It’s normal for policies to flip-flop between U.S. administrations based on differing priorities. These policies impact the way businesses operate and often come with grandiose promises. For example, the current Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, promised to roll in the “golden age of transportation” when he was sworn in last year. Since then, the airline industry has seen a lot of policy changes. So today, let’s talk about what some of those are and how they are sure to impact consumers this upcoming holiday season.
The passenger bill of rights
It was just a little over two years ago that many of the major U.S. airlines sued the Biden administration over a new rule that required airline companies to “disclose extra fees on purchases” – these ancillary costs are commonly referred to by critics as “junk fees.” At the time, the Department of Transportation was seeking to put more rights in the hands of passengers and that this new rule will “save passengers over half a billion dollars a year in unnecessary or unexpected fees by holding airlines accountable for being transparent with their customers.” The airlines argued that the rule “will greatly confuse consumers who will be inundated with information that will only serve to complicate the buying process.”
In addition to banning hidden fees, the 2024 rule also sought to ensure passengers receive required refunds without hassles for canceled flights, significantly delayed baggage, and extra services that were not provided. Now under new leadership, the Department of Transportation is reversing course on many of those rules and abandoning other proposals that would have impacted the way airlines do business. This included proposals aiming to ban family seating fees, make certain compensation and amenities mandatory, and expand the rights of wheelchair users on flights.
Flying back to where we came
In the last few months, the Department of Transportation removed the Biden-era rule on “junk fees” and proposed a new rule to allow airlines to display a single component of the final ticket price as prominently as the total cost. The current rule states that in advertising fares “components of a fare may not be presented in the same or larger size as the total price.” Airline trade groups have urged the full repeal of the current rule as they believe it imposes stricter standards than other industries have to adhere to and that “it would be easy for airlines to display taxes and fees later in the booking process separately like other industries, and to let consumers calculate the total, because taxes are generally uniform across purchases.”
While the department says this new rule would allow more flexibility and “protect passengers from misleading pricing information,” critics argue it would do just the opposite. A letter from Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal in September urged the department to rescind the proposal as it would allow a “return to an era of extracting more money from consumers through confusing and deceptive airfare advertising.”
More exceptions, less protections
In particular, the new rules carve out more exceptions for delays and cancellations in which the airline is not required to reimburse passengers. This includes “unscheduled maintenance…that cannot be deferred or must be addressed before flight” – which is one of the most common causes of delays – and nine other specific instances that are deemed “outside of an airline’s control.” For context, nearly one in four U.S. passengers experienced a flight delay or cancellation in 2024.
The direct language included with the new rule states: “The number of delays and cancellations for which air carriers provide amenities and compensation to consumers is expected to be reduced.” Additionally, this new rule was established without the usual public notice and comment process. Therefore, the question is not “is this the golden age of transportation” but rather “the golden age for who?”
