They weren’t the kind of policies that generated front-page headlines, but Joe Biden was practically obsessed with consumer benefits during his presidency. From bank fees to medical debt, credit card fees to student loans, the Biden White House couldn’t magically undo post-pandemic inflation, but it did try to give regular people a break.

To that end, the Democratic administration also set out to help American passengers by barring airlines from imposing hidden fees and even took steps to force airlines to compensate flyers for flight disruptions.

“I really want this to be known as the period when we did the biggest expansion in passenger rights since deregulation, and I think we can hit that mark,” then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told The Washington Post in 2024.

A lot can change in two years. The New York Times reported:

For years, U.S. airline passengers have been gaining ground against annoyances like misleading prices, hidden fees and flight disruptions. But now the tide appears to be turning.

The Department of Transportation is aiming to water down longstanding passenger protections, pushing, for example, to change how prominently airlines display prices in advertising and to clamp down on compensation for disrupted flights.

Paul Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org, one of the largest U.S. advocacy groups for air travelers, told the Times, “We’re in really new territory with consumer protection regulations. It’s shaping up to be a wholesale reversal of consumer protection for airline passengers.”

These recent steps have alarmed consumer groups and elected officials, with some saying that the proposals tilt the scales in favor of the airline industry. In addition, they said, the department is steadily taking a more hands-off approach to policing airlines and that it could end up hurting passengers.

While a Transportation Department spokesperson insisted that “no passenger rights have been diminished,” the Times’ report added that since Donald Trump returned to the White House, his Department of Transportation, led by Secretary Sean Duffy, “has consistently worked to roll back passenger rights in areas like cash compensation, wheelchair handling and hidden, or ‘junk,’ fees.”

In case that weren’t quite enough, after nearly two years in office, Duffy’s DOT has imposed a grand total of zero fines on domestic airlines.

From a consumer perspective, the developments are discouraging, but they’re also part of a larger pattern.

When Biden and his team took steps to ensure medical debt wouldn’t affect Americans’ credit ratings, Republicans opposed the move; then a Trump-appointed judge reversed the policy. Last year, the Trump administration took new steps to make sure that medical debt does affect Americans’ credit ratings.

Biden and his team tried to make it easier for consumers to cancel services and subscriptions. Then Republicans balked at this, and Trump-appointed judges reversed that policy, too.

A few years ago, Biden and his team announced a pilot program to allow some Americans to file their taxes directly to the IRS — for free. In 2025, Team Trump confirmed that the Direct File program is dead, too.

I realize that this isn’t exactly a hot-button political issue, but it’s hard not to wonder how voters would react if more people realized the dramatic differences between the Democratic and Republican administrations when it comes to consumer benefits.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Team Trump unravels Biden-era advances in airline passengers’ rights appeared first on MS NOW.

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