Every news outlet has a busy period. For Variety, it’s the time when Hollywood gives out awards; for The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg, it’s quarterly earnings season; and for the Prospect, it’s the narrow period when executive branch agencies issue final rules in the last year of a presidential term, before the window opens whereby these regulations could be overturned the following year by a new president, under the Congressional Review Act. (It’s a long story; the Prospect wrote about it this week.)
In just the past few days, the executive branch has banned all employee noncompete agreements, enacted a minimum staffing ratio for nursing homes, initiated the American Climate Corps, opened up overtime benefits to more employees, updated the definitions that require investment advisers to operate in the best interest of retirement savers, enhanced privacy protections for medical records for out-of-state abortions, and prevented illegal fees in mortgage servicing. It is only Thursday, with more actions still to come this week.
I have written about most of these issues at one point or another, and several of them were part of our Day One Agenda series. But there are only so many hours in a day. So I will restrict myself to commenting on just one set of these, the Department of Transportation’s new rules on refunds for air travel delays and elimination of hidden airlines fees. That’s because it is an admirable example of policymakers responding to circumstances, and of policymakers also growing when it came to their regulatory positions.
A couple years ago at this time, the name “Pete Buttigieg” was more of a four-letter word around these parts. The summer of 2022 was a disaster for air travel, with rampant cancellations across multiple airlines due to computer glitches and manpower shortages, both problems of the airlines’ own making. At the outset, Buttigieg was criticized for using little of his powers as transportation secretary to combat these abuses and protect travelers. This got worse at Christmas 2022, when a Southwest meltdown caused nearly 17,000 cancellations.
A month later, the Prospect broke the news that Jen Howard, Lina Khan’s former chief of staff at the Federal Trade Commission, had joined DOT as its new chief competition officer. Since then, the department has gotten much tougher on the airlines.
DOT supported the lawsuit that ultimately blocked the merger of JetBlue and Spirit. It issued the largest fine in its history for the Southwest cancellations, and secured $600 million in refunds to passengers who suffered from the debacle. Overall refunds that DOT has helped to pursue total $3 billion. A dashboard was set up to explain airline policies on delays and cancellations. And in a new partnership with state attorneys general from both parties, consumer complaints are supposed to get an accelerated review to hold airlines accountable.
Last year, flight cancellation rates fell to their lowest point in more than a decade, which perhaps can be credited to this stricter mindset.
On Wednesday, Buttigieg announced that airlines will be required to give passengers automatic full cash refunds whenever flights are canceled or significantly delayed, when checked bags do not show up in a timely manner, or when Wi-Fi or other services purchased on a flight are not delivered. If these new rules work, they would relieve travelers from the customer service hell they experience whenever trying to obtain compensation from airlines. Up to now, thwarted passengers would often get travel vouchers instead of cash, which prevented them from rebooking elsewhere.
Airlines will be required to give passengers automatic full cash refunds whenever flights are canceled or significantly delayed.
Under the new rule, passengers would not have to affirmatively request a refund in these situations; it would be delivered automatically within seven business days for all…
This article was originally published by a prospect.org . Read the Original article here. .