Biden touts US crackdown on airlines over passenger treatment

President Joe Biden said on Monday his administration had cracked down on US airlines to improve treatment of passengers, a claim rejected by the carriers. Biden said prior to changes made in customer service plans by major airlines "if your flight was cancelled or delayed, no top airline guaranteed covering your cost of hotels and meals". "My administration is also cracking down on the airlines to get passengers fairer treatment," Biden said. "Secretary Buttigieg, at my request, called them out." US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told airlines in August he would publish their responses in a "dashboard" and gave them two weeks to disclose what customer service protections they would commit to offering when delays were the fault of the airline. "As of last week, airlines now cover hotels - eight of them; nine (cover) meals; nine rebook for free," Biden said. "We're going to get more rules in the works to protect airline passengers even further." Airlines for America, a trade group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines , JetBlue Airways and others, took exception to Mr Biden's assertions. "It is not accurate to say that no US airline covered meals and hotels for passengers severely impacted by carrier-caused flight delays and cancellations," it said in a statement, adding that the dashboard reflected airlines formalising existing policies. Airlines cancelled or delayed tens of thousands of flights this summer as they struggled to ramp up staffing as demand returned from historic Covid-19 pandemic lows, and Congress has pressed the administration to take a tougher line on airlines.<br/>