizures and sometimes cardiac arrest.

Tilford told ABC News that residents shouldn’t let their dogs loose in the backyard, especially during evening hours, as the toads are nocturnal.

She added that if a dog does have contact with a toad, immediately wipe out the dog’s mouth with a wet rag and take the dog to the nearest emergency animal hospital.

If there are bufo toads on a resident’s property, Tilford said the homeowner should reach out to have them removed from the area and they should install barrier fencing. While they aren’t deadly to humans, they can cause skin and eye irritation and should not be handled without gloves.

Bufo toads can be found in urban, suburban and agricultural areas, most commonly in yards, around buildings or near canals and ponds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The commission added that bufo toads breed year-round in standing water, streams, canals and ditches.

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(NEW YORK) — After a remarkable career spanning nearly 50 years, STEM trailblazer, physicist and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is retiring.

In 1973, Jackson graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a doctorate in theoretical elementary particle physics, making her the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in any field from the renowned university. She was also one of the first Black women to receive a bachelor’s degree from the school.

Her time at MIT set the stage for her professional life, putting her on the path to help others along the way, Jackson told ABC News. She described how the events of the last 50 years helped shape not only her work but also how to help be an example for others.

“I knew when I looked around, there weren’t very many African Americans when I was an undergrad, and especially as a graduate,” Jackson said. She added that doing the best work she could in her own career could help guide others.

Jackson said she looks back on her life through “windows in time” marked by historical events that led her to create some of her own.

Jackson recalls feeling close to the politics that so greatly influenced her childhood. Though she lived in a predominantly white neighborhood, she could not attend the segregated school closest to her home. The landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, however, changed that.

“It was an interesting experience,” she said. “One could say it was more competitive because it was a wider range of people with whom one competed.”

Just a few years later, the launch of Sputnik 1 intensified the Space Race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

“That made the public policymakers and politicians nervous. And so the curriculum in the public schools was changed to give much more emphasis to science and math,” Jackson said of how she was further immersed in the field.

Her focus secured her two scholarships to MIT. Though she initially thought she’d pursue math, Latin and Greek, she soon became interested in quantum mechanics, where she excelled despite the social challenges she faced.

“At MIT, it wasn’t always friendly,” she said. “If I sat at a table alone, no one else would come and join many times, but if I went and joined the table, then people would suddenly be finishing up their meals…and so in that sense, it was very isolating.”

Undeterred, she found community in the regional chapter of the historically Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta. She would go on to serve as president of the sorority for two years. She said it taught her “resilience, inventiveness, resourcefulness” while giving her an outlet since MIT did not have its own chapter at the time.

Near the end of her senior year, in April 1968, Jackson was driving back from a graduate school visit when she learned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot in Memphis. Hearing the news of his death made her think about how she could make a difference.

“I thought about how quiet I’ve been as an undergrad. And I felt there was something that I needed to do and should do at MIT to get more African American and minority students in and to become more hospitable for such students. And so in the end, I decided to stay at MIT,” Jackson told ABC News.

Taking action, Jackson co-founded the school’s Black Student Union, which was instrumental in starting Project Interphase, which is a summer program designed to help transition new students into life at MIT. The program, which still runs today, evolved from a task force on educational opportunities that sought to expand the applicant pool and promote diversity at MIT.

After years of making strides in her postdoctoral work at research and development company Bell Labs, and particle physics laboratory Fermilab, Jackson was appointed Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by President Bill Clinton in 1995.

She returned to academia in 1999 as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s 18th president to create an institution with the “global reach and global impact” that it has today. In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Jackson as co-chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

From notable firsts to nuclear frameworks, Jackson has left her mark on the world. In reflecting on what it all has meant for her, she told ABC News that what she holds close is her father’s memory and the impact her work has had on others.

“It’s about being able to walk so you can carry someone else,” she said. “The more influential the positions I’ve had and the more powerful they’ve become, the more I’ve been able to help people develop open doors and help people step through. That is what’s meaningful to me.”

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(NEW YORK) — Ten gun distributors sold tens of thousands of illegal, unfinished frames and receivers later fashioned into untraceable handguns and assault-style rifles in violation of a New York public nuisance law, a new lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

The defendants include some of the nation’s leading gun distributors, including Brownells, Indie Guns, Primary Arms and Rock Slide.

The lawsuit, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accused the gun distributors of flooding the streets with ghost guns — firearms that come packaged in parts, which can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace.

“While families mourned loved ones lost to senseless gun violence, gun sellers avoided accountability for the illegal and dangerous weapons they sold,” James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Today’s lawsuit holds 10 gun sellers accountable for fueling the gun violence crisis and endangering New Yorkers.”

Law enforcement officials have said ghost guns, created using unfinished frames and receivers, are partially responsible for the surge in gun violence and gun-related crime, especially on the streets of American cities.

Unfinished frames and receivers lack serial numbers and can be used to make untraceable guns at home. Unfinished receivers hold together the upper, lower, and rear portions of a semiautomatic rifle. Purchasers of unfinished receivers need only to make a few changes with a common drill press to transform an unfinished receiver into an operational one.

In some instances, the defendants sold unfinished frames and receivers to consumers with criminal records or other disqualifying conditions, the lawsuit claims.

Brownells and two other gun distributors, 80 Percent Arms and KM Tactical, delivered orders to an individual living in New York who was a member of a far-right militia-style organization with a history of political violence, according to the attorney general’s office. New York Police Department investigators later recovered two unserialized completed guns, 11 high-capacity magazines, four additional unfinished frames and receivers, as well as other gunmaking tools, from where he was staying, the attorney general’s office said.

According to the lawsuit, in May, an individual with a criminal background, who was legally ineligible to own or operate a firearm, received shipments from Brownells, after previously receiving shipments from Glockstore and Primary Arms. That same month, that individual allegedly used a ghost gun in a triple shooting that killed one person and injured two others in the Bronx.

Several businesses named in the lawsuit tout that their products can be acquired without government registration or “oversight.”

80 Percent Arms, writes on its website, “This means no RED TAPE including: NO Registering an 80% Lower, NO Transfer fees like a typical firearm, NO FFL [Federal Firearms License] Required, Ships right to your door.”

Glockstore writes on its website, “You can build a completely legal handgun without any ‘government oversight’ aka interference…No fuss, no muss, no registration, no records.”

Christian Waugh, an attorney for Indie Guns, of Orlando, Florida, called the lawsuit a “groundless attempt to once again burden and limit the rights of New York City residents.”

“[This] is absolutely a politically-motivated effort to vilify a small business that has violated no federal, state, or municipal law,” Waugh said in a statement to ABC News. “Craft guns are not a problem. Like cars or baseball bats, they are almost always used for legal purposes. Sometimes, they can be misused by a person with bad intent.”

Pete Brownell, chairman of the Iowa-based Brownells, said in a statement to ABC News, “As one of the nation’s oldest, family-owned firearms retailers, Brownells has always taken its compliance obligations very seriously and we look forward to addressing these claims through the legal system.”

ABC News did not immediately receive a comment from the other eight defendants in response to email inquiries.

The lawsuit alleged that the distributors have endangered public health and safety and failed to make sure their products do not fall into improper hands. In addition to restitution and damages, the lawsuit is seeking to ban the defendants from selling, shipping and distributing unfinished frames or receivers in New York.

New York City also simultaneously filed a lawsuit against five of the defendants named in the state’s lawsuit seeking to halt the sale and delivery of illegal gun components into the city.

The lawsuits come days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law limiting concealed handguns in public.

The state’s suit marks the first time the newly enacted Public Nuisance law is being invoked, according to the attorney general’s office. The statute allows gun distributors and manufacturers to be held liable for actions that harm public safety.

In December, the National Shooting Sports Foundation filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the new law from being enforced. A preliminary injunction was ultimately denied last month, and the plaintiffs have since filed a notice of appeal.

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(NEW YORK) — Last week, the United States became one of the only Western countries to roll back abortion access in the 21st century after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The ruling means about half of American women may lose access to legal abortions.

Abortion rights groups and activists say women in the U.S. can look to Poland for a glimpse of what their futures might be — and what can happen in the direst of circumstances.

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws of any European country, with exceptions only if the mother’s life or health is in danger, or if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

“Because of the law, which is extremely restrictive in practice, we are facing almost a virtual ban on abortion,” Irene Donadio, senior lead on strategy and partnerships at the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network, told ABC News. “It’s really affecting the life and the health of all women.”

Poland’s abortion history

Prior to 1932, abortion was illegal in Poland with no exceptions. That same year, the Criminal Code was amended to legalize abortion for if the mother’s health was at risk or if the pregnancy was the result of a criminal act.

This law remained in place until 1956 — through World War II and Poland coming under Soviet occupation — after which abortion was decriminalized. Three years later, the country’s minister of health allowed abortion to be available upon request.

During this time, more than 100,000 abortions occurred annually in the country, for about 10 years, according to data from the Council of Ministers.

After the fall of communism, the Catholic Church began exhibiting pressure on Poland — a heavily Catholic country — to ban abortion.

The number of annual abortions began to fall and, in 1993, lawmakers tightened the abortion law, only allowing it for certain exceptions.

The year the law was law passed, abortions in Poland dropped to 1,240 per year, data shows.

In October 2020, Poland’s constitutional court found that abortion due to fetal malformations was unconstitutional, and a ban for abortion in these circumstances went into effect in January 2021.

“Doctors and providers are really scared to help women in need, and this means that even women who are experiencing a miscarriage or women who are discovering that they are pregnant and want prenatal care, they are denied proper, decent care,” Donadio said.

“They are abandoned by the system, so what we see is a terrible law that is harming women, harming families, and harming society,” she continued.

Annual abortions fell to their lowest point in 2001 at 124 but have since risen. In 2020, the latest year for which data is available, Poland recorded 1,076 annual abortions.

Further, local non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, such as the Foundation for Women and Family Planning FEDERA, estimate that between 80,000 and 200,000 Polish women have abortions every year, including those performed abroad or illegally.

“Just because we have such a law, it doesn’t make the number of abortions lower,” Jolanta Budzowska, a personal injury attorney based in Krakow who specializes in medical malpractice, told ABC News. “They’ll just go take care of it elsewhere.”

The case of Izabela Sajbor

Even though the law is supposed to allow for abortions to be performed if the woman’s life is in danger, women have died, activists say.

“The women who died in Poland, they didn’t die because of backstreet abortion, they died in hospitals, surrounded by doctors, by midwives and by nurses who were paralyzed by the law,” Donadio said.

This is perhaps no better highlighted than in the case of Izabela Sajbor, a 30-year-old pregnant woman who died in September 2021.

Budzowska, who represents the family, told ABC News that Sajbor was in her second trimester when she was told her baby had Edwards’ syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes physical growth delays and birth defects.

Most fetuses don’t survive full-term, and so the mothers either miscarry or give birth to stillborn babies, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Additionally, the fetus had other severe defects, Budzowska said, but doctors refused to perform an abortion because a heartbeat could still be detected.

“Her fetus had no chance to live,” Budzowska said. “Everybody knew the fetus had no chance to live, and the doctors hesitated to do anything.”

Sajbor was admitted to the hospital when she was 22 weeks pregnant after her water broke prematurely. Doctors waited to perform a Cesarean section until the fetus’s heart stopped beating, Budzowska said.

By the time the fetus died and Sajbor was taken to the operating room, she had developed sepsis, according to Budzowska. She soon after went into cardiac arrest and died.

“This law has had a strong, cold, chilling effect on doctors,” Budzowska said, explaining that doctors often choose not to act because they are worried about losing their right to practice or facing criminal charges. “This legal situation leaves women in real danger. Izabela asked for help, and no one helped her.”

‘More women might die’

Activists say that since Sajbor’s death in 2021, at least two other women have died after being refused abortions and, although these deaths are rare, they say they are the result of what can happen in the worst-case scenarios.

“People shouldn’t die; that’s why [abortion] should be legal,” Marta Lempert, founder of the All-Poland Women’s Strike, who has been among the leaders for abortion rights in Poland, told ABC News. “The riskiest place in Poland you can go to is the hospital if you’re pregnant because you might not get out of there alive.”

Abortion rights supporters fear the same thing could occur in the U.S., either through illegal back-alley abortions or in hospitals by doctors too afraid to act.

“I am sorry to say, but I do believe that when you have such laws, women might die,” Donadio said. “And that is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“It will have a tragic impact not only leading to some women losing their lives, but [the laws are] terrorizing millions because the moment you become pregnant, there might be doctors that will not consider your life a priority if your health is at risk, because they will be too scared to be imprisoned,” she said.

“For me, that’s the most tragic effect of these laws that we will face in so many U.S. states,” Donadio added.

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(NEW YORK) — As chaos in the nation’s airports and airspace continues to wreak havoc during the busy summer season, many travelers are left wondering what their rights are during extreme flight delays and cancellations.

Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over Memorial Day weekend and 2,800 flights between June 15 to 17, blaming bad weather and staffing issues across the system. Tens of thousands of flights were delayed during the same periods, causing customers to miss connections and scrambling for alternative flights.

What are your rights?

Under federal law, consumers are entitled to a refund if the airline cancels a flight, regardless of the reason, and the consumer chooses not to travel.

Consumers are also entitled to a refund if an airline “made a significant schedule change and/or significantly delays a flight and the consumer chooses not to travel,” according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).

The hang-up — DOT has not defined what constitutes a “significant delay.” According to the agency, whether you are entitled to a refund depends on multiple factors, including the length of the delay, the length of the flight and “your particular circumstances.”

In most cases, airlines will first offer you a travel voucher for future travel, Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told ABC News.

“You do not have to click there and accept that travel voucher, because under federal law you’re entitled to a full cash refund,” Keyes said. “You may have to call the airline and demand to get that cash refund rather than the voucher.”

Keyes also said to contact the party you booked your travel with, whether that be the airline itself or a third-party like a travel agency.

“You have to go through whoever you booked your flight with. And so, if you booked it with a third party with an online travel agency, that’s who you’re going to have to chat with,” Keyes said. “The best practice is actually to book directly with the airline if the price is the same. Because when things go wrong, when they’re delays or cancelations, it’s far simpler.”

There are situations, however, where consumers are not entitled to a refund. According to DOT, travelers who purchase nonrefundable tickets, but are unable to travel for a personal reason, such as being sick or late to the airport, are not entitled to a refund.

What if your flight is oversold and you’re denied boarding?

On occasion, airlines may bump passengers from a trip when the flight is oversold. In cases such as this, airlines must first ask passengers to give up their seats voluntarily in exchange for compensation, according to DOT.

There is no limit on the amount of money or vouchers the airline can offer you, and passengers are free to negotiate.

If there aren’t enough volunteers in these situations, airlines can select passengers and involuntarily bump them off the flight. If you’re one of the unlucky few, the airline is required to compensate you in certain situations — including if the passenger had a confirmed reservation, the passenger checked into their flight on time, arrived to the gate on time, and if the airline cannot get you to your destination within one hour of your flight’s original arrival.

What if you decide to change your flight?

Consumers should know most U.S. carriers did away with change fees during the pandemic — meaning if you decide to change your flight, you’ll only have to pay the difference in fare.

For those flying this July 4th weekend — Delta Air Lines specifically is waiving all fare differences for travel between July 1 and 4 — meaning customers with flights booked on those dates can change their ticket at no extra cost.

Those customers will not incur any fare difference or change fee if they rebook flights between the same origin and destination and remain in the same cabin of service as originally booked, Delta said. The rebooked travel needs to take place by July 8, 2022.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — As Americans head to crowded airports for a revival of European summer vacations, it looks like next year will be more expensive for those headed to the European Union.

A 7 euro fee, translating to $7.42, is expected to go into effect in May 2023 for foreign visitors aged 18 to 70 years old as part of a new European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), according to the European Commission.

As part of the system, travelers will have to apply for authorization through the official website or app before their trip abroad.

ETIAS is intended to increase revenue for the EU and to create a central data repository on non-Europeans who visit the area.

“EU Member States’ border management authorities currently have little information about travellers exempt from visa requirements entering the EU,” Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency who will have a key role in the new system, said in a statement.

“ETIAS will therefore be an important means of addressing this information gap by supporting security screening and risk assessment of travellers, reinforcing the internal security of the Schengen Area,” the agency added.

The European Commission said that ETIAS will be a largely automated system used to identify security, irregular migration or high epidemic risks posed by visa-exempt visitors traveling to the Schengen States, which refers to 26 European countries including France, Italy, Germany and Greece.

ETIAS will also facilitate the crossing of borders for the vast majority of travelers who do not pose the aforementioned risks.

The European Commission said that most travelers who apply for the ETIAS authorization will be approved within minutes. The estimated 5% of travelers who aren’t, the commission said, could receive the travel authorization in up to 30 days.

Once granted, the authorization will be valid for three years or until the expiration date of an individual’s travel document, such as a passport.

The authorization will be checked by border guards along with other travel documents.

ETIAS was first proposed by the European Commission in 2016, and has since faced negotiations within the commission’s legislation. Now, the system will become enacted by mid-2023, the commission said.

“Our police officers and border guards need to have the right tools to do their jobs – keeping our citizens safe and our borders secure. ETIAS will pre-screen visa-free visitors for potential security problems, while the reinforced eu-LISA will allow us to continue to modernise EU-wide information systems for law enforcement and border management,” Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King said following the 2018 agreement by the commission to establish ETIAS.

ETIAS adds to the preexisting Schengen visa system, which did not require such authorization from visitors from at least fifty countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission began discussing the new system after it was found that an estimated 30 million visitors came to the EU without being required to have a Schengen visa.

ETIAS has similar characteristics to the United States’ Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which is available to travelers from countries granted a Visa Waiver Program.

In May, the fee for ESTA increased from $14 to $21, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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