Passenger rights organization FlyersRights.org criticize the US Government decision not to impose the requirement for US carriers to disclose ‘extra’ fees to online travel booking sites. The association believes the lack of requirement is “making comparison price shopping more difficult for consumers”.
In a statement released on December 8, 2017, airline passenger organization is arguing that the regulatory reform is pending since 2014 and was “started because many airlines refuse to timely disclose their fees and sometimes even their air fares to online travel sites like Expedia or Priceline. Some like Southwest also refuse to disclose their airfares claiming proprietary information, even though it’s available to the general public on the airlines’ web site”.
“This is NOT how you make air travel great again,” said Paul Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org. “Airlines are already exempt from all state and local consumer protection, much antitrust law, most other federal regulations and tort law. The DOT is their sole regulator. If the DOT refuses to correct abuses or enforce existing regulations, and repeals existing regulations, airlines will be the first US industry to have stripped the public of all economic protections from unfair predatory practices. Only Congress and the federal courts can now override this unfortunate DOT decision”.
Source – AeroTime
