President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are pushing for airline passengers to be compensated for stranded passengers for reasons other than the weather, the latest effort from the White House to force changes to the flying experience in the face of widespread customer dissatisfaction.
Federal officials want airlines to go even further, offering refunds, hotel rooms, and meals. Biden and Buttigieg unveiled a push Monday that airlines offer customers vouchers, miles or even cash when flights get canceled or significantly delayed by something within a carrier's control, like a mechanical issue.
Passengers should not foot the bill when an airline causes a flight cancellation or delay, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. It is the first time in U.S. history that such a far-reaching rule has been proposed.
The proposed rules are far from a guarantee, with the Department of Transportation's rule-making process often taking months or years to complete. In the weeks to come, the Biden administration promises more detail, including a more precise definition of what constitutes a controllable cancellation and delay. Buttigieg and Biden will also discuss the proposed rules at the White House at 1: 45 p.m. ET.
Alongside the proposed new rules, the Biden administration also announced Monday that it would expand a public pressure campaign on the airlines through its online tracker at FlightRights.gov. The tracker was set up last year to indicate which airlines were offering voluntarily different services.
On the issue of cancellation, the tracker currently shows that many airlines offer services like rebooking or hotel rooms when certain flights are canceled or delayed but no major airline offers cash compensation - the farthest reaching idea announced Monday.
In the case of a controllable cancellation, Alaska ALK and JetBlue JBLU will offer travel vouchers or frequent flyer miles, according to the dashboard, while others do not.
The White House said on Sunday that policies requiring additional compensation already exist in places such as Canada and the European Union, arguing that having the rules in place can lead to reduced flight delays overall.
Monday's move is the latest from a White House that has elevated airline comfort to a key issue. It even warranted a mention in Biden's State of the Union address earlier this year.
In recent months, additional moves have been made to enhance American airport terminals, an effort to prod airlines to allow parents and children to sit together, and the release of a new bill of rights for disabled flyers.
The actions add up to changes that are going to make a big difference for the passenger experience, Buttigieg told Yahoo Finance last year. A surge of cancellations affecting Memorial Day and July 4 travel weekends highlighted the issue of delays. The meltdown of Southwest Airlines LUV last winter highlighted the importance of poor airline planning that can result in widespread inconveniences for passengers.
Airlines are reportedly hiring up ahead of this summer s travel season, but the season is expected to put airlines to the test as the industry grapples with things like an ongoing pilot shortage. Delta DAL CEO Ed Bastian told Yahoo Finance: The outlook for summer is strong. While the proposed regulations have little chance of being approved by the summer season, the administration is evidently hoping to use public pressure and the threat of these new rules to prod airlines voluntarily avoid a repeat of recent incidents.