This is more of an FYI for all you dopers that do a lot of traveling. I was at JFK taking a flight to Chicago this morning and my flight was delayed three hours. The airline was Delta. Well I had to be here for a meeting and wouldn’t ya know it the guy behind me says to the 21 year old ticketing agent. Can we utilize ‘rule 240’ Absolutely sir she said and we were immediately booked on American airlines, and an hour later we were in the air on our way to O’Hare. I called the wife and she could not beleive me, I can’t wait to get home and show here the recipt…
sigh ok, I’ll ask. What is “rule 240” supposed to be anyway?
Bear in mind, they have a responsibility to get you to your destination within a certain number of hours. Since Delta and American have ticketing agreements with each other, as do most other carriers except Southwest and a few others, Delta endorsed their ticket so that American can claim the value of their flight coupon from Delta.
Since the fall of airline regulation, “rule 240” doesn’t actually exist.
However, the terminology is still used.
Very good explanation of this with links to airline-specific info at http://french-property-digest.com/number1/rule240.html. Pick your favorite search engine and search for “Rule 240”!!
Ah, an unadventurous soul who wants nothing of search engines!
“Rule 240” is actually not a rule (not since the airline industry was deregulated) but rather a guideline that pretty much all airlines follow. Generally, if a flight is cancelled/delayed so much as to inconvenience you AND it’s entirely the airline’s fault (not just weather problems, etc.), their duty is to…
(a) put you on another of their flights to the same destination if there is room;
(b) failing that, put you on another airline’s flight at no extra charge;
© failing that, refund your money, even on nonrefundable tickets.
Depending on the length of the delay, meal vouchers/hotel stays might also be involved.
Well, I’ll bite.
Like many common carriers - e.g., railways, buses, and trains – airlines are regulated by “tariff.” What this means is that each airline files a set of rules in Washington, and those rules set forth the rights and obligations of passengers.
For most (all?) airlines, Rule 240 is the part of their tariff that deals with delayed and cancelled flights. For example, Rule 240 typically provides that if a flight is cancelled due to weather, the passenger is entitled to either a full refund or to be put on the next available flight. Passengers typically have more rights in the case of other problems, such as a cancellation due to a mechanical problem with the plane. In such a case, the tariff might provide that the passenger is entitled to ride on a flight of a competing airline and be reimbursed for the ticket price.
There are two practical upshots of all this.
First, since flight delays and cancellations are so common, if you feel energetic, it makes sense to study Rule 240 for your airline to know your rights before you fly. Surprisingly, tariffs are not so easy to find, although there used to be a web page that had them.
Second, if your flight is delayed or cancelled, and you are asking (demanding?) some kind of help from an airline representative, you might try mentioning “Rule 240” and see if it gets you anywhere.
On preview, it looks like others have beaten me to the punch. But I’ll submit this anyways, and see if people agree that Rule 240 varies from airline to airline.
Rule 240 absolutely varies from airline to airline. (Southwest technically doesn’t even have one.) The link I provided above gives each airline’s individual Rule 240 policy.