Originally Posted by
twb3
This appears to me to be political grandstanding in support of candidate Biden. Congress has not given the DoT the legal authority to mandate compensation, and a presidential pen does not make law no matter how much an administration thinks it can.
On the merits, any mandated compensation will be paid by passengers via increased fares. I have insured myself against the consequences of an occasional IRROPS, and would prefer not to pay increased fares to support a mandated compensation scheme.
I would rather see legislation authorizing the creation of a no-fly list for disruptive passengers than an EU261 type scheme.
Congress gave DOT the authority to regulate unfair and deceptive practices by carriers, and one need look no further than daily posts on this website to see that people think airlines failure to compensate for expenses caused by delays/cancellations, and loose labelling of delays as outside their control, are unfair and deceptive practices.
Yes, any customer friendly move increases costs to airlines that will be passed onto customers.... But that applies to honoring mistake fares, free bags, better alcohol in first class, more pilots, more customer service reps, and dozens of other things people on Ft regularly ask for.