Last summer, after Delta Air Lines offered me only partial reimbursement for expenses incurred while stranded in Paris for four days due to the Crowdstrike software meltdown, I went straight to the Department of Transportation (DoT) website to file a complaint.
For the next month, my polite but persistent emails asking Delta to make good on what the gate agents in Paris had promised were mostly ignored—until I received a note from Delta that the DoT had directed the airline to resolve my complaint. The reimbursement offer was immediately increased, but it still took another month (and a threat to file a second complaint) to get a fair settlement for my hotel bill and meals.
That would likely have not happened had it not been for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s aggressive efforts over the past four years to improve fliers’ rights, with the DoT promising to impose hefty fines on airlines that fail to follow newly implemented rules for what travelers are owed when flights are canceled or delayed.
Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group called Buttigieg’s DoT “the most pro-consumer that we have seen in decades.”
Questions being asked by insiders as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on January 20 include: will recent protections for air travelers stand, how aggressively will they be enforced, what will become of a pending proposal to expand compensation for stranded travelers, and will the new administration continue to enforce greater transparency around hidden travel fees?
Another issue to consider is what impact Trump’s promise to crack down on immigration could have on inbound travelers and on hospitality industry workers who rely on work visas. Observers are also keeping a close watch on climate-related initiatives such as sustainable aviation fuels and other environmental measures that the government has been developing policies to promote. Here are some of the key matters the travel industry is monitoring.
Airlines
Harteveldt said he doubts the new administration will try to change the recently implemented rule requiring airlines to automatically reimburse passengers for canceled flights or remove the DoT’s easy-to-find, one-click link to file a complaint.
“I don’t think he’s going to try to roll things back, but I don’t think we will see as much rulemaking or proposed rulemaking,” he said.
Industry experts say the administration could ignore the rulemaking process for a proposal that, in addition to mandatory fare reimbursements for canceled flights, would require airlines to also compensate passengers for cancellations and delays over three hours. If no action is taken, the proposal would expire.
Also in question is a regulation requiring earlier, more transparent disclosure of ancillary fees during the booking process. Last year, airlines sued the DoT over the rule that took effect last April, and a federal appeals court granted a temporary stay to block its implementation in July, saying the DoT likely overstepped its authority.
Airlines are also hoping that the change in administration might mark the end of an era of record fines, such as the $140 million imposed on Southwest for its December 2022 operational collapse, and the removal of regulatory obstacles that denied the JetBlue–Spirit merger and broke up the JetBlue–American Airlines Northeast Alliance.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle told Reuters he looks forward to an “unshackling,” where regulators “focus on things that matter, like safety, and stop worrying about regulating prices and regulating experiences.”
Geoff Freeman, head of the U.S. Travel Association, an advocacy group for U.S. inbound travel, disagreed with Harteveldt’s characterization of Buttigieg’s DoT as entirely pro-consumer, saying that while it had imposed those record fines and fought ancillary fees, it failed to address some key issues, such as upgrading the air traffic control system to reduce airline delays and helping to improve the often sluggish Transportation Security Administration screening process.
“If it were truly pro-consumer, it would have been looking to solve underlying issues,” he said. Instead, “I think it kicked the can down the road.”
Immigration
One of the biggest questions for the travel industry as a whole is what impact Trump’s immigration policies will have on inbound travelers.
For instance, Freeman said the country is entering a “mega-decade” of sports events in the United States—including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being held in cities across Canada, Mexico, and the USA, the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. If Trump rolls back efforts to solve the long-standing backlog of foreigners trying to get U.S. visas, it could be hard for spectators from other countries to get here.
He noted the current wait time for visas from some countries is 700 days, so “if you want to come for the World Cup [final in New Jersey summer of 2026], you’ve already missed your window.” Currently, only 43 countries participate in the U.S. visa waiver program, including numerous countries in Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Chile, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Citizens from non–visa waiver program countries must apply for a visitor visa in advance.
And all travelers, citizens and visitors alike, said Freeman, could find longer waits to clear customs on arrival to the United States if staff and resources are shifted to reducing illegal crossings along the southern border.
Hotels
For the hospitality sector, one big concern is whether the new administration will curtail work visas that so many hotels rely on, especially for seasonal workers, said Craig Compagnone, president of the Americas for travel marketing firm MMGY Global.
Additionally, while the Federal Trade Commission recently approved a rule requiring hotels and lodging companies to disclose resort and other mandatory fees up front in the booking price, it’s unclear whether the new administration would uphold the rule or try to reverse it.
Consumer advocates are hopeful it will remain in place as members of Congress from both sides of the aisle as well as the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) have supported the efforts. Regardless, the AHLA says it will continue to push to have those provisions enacted into federal law to ensure consistency across the hospitality sector.
“Congress got close last year with House passage of the No Hidden Fees Act and the Senate’s Hotel Fees Transparency Act, and we will continue to work on this legislative priority,” a spokesman for the group said.
The environment
The travel industry will also be closely watching what impact the Trump Administration and a Republican Congress will have on environmental protections, including programs to advance the use of sustainable aviation fuel and regulations that have stymied infrastructure improvements.
Harteveldt said the new administration could be more receptive to removing some of the federal environmental regulations that have made it more difficult for airports to add new runways, for instance.
That, he said, would be a “mixed blessing” because “we desperately need (more) runways.”
Additionally, while the Biden administration has backed efforts to advance more environmentally friendly jet fuel options, Compagnone of MMGY Global said the impact of any withdrawal of support for those programs would be essentially moot because the movement “will never go anywhere” without a significant investment in infrastructure to make new fuel sources available at scale at major airports throughout the country.
