We’ve all seen that “great deal” airline ad, only to discover that with surcharges, taxes and fees, the great deal is not-so-great. Starting today, when airline consumers see an advertised price of $500 that will be the price they pay.
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There is a new regulation coming into effect, “Don’t mislead passengers.” Let’s call it the “truth in advertising” rule. Understandably, the airlines are incensed. Spirit Airlines is leading the charge. How dare the government mandate that they tell the truth. After decades of being allowed to mislead the public and bury taxes and fees in the fine print, being forced to be honest doesn’t come easily.
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Consumers are coming up to crunch time in the hard work that has gone towards mandating that airlines reveal fees to consumers. This has been a struggle that has been proceeding since spring of 2010. It has gone on through one completed rulemaking that will fully come into effect on January 24th and 26th. Then a new proposed rulemaking focused on price transparency is scheduled to follow in mid-2012.
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Last month the FAA finalized its rule changes dealing with pilot work and rest hours to keep fatigued pilots out of the cockpit. Ned Levi examines the new rules to see if they fulfill Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s promise to “do everything possible to make sure pilots are rested when they get in the cockpit.”
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Consumers can claim a victory in the back and forth with the airlines when it comes to disclosure of baggage charges. Today, the Department of Transportation (DOT) denied the a request by the airlines to delay their rule requiring airlines to disclose passenger-specific baggage fees and make the marketing carrier’s baggage charges apply across code-share partners and international partners.
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Here are five predictions for the coming year. All in all, I think consumers are going to come out ahead in the coming year, airlines are going to find a road to profitability, TSA will streamline its inspection processes, airport restaurants and services will get better, communications about delays, cancellations and weather will make quantum leaps with new smartphone technology, and the overall world of airline travel will improve.
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The battle with the airlines and consumer groups, such as the Consumer Travel Alliance, about whether or not passengers will be told the full price of transportation including baggage fees and other obscure ancillary fees is still raging on Capitol Hill.
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The Halloween weekend stranding of more than 1,000 airline passengers at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn., brought the tarmac delay activists out in full force again, pushing for new laws that they claim would prevent lengthy ground delays.
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According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), airlines collected $1.5 billion from baggage fees and reservation change fees in the second quarter of 2011, according to the airline financial data released last week.
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In the case of a code-share operation with a foreign carrier or that of an airline alliance with antitrust immunity, the ability to merge operations and make them seamless for travelers borders on the impossible. Consumers end up faced with alliances and codeshares of a Frankenstein nature.
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