Receiving compensation for flight delays and cancellations within the US has lengthy been a main ache level for vacationers—particularly these accustomed to the authorized protections granted to airline passengers in Europe and Canada.
Under the Biden administration, the Department of Transportation (DOT) made it a precedence to tackle this. But now, the DOT has formally deserted a federal plan that may have helped ease the monetary burden of prolonged flight delays for airline passengers within the US.
The plan was launched in 2023, when the Biden administration proposed a new rule that may require US airways to compensate passengers with money funds if their flight was canceled or delayed for three hours or extra due to points inside the airline’s management. On September 5, the Trump administration’s DOT officially scrapped the proposal.
If the proposed regulation had been put in force, impacted passengers would obtain between $200 and $775 in additional financial compensation for flight disruptions attributable to issues like airline short-staffing, mechanical issues with the plane, or the more and more widespread computer system meltdown. It would additionally require airways to cowl additional prices that passengers incurred in the course of the disruptions, together with meals, lodges, and any extra transportation required.
Compensation insurance policies like these are commonplace in lots of different international locations, particularly in Europe, the place the EU 261 regulation requires all airways working inside the European Union to make comparable funds to delayed vacationers, whereas additionally overlaying additional prices.
Right now, many US airways do supply to cowl vacationers’ meals, lodges, and transportation on a voluntary foundation throughout prolonged delays or throughout a cancellation. However, with out the proposed rule in place, airways aren’t required to present these conveniences and may select to cease providing this help to fliers at any time. In reality, a number of US carriers solely started to cowl these additional bills after the Biden administration urged them to in 2022.
Pete Buttigieg, the previous Secretary of Transportation who proposed the rule, stated the DOT is “starting to dismantle” passenger protections gained beneath the Biden administration. “We just learned last week that they are eliminating a rule that we launched to give you compensation in the event of an extreme delay,” Buttigieg said on X. “And they filed paperwork showing that they may get rid of other rules or weaken them.”
How will this impact travelers?
For now, US travelers won’t see any immediate changes as a result of scrapped proposal, says Brett Snyder, president of travel assistance company Cranky Concierge. Airline passengers “have never been compensated [with cash payments] for delays in the US, so this just keeps the status quo,” Snyder tells Condé Nast Traveler. “In theory if that previous plan had gone into effect, people could have been paid for delays, but it very well may also have resulted in higher ticket prices to cover the costs of paying that out.”
If your flight is canceled, US airways are nonetheless required to give you computerized money refunds when you determine not to settle for a flight voucher or rebooking on one other flight. That coverage is unaffected and stays a federal regulation.