Air Passenger Rights Group Urges Transparency, But Offers Few Specifics

A committee formed by the Transportation Department to study and comment on airline passenger rights recommended that the DOT “should ensure transparency in air carrier pricing, including ancillary fees,” but it offered few specifics on how to accomplish the task.

In its final report to Secretary Ray LaHood, the Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protection said, “Air travel today provides a wide variety of business models, network choices, and optional services. But with choice comes complexity for consumers. Consequently, innovation that makes comparison shopping easier than it is today would benefit the public.”

The committee included Deborah Ale Flint, director of aviation at Oakland International Airport; David Berg, senior vice president of Airlines for America, and Charles Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, and was chaired by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. It heard presentations from a wide range of industry participants.

Transparency a tricky issue
The transparency issue is a tricky one for the DOT. If it mandates that ancillary products and services must be made available through all channels, it essentially is involving itself in commercial agreements between airlines and their distributors.

The “vanilla language” of the report was predicted by Simon Gros, Travelport’s vice president of industry affairs, who participated in some sessions and noted in an email to subscribers that committee members could not agree on language regarding ancillary fees.

The final report said that “the Committee encourages all participants in the industry – airlines, distribution systems, and agents – to continue innovating with respect to transparency and distribution of optional products and services.

“All participants in the distribution system should be guided by certain principles that we heard articulated by many witnesses regarding transparency and what consumers should expect.”

Principles named
The report went on to name those principles, including: “a choice of competitive services related to air travel; to know the choices and services available to them from each airline; to know the cost to them of each choice; to be presented with offers that are designed to meet their stated needs; the ability to choose the services they want and not pay for what they do not want; and to know the cost of the entire trip before purchasing a ticket.”

The group also examined issues such as travelers with disabilities; discrimination against passengers based on race, religion, national origin or gender, and ways to deal with consumer complaints.