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After a punishing summer for air travelers who have seen delayed and canceled flights , the federal government is taking additional steps to help beleaguered passengers . The Department of Transportation is telling the airlines that they need to come up with their own improvements for customer service or the agency will proceed with a plan to order a rule change.  The DOT is also creating a website, eyed for a launch two weeks from now, that they hope will easily show each airline’s policies regarding cancellations and delays. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the travel disruptions unacceptable. “The message to the airlines is that you’ve got to make it easier for passengers to understand their rights. And you’ve got to support passengers when they experience delays or cancellations,” Buttigieg said in an interview that aired Friday on NBC’s “TODAY.” In the first six months of the year, 24% of U.S. flights have been delayed, and 3.2% have been canceled, according to DO...

Fluxfactory | E+ | Getty Images Travelers saw prices fall for big-ticket pieces of their vacation budgets in July, offering at least a temporary reprieve after soaring costs earlier this year. Airfares fell nearly 8% from June to July, while prices for rental cars and lodging like hotels declined 9.5% and about 3%, respectively, according to a monthly inflation report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor. It was the second consecutive month of price declines for each category. "That's really good news, I think, when people are planning out their vacations," said Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet. Airline ticket prices peaked in May this year, driven by factors like elevated consumer demand coming out the Covid-19 pandemic and operational issues for airlines such as high jet-fuel costs and staffing shortages, which led companies to pare back flight schedules, according to experts. More from Personal Finance: Inflation Reduction Act extends $7,500 tax...