Passengers demand from airlines: Reinstate the Reciprocity Rule

Right now, when an airline flight is delayed, the cost of delays is dumped on the passenger.

Right now, when an airline flight is delayed, the cost of delays is dumped on the passenger. Restoring the airlines reciprocity rule, along with the existing 3-hour rule, would allow most passengers victimized by airline flight cancellations and tarmac delays to obtain alternate transportation on other airlines. It would also reward airlines with low delay rates and penalize those with high rates.

Under the reciprocity rule, when a flight is cancelled or excessively delayed, an airline must place the passenger on the next available flight, regardless of airline, for no additional charge.


FlyersRights.org, a US-based airline passenger group, has filed a formal rulemaking petition with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) calling for a return to the reciprocity rule in time for the holiday season.

This practice was largely abandoned after airline deregulation in 1978. Since 2010, however, US airlines were allowed to merge into four big carriers, the number of flights has been reduced, and load factors have reached historic highs of about 84%.

So when a flight is cancelled, it now takes much longer to find an alternative flight, and passengers are generally limited to the one airline without paying a much higher price.



Paul Hudson, President of Flyersrights.org and a member of the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee, observed, “Several years of heightened computer outages have caused thousands of flight delays, affecting millions of passengers. So the American public badly needs the reciprocity rule back which worked effectively for decades to minimize passenger delays and strandings. The rule would increase the efficiency of the national air transportation system by matching up empty seats on other airlines to delayed or cancelled passengers at no net cost to the airline industry.”

“It would also give airlines a needed incentive to improve reliability, upgrade outdated computer systems and maintain proper reserves. As those with good records would be financially rewarded and those with poor records financially penalized, by having to pay for stranded passengers’ transportation on other carriers.”

The DOT has the authority to reinstate the reciprocity rule under its power to regulate predatory and anticompetitive practices, and to act quickly by issuing an emergency order.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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