Joe Biden travel tips

Good news, travelers: Passport processing times have decreased by two weeks since summer. It now takes eight to 11 weeks for routine processing and five to seven weeks for expedited processing, according to an update this week from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The Senate Commerce Committee is adding language that could codify automatic refunds into law in its Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. 

After months of short-term funding to keep the Federal Aviation Administration afloat, Congress just unveiled a new reauthorization bill that covers everything from pilot training to family seating. 

Just days after the Department of Transportation released a rule requiring airlines to give automatic refunds after flight disruptions, Congress is set to vote on legislation that could impose more hurdles. 

New federal rules around airline junk fees and refunds are meant to protect consumers but they overlook the logistics of making it happen, according to Laura Chadwick, president and CEO of the Travel Technology Association.

After the Biden administration announced it would crack down on junk fees and require automatic refunds, it was unclear how the rules would be enforced and applied to the airline industry.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Thursday that certain aspects of a new federal government rule that would require airlines to provide automatic refunds were “gray.”

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit northern New Jersey on Monday, halting air traffic in the area and causing delays on Amtrak.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, March 28. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Congress has set aside $50 million for the U.S. State Department to help “reduce passport backlogs and reduce visa wait times” in a bill signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday and praised by the travel industry this week.

There’s a big demand from Indian tourists to visit the U.S., but there’s not as much demand the other way around.

Travel marketers are going to redirect resources meant for TikTok toward Instagram, YouTube and other marketing channels if the U.S. bans TikTok. How do we know that? Several state tourism offices have already done so after deleting their TikTok accounts.

This week’s Current Climate , which every Monday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

The U.S. Senate passed key government funding bills Friday evening — with one that included “up to $3.5 million of funding for the office of the assistant secretary of commerce for travel and tourism.

Federal regulators have finalized a rule to cap credit card late fees, closing a loophole the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claims has been long exploited by large credit card issuers. The CFPB finalized the rule Tuesday, thus lowering the typical late fee from $32 to $8 for credit card issuers with 1 million or more open accounts and continuing President Joe Biden's push to eliminate fees on travel and credit cards.

The US Transportation Department is also calling for airlines to provide annual training for employees who handle wheelchairs or lift passengers with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved an increase in the allowed number of scheduled roundtrip weekly passenger flights by Chinese airlines to the U.S. to 50, up from 35, beginning March 31, according to a DOT order filed Monday.

A four-hour drive from Denver, the rural town of Granada, Colorado, is home to just 450 people—and, at the end of a bumpy dirt road, the now-empty barracks and haunting buildings of “Camp Amache.” Also known as the Granada Relocation Center, Amache was once an internment camp for nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes between 1942 and 1945. Now, after decades of preservation efforts by local volunteers, this site has officially become America's newest national park.

The White House said Thursday it would allocate nearly $1 billion for airport infrastructure projects as part of an effort to modernize U.S. airports. 

President Joe Biden released a tweet from his official X account (formerly known as Twitter) on February 5, sharing how “It’s time all airlines offered fee-free family seating.” 

The White House says it is making progress on the charging network the country needs to enable long road trips in electric cars.

In a move that showed both countries’ keenness to expand air travel after the COVID-19 pandemic, in turn reflecting an implicit eagerness to up mutually beneficial cooperation, China and the United States increased the number of direct regular passenger flights from 48 to 70 per week in the 2023-24 winter and spring seasons. This year marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. and the two countries have had extensive cooperation in many fields. Their cooperative efforts serve the common interests of both sides and contribute to the overall wellbeing of people worldwide.