Over the four years that former President Joseph Biden spent in the White House, his administration repeatedly pushed for regulation changes that were often not received well by airline leaders.
In December 2023, Biden and then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg first started talking about regulation that would require airlines to compensate travelers up to $775 for “controllable” flight cancelations or delays beyond standard time thresholds. Just before the administration switch in 2024, the U.S. Transportation Department launched a 60-day consultation period during which anyone affected by the proposal could comment on whether regulation requiring “automatic” refunds should be pushed forward.
With an incoming administration switch, the decision on whether to follow through on what the public would say was left to Trump and his new team — and, according to a document that his administration filed with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Sept. 4, they are now choosing to keep the results private and scrap any plans to call for more traveler compensation entirely.
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“Consistent with department and administration priorities, the Department plans to withdraw”
“The Department issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that examined requiring U.S. and foreign air carriers to adopt and adhere to customer service plans identifying essential services (meals, rebooking, hotel, transportation to or from hotel, timely customer service) and compensation which airlines would be required to provide to mitigate passenger inconveniences when the cause of a cancellation or delay for flights to, within and from the United States was due to circumstances within the airline’s control,” the document reads. “Consistent with Department and administration priorities, the Department plans to withdraw the ANPRM.”
The document also makes no mention of the consultation period the outcome of which is now not likely to be made public.
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Under current DoT regulations, airlines operating of the U.S. have been required to fully refund passengers for canceled flights since October 2024 — previously, the airline could get away with offering vouchers or offering an alternative flight — while delays of less than half a day are generally not compensated.
Mainstream carriers like United, Delta and American Airlines have pushed back against the Biden administration’s push for greater compensation by saying it would cause them to raise ticket prices to make up for the difference.
ALEX EDELMAN/AFP/Frederick M. Brown/Getty
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The Biden-era proposal would require airlines to compensate travelers between $200 and $300 for delays on shorter domestic routes and up to $775 for longer international ones.
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“In this highly competitive industry, carriers don’t need further incentive to provide quality service,” the trade group Airlines for America representing all three said in a December 2024 statement. “This proposal is simply one in a long string of ill-conceived and rushed rules from an administration intent on reregulating the U.S. airline industry.”
As airlines will often push travelers to accept an alternative flight or vouchers, the option for customers who had to solve a flight cancelation by booking with an alternative provider is either to decline and formally request a refund from the airline or go through the credit card that one used to make the booking.
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