Requires Carriers To Disclose All Taxes And Fees, Hold
Reservations Without Payment
New regulations going into effect this week will help ensure
that consumers are treated fairly when they travel by air, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday. Among the new
provisions, part of the airline consumer rule issued by the U.S.
Department of Transportation in April 2011, are requirements that
airlines and ticket agents include all mandatory taxes and fees in
published airfares and that they disclose baggage fees to consumers
buying tickets.
“Airline passengers have rights, and they should be able
to expect fair and reasonable treatment when booking a trip and
when they fly,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
said. “The new passenger protections taking effect this week
are a continuation of our effort to help air travelers receive the
respect they deserve.”
Also beginning this week, passengers will be able to hold a
reservation without payment, or cancel a booking without penalty,
for 24 hours after the reservation is made, if they make the
reservation one week or more prior to a flight’s departure
date. In addition, airlines will be required to promptly notify
passengers of flight delays of over 30 minutes, as well as flight
cancellations and diversions, and they will generally be prohibited
from increasing the price of passengers’ ticket after it is
bought.
The new rules also will make it easier for passengers to
determine the full price they will have to pay for air
transportation prior to travel. Currently, airlines and ticket
agents are allowed to publish ads that list government-imposed
taxes and fees separately from the advertised fare, as long as
these taxes and fees are assessed on a per-passenger basis.
However, sometimes the notice of these taxes and fees is not
obvious to consumers. Under the new requirements, all mandatory
taxes and fees must be included together in the advertised fare.
The advertising provision takes effect Jan. 26, 2012 while all of
the other consumer protections go into effect on Jan. 24 of this
year.
In addition, airlines and ticket agents will be required to
disclose baggage fees to consumers when they book a flight online.
The first screen containing a fare quotation for a specific
itinerary must show if there will be additional baggage fees, and
inform consumers where they can go to see these fees. Information
on baggage fees also must be included on all e-ticket
confirmations, and for most trips the same baggage allowances and
fees must apply throughout a passenger’s journey.
The new requirements are the final provisions to become
effective from the Department’s most recent airline consumer
rule. A number of new measures required by the rule took effect on
Aug. 23, 2011, including requirements that airlines refund baggage
fees if bags are lost and provide increased compensation to
passengers bumped from oversold flights.
Also beginning last August, the Department set a four-hour time
limit on tarmac delays for all international flights at U.S.
airports, and extended the three-hour tarmac delay limit for
domestic flights to smaller airports. It also required additional
airlines to report their lengthy tarmac delays to DOT. The
Department is looking at other airline consumer protection measures
for a possible future rulemaking, including requiring that all
airline optional fees be disclosed wherever consumers can book a
flight, strengthening disclosure of code-share flights, and
requiring additional carriers to file on-time performance
reports.
“For the millions of Americans who travel our skies, they
should know that they have new rights when they go to purchase
tickets and check their baggage,” said Senator John "Jay"
Rockefeller (D-WV), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee.
“I have made airline passenger rights a priority in the FAA
reauthorization bill negotiations, so I was pleased to hear that
DOT’s rulemaking builds upon those efforts. And, as Congress
is now slated to pass a comprehensive FAA reauthorization in the
coming weeks, we have additional consumer protections for airline
passengers on the horizon.”