White House Considers New Airline Compensation Rules
The White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today announced plans for new rules that will require airline passengers to be compensated if they’re stranded for reasons other than the weather.
Many airlines already offer refunds, hotel rooms, and meals, but federal officials want the carriers to go further. Biden and Buttigieg unveiled a new push Monday that airlines provide customers with vouchers, miles or even cash when flights get canceled or significantly delayed by something within a carrier’s control, like a mechanical issue.
“When an airline causes a flight cancellation or delay, passengers should not foot the bill,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This rule would, for the first time in U.S. history, propose to require airlines to compensate passengers and cover expenses such as meals, hotels, and rebooking in cases where the airline has caused a cancellation or significant delay.”
The proposed rules are far from a certainty, with the Department of Transportation rule-making process often taking months or years to play out. Exact details about compensation have not been revealed yet.
The planned rulemaking is aimed at addressing:
- Compensation for passengers when there is a controllable airline cancellation or significant delay;
- A meal or meal voucher, overnight accommodations, ground transportation to and from the hotel, and rebooking for controllable delays or cancellations;
- Timely customer service during and after periods of widespread flight irregularities; and
- Definition of a controllable cancellation or delay.
In addition to the new proposed rules, the Biden administration also announced Monday that it would be expanding a public pressure campaign on the airlines through its online tracker at FlightRights.gov.
The following categories were added to Commitments for Controllable Cancellations and Controllable Delays:
- Cash compensation when cancellation or delay results in passenger waiting 3 hours or more from the scheduled departure time;
- Travel credit/voucher when cancellation or delay results in passenger waiting for 3 hours or more for scheduled departure time; and
- Frequent flyer miles when cancellation or delay results in passenger waiting for 3 hours or more for a flight from the scheduled departure time.
Airlines are reportedly staffing up ahead of this summer’s travel season. Their readiness will surely be tested as the industry continues to grapple with things like an ongoing pilot shortage. The proposed rules have little chance of being approved by the summer season, so for now the administration is just hoping to up the public pressure in an attempt to avoid a repeat of recent incidents.
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The airlines already hate the European rules and they will fight this tooth and claw. Gonna be fun to watch, anyhow.
All delays are due to “weather”.
Having a stiff requirement for answering the phone is potentially very expensive. It could drive more calls to India.
I would favor something different. I would favor requiring other airlines to help take passengers. The airlines could set their own fee and either pay the passenger or participate in the cooperative plan.