House Passes FAA Bill That Could Harm Travel Agents and Consumers

The U.S. House of Representatives, on Friday, passed a bill that continues to include certain measures that could reduce airfare transparency and place additional risk on agents for helping explain to consumers complex airfare information.

A marked-up version of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 4) was not available for review on their website at press time, but according to Eben Peck, executive vice president, advocacy, with the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the bill passed with no discussion or changes regarding several issues ASTA is concerned about.

According to Peck, these include:

1. Multiple new disclosures travel agents would have to make, including explicitly in phone call transactions.

2. The fact that airlines are not compelled to share ancillary fee data, but agents have to disclosure that data in every transaction.

3. Language imposing new customer service requirements on large travel agencies.

“On the whole,” Peck said in an email to Travel Market Report this morning, the bill that passed Friday “meets its goals to improve air travel safety and the flying experience for consumers.” He noted prohibitions on in-flight voice communications and the move “to add a seat for independent travel distributors” on the Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protection.

The bill must still be reconciled with a Senate version and will likely be debated actively by the two houses and the industry through this summer. The FAA needs to have its budget reauthorized by this September.

“However, we remain concerned about certain provisions in the bill and in its Senate counterpart and plan to work with our members, allied groups and policymakers to address these issues before the current authorization expires on September 30,” he said, including during ASTA’s annual Legislative Day,