Making Flying (Slightly) Less Unpleasant

by Stuart Shapiro

Obewon posted earlier about the Obama Administration acting unilaterally on job creation.  Unilateral action is not new to the presidency, and those of us that follow regulation know that a hostile Congress frequently leads Presidents to lean on agencies to produce policy.  Yet another example came last week from the Department of Transportation.

US air travelers gained increased consumer rights last week when the Department of Transportation’s new “passenger protection rule” came into force.

The new rule doubles the level of compensation payable to passengers bumped from overbooked flights, with compensation of double the cost of a one-way fare, up to $650, if an alternative flight would delay the passenger between one and two hours, and four times the cost of the fare, up to $1300, for delays over two hours.

One of many ways in which the lives of ordinary Americans is being improved quietly under the Obama Administration.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.