The Trump administration has shot down a proposed rule that would have required airlines to pay travelers up to $750 in cash for certain flight delays.
Receiving compensation for flight delays and cancellations in the US has long been a major pain point for travelers—especially those accustomed to the legal protections granted to airline passengers in Europe and Canada.
Under the Biden administration, the Department of Transportation (DOT) made it a priority to address this. But now, the DOT has officially abandoned a federal plan that would have helped ease the financial burden of lengthy flight delays for airline passengers in the US.
The plan was introduced in 2023, when the Biden administration proposed a new rule that would require US airlines to compensate passengers with cash payments if their flight was canceled or delayed for three hours or more due to issues within the airline's control. On November 17, 2025, the DOT published a withdrawal notice to the Federal Register, officially calling off the proposal. The decision is in line with the administration's broader deregulation push, per the notice, and incorporated feedback from both airlines and consumers.
If the proposed regulation had been put into effect, impacted passengers would receive between $200 and $750 in extra monetary compensation for flight disruptions caused by problems like airline short-staffing, mechanical problems with the aircraft, or the increasingly common computer system meltdown. It would also require airlines to cover extra costs that passengers incurred during the disruptions, including meals, hotels, and any additional transportation required.
Compensation policies like these are commonplace in many other countries, especially in Europe, where the EU 261 regulation requires all airlines operating within the European Union to make similar payments to delayed travelers, while also covering extra costs.
Right now, many US airlines do offer to cover travelers’ meals, hotels, and transportation on a voluntary basis during lengthy delays. However, without the proposed rule in place, airlines aren’t required to provide these conveniences and can choose to stop offering this support to fliers at any time. In fact, several US carriers only began to cover those extra expenses after the Biden administration urged them to in 2022.
If your flight is canceled, US airlines are still required to provide you with automatic cash refunds if you decide not to accept a flight voucher or rebooking on another flight. That policy is unaffected and remains a federal regulation. Here's what else to know.
This article has been updated with new information since its original publication date.
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.”
DOT officials said they nixed the delay compensation proposal in part because they say it surpasses congressional requirements. “We will faithfully implement all aviation consumer protection requirements mandated by Congress, including the requirement to refund ticket prices to passengers in the case of airline canceled or substantially delayed flights when consumers choose not to travel,” a DOT spokesperson said in an emailed statement in September. “Some of the rules proposed or adopted by the previous administration, however, went beyond what Congress has required by statute, and we intend to reconsider those extra-statutory requirements.”
The largest US airlines had been pushing for the proposed delay compensation rule’s demise, and they lauded the DOT’s move. “We are encouraged by this Department of Transportation reviewing unnecessary and burdensome regulations that exceed its authority and don’t solve issues important to our customers,” Airlines for America, a lobbying group representing seven major US passenger airlines, said in an emailed statement in September. “We look forward to working with DOT on implementing President Trump’s deregulatory agenda.”
Flight delay compensation isn’t the only airline policy change travelers might see in the near future. Striking the proposed rule was one action in a 93-page list of suggested changes that Airlines for America sent to the DOT in May of this year, says William McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project.
Additional suggestions in the document include ending new requirements for airlines to be upfront about extra fees, abandoning federal guidelines for fair family seating, and rescinding additional assistance for passengers traveling with mobility aids—all policies passed by the Biden administration’s DOT. “At a time when most Americans are already dissatisfied with the state of air travel, the DOT is taking marching orders from deep-pocked lobbyists and ushering in a new era of flying dystopia,” McGee said in a September statement. “Even by just proposing these rules, before they become official policy, the DOT is telling airlines they can deny refunds, hide fees, and strand passengers without consequence.”
Travelers can compare US airlines’ current delay policies by visiting the DOT’s customer service dashboard, though you might want to look quickly: scrapping these types of passenger-friendly dashboards is another one of Airlines for America’s suggestions to the DOT.
