As we talked about on Tuesday, the airline industry sucks. It’s so expensive to fly nowadays, and you get less and less for your money, including sh-ttier seats and fewer free in-flight amenities. They prioritize profits over safety and generally have terrible customer service for when things go wrong, like a flight being canceled or delayed or luggage being lost. And the worst part (to me) is how unfair it is that the taxpayers have to bail the industry out when times are bad because they chose stock buybacks over a rainy day fund. And how do they repay us? By monopolizing and outpricing us.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been working on fixing some of the issues that are wrong with the airline industry. In August, he fined American Airlines $4.1 million for keeping passengers on board for too long during the delays. He also set up the Customer Service Dashboard that requires transparency, serving as a cheat sheet for customers to know each airline’s policy on certain things. On Wednesday, Secretary Pete announced that the DOT is now requiring airlines to give automatic refunds when a flight is significantly delayed (more than three hours) or canceled. They’re also required to disclose all fees, including junk fees. So now we’ll be able to see all of the dumb extra charges you see when you book a hotel room (like a “tourism tax”) or concert ticket (f-ck you, Ticketmaster!):
Throw out the junk fees: One of the final rules announced Wednesday requires airlines to show the full price of travel before passengers pay for their tickets. The other will force airlines to provide prompt cash refunds when flights are canceled or significantly changed. “Passengers deserve to know upfront what costs they are facing and should get their money back when an airline owes them – without having to ask,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement announcing the new rules. Surprise junk fees have become a large and growing source of revenue for airlines in recent years, according to the DOT.
More info and less headaches: “Today’s announcements will require airlines to both provide passengers better information about costs before ticket purchase, and promptly provide cash refunds to passengers when they are owed — not only saving passengers time and money, but also preventing headaches,” Buttigieg said.
Waahhh, nobody makes the airlines bleed their own blood: The airline industry is unlikely to welcome the new rules. At a hearing on the proposed fee rule in March 2023, an industry lobbying group representing American, Delta and United said it would be too difficult for airlines to disclose their charges more clearly. “The amount of unwanted and unneeded information forced upon passengers” by the new policy would only cause “confusion and frustration,” warned Doug Mullen, the deputy general counsel at Airlines for America. “Very few, if any, need or want this information, and especially when they are initially trying to understand schedule and fare options.”
A “benefit to the sector as a whole:” But the DOT insists its new rule will give consumers the information they need to better understand the true costs of air travel. “I believe this is to the benefit of the sector as a whole,” Buttigieg said in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, because passengers will have “more confidence in the aviation sector.”
No more scam advertising allowed: The new rules require airlines to disclose all baggage, change, and cancellation fees, and to share that information with third-party booking sites and travel agents. The regulation also prohibits bait-and-switch tactics, the DOT says, that disguise the true cost of flights by advertising a low base fare that does not include all mandatory fees.
Creating a “better experience” for customers: “This is really about making sure that we create a better experience for passengers, and a stronger aviation sector in the United States,” Buttigieg said in the NPR interview.
So, I don’t mean to sound like I’m ungrateful or all doom and gloom, but you can’t f–ck with a CEO’s potential extra yacht purchase, so I am bracing myself for whatever workaround or way the airlines end up punishing customers for their own failures. But that doesn’t mean that will happen here! This is a great start. I do appreciate the effort because as someone who has flown pretty regularly over the last 16+ years, air travel has gotten out-of-control and needs a massive overhaul. I’ve had to fight for refunds before and 9/10 times, had to settle for vouchers that expired within one year because I didn’t want to pay an extra $75+/person for a fully refundable ticket. It’s bullsh-t. Break up the monopolies. Let’s get some free-market competition and force them to drop some of the more ridiculous fees. Make them actually pay back all of that bailout money with interest, then take that money and invest it in education.
That lobbyist from Airlines for America gave the game away: “The amount of unwanted and unneeded information forced upon passengers…Very few, if any, need or want this information, and especially when they are initially trying to understand schedule and fare options.” My dude, maybe you’re cool with being price gouged, but most of us are not. We know the difference between reading the time of day and the cost of something. You’re still gonna get to overcharge us, now we’ll just know by how much. Y’all are just mad that people who weren’t paying attention before will understand just how similar the airline industry and Ticketmaster are.
Photos credit: Connor Danylenko and Adrian Agawin on Pexels, Jim West / ImageBROKER / Avalon, Getty