US Airlines Push Trump To Kill Passenger Rights: Refunds, Family Seating, And Fee Transparency On The Line
Airlines in the United States are once again showing their true colors, lobbying the Trump Administration to gut consumer protections that keep them accountable.
Pathetic: US Airlines Lobby Trump Administration To Cut Consumer Protections
For years, airlines have fought back against transparency and passenger rights, but this latest move takes it to a new level. The industry wants to erase rules that ensure refunds, accountability, and basic service standards.
Current Rules vs. Proposed Changes
To understand what’s at stake, here’s a simple look at what protections you have today compared to what airlines are trying to take away tomorrow, as proposed by the Airlines for America (A4A), the lobbying arm of the US airline industry:
| Current Rule | Proposed Change |
|---|---|
| Airlines must report on-time performance, mishandled baggage, wheelchairs, complaints, and cancellations via DOT consumer reports. | Airlines want to scrap public reporting requirements, effectively self-police their performance with no public accountability. |
| Passengers are guaranteed refunds, compensation, and rebooking support for delays and cancellations per recent 2025 protections (e.g., legal definition of significant delay, live service). | Airlines propose rolling back protections, including timely refunds, rerouting obligations, and transparency around delays and cancellations. |
| Airlines must disclose all fees (checked bags, carry-on, seat selection, change fees) clearly at booking. | Airlines want to remove these disclosure requirements, making it harder for consumers to compare true prices. |
| Family seating protections require airlines to seat parents with children under 13 at no extra cost. | Airlines propose eliminating this mandate, leaving families subject to extra fees to sit together. |
| All-in pricing rules require airlines to show the full fare—including taxes and mandatory fees—upfront. | Airlines want to return to base fare advertising, burying taxes and fees until the final step of booking. |
| DOT is reviewing economy class seat sizes to ensure minimum standards for health and safety. | Airlines want to end government oversight of seat pitch and width, keeping authority to shrink seats further. |
This Is A Terrible Idea
The notion that airlines should be trusted to police themselves is laughable. These are the same companies that routinely bury fees, delay refunds, and leave passengers stranded during mass cancellations, all while benefiting from state and federal subsidies and infrastructure. Furthermore, airlines were the recipients of vast subsidies from taxpayers during the pandemic while other individuals and companies languished. Without federal oversight, consumer protections will evaporate overnight…we are not even talking about EU 261/2004 (the generous consumer protection offered to European passengers), but just a fundamental baseline of protections as I reflected above. Transparency matters: passengers deserve to know what they are buying and whether they can rely on an airline to get them from point A to point B without having to fight for a refund if their flight is severely delayed or cancelled.
As One Mile At A Time points out, it is “such a distortion of history” for airlines to argue they can be trusted to self-police “because airlines certainly weren’t forthcoming with refunds at first, until pressure was put on airlines to do the right thing.” I need not count up the numerous examples…
A Message To Trump Voters
A humble plea to those who support President Trump. This is not what you signed up for. The Trump movement was supposed to be about populism—putting ordinary Americans first, not giving giant corporations a free pass (“drain the swamp”). Handing the keys to the airlines and telling them to “self-police” is the definition of a swamp deal. Do you really want less transparency, fewer refunds, and more hidden fees? That’s what this rollback means and it would merely add long list of polices that go against the mandate, such as the “Big Beautiful Bill” which adds trillions of dollars to the federal deficit while cutting healthcare for “normal” Americans or failing to release the Epstein files for reasons that Elon Musk made clear…
While the Trump administration has stated it wants to eliminate 10 regulations for every regulation added, who will step up and argue that refusing to refund tickets, disclose fees, or report on-time performance undermines a “free market” system? Quite the contrary, the lack of transparency undermines our ability to make informed choices…there’s nothing “free” about it.
Can we all join together to say, no? No, airlines will not use public infrastructure and regulatory policy to the detriment of US taxpayers. That’s not putting “America First.”
CONCLUSION
Airlines have made record profits while simultaneously cutting back on service, shrinking seats, and inventing new fees at every turn. Now they want the government to look the other way. If consumer protections are gutted, passengers will pay the price, literally and figuratively. The DOT should reject this proposal outright. Accountability matters, and the idea that airlines will suddenly do the right thing when no one is watching is not just naïve, it’s dangerous.
image: Delta Air Lines