Time is Money Act: Flight Delay Protections Kick in Sooner, Dropping Domestic Threshold to 2 Hours

The “Time is Money Act” is taking aim at one of the biggest headaches in modern travel: long, drawn-out flight delays. This bill doesn’t just complain about delays; it changes the rulebook on when airlines have to step up and offer you a remedy.

The New Definition of 'Significantly Delayed'

The core of this legislation, found in Section 2, is a mandate for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to tighten the screws on what counts as a “significantly delayed or changed flight.” Currently, you often have to wait a marathon three hours domestically or six hours internationally before the delay officially triggers certain consumer protections and remedies from the airline. This bill cuts those thresholds down significantly.

For domestic flights, the threshold drops from 3 hours to 2 hours. For international trips, it goes from 6 hours to 5 hours. The DOT has 180 days after the bill becomes law to update the federal regulations to reflect these new, lower time limits. This is a clear win for travelers; it means that if your flight is delayed by two hours, you are now officially entitled to whatever compensation or assistance the regulations require, rather than having to wait for the three-hour mark.

What This Means for Your Travel Day

Think about the last time you were stuck waiting on the tarmac or at the gate. If you’re a business traveler flying from Chicago to New York, that one to two-hour delay often means missing a critical meeting or connecting flight. Under the existing rules, a two-hour and fifty-minute delay often leaves you stranded with no official recourse. This bill changes that. If that same domestic flight is delayed by just over two hours, the airline is now officially on the hook for remedies—which could include rebooking, refunds, or other compensation, depending on what the DOT defines in its updated rules.

The same logic applies to international travel. If you’re flying to Europe and your flight is pushed back five hours, you no longer have to wait that extra hour for the delay to be considered “significant.” This is a big deal because it incentivizes airlines to be more proactive in managing delays that fall into that two-to-three-hour window domestically, and the five-to-six-hour window internationally. They can no longer afford to let flights drift close to the three- or six-hour mark without consequences.

The Cost of Convenience

While this legislation is clearly designed to boost consumer protection, it doesn't come without implications for the airlines. By lowering the threshold for triggering remedies, airlines face increased liability and potential payout costs. They will have to compensate or assist passengers for a much higher volume of delays than before. This could pressure them to invest more in operational efficiency, better maintenance, and improved scheduling to avoid these shorter, now-costly delays. For the traveler, this means a better chance of actually getting where you need to go on time, or at least getting assistance sooner when things go wrong. It’s a classic trade-off: more protection for consumers, more operational pressure and cost for the carriers.