Government regulation tips

How much will you be charged for that hotel stay? The answer, of course, should be obvious: You’ll pay the published rate, plus government-imposed taxes and fees. Whatever that total turns out to be is your price.

Is the state of air travel improving? Not according to the DOT, which just released its Air Travel Consumer Report for 2015.

Tired of squeezing your ever-expanding frame into those ever-shrinking coach-class seats? So is Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation. And he wants the government to do something about it.

The pending FAA reauthorization bill has served as a kind of magnifying lens on several weighty issues facing travel suppliers and their customers.

Somebody had to be first. And when it comes to the relaunch of scheduled flights between the U.S. and Cuba, following the normalization of relations between the two countries after more than 50 years, it appears that JetBlue is set to snag those bragging rights.

In a historic agreement signed this week, the United States and Cuba have now resumed commercial air traffic between the two countries for the first time in 50 years, with routes expected to be running by fall 2016. Currently, only chartered flights are allowed to operate between the two countries.

Last week the State Department released a vague warning about Mexico travel to Playa Del Carmen, saying it had “received information about a security threat,” and prohibited government employees from traveling there for several days.

Raising questions of both ethics and law, the chief executive of Donald Trump’s hotel company, Trump Hotels, has announced plans to significantly expand the company’s presence in the U.S.

How easy is it for disgruntled airline customers to file a complaint with the DOT? Not easy enough, according to Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Los Angeles). And she places the blame for that difficulty squarely on the shoulders of the airlines.

How much is a monopoly worth? Plenty, for sure. But it’s no easy matter to precisely quantify its value in any particular situation.

Score two for the airlines, nil for consumers.

Who will be the next president of the United States, if the airlines had their way?

Pilots from Southwest and American Airlines are rallied at the White House today in the hopes of blocking Norwegian Air’s planned expansion in the U.S., reports the Dallas Business Journal.

Consolidation is the enemy of competition. That’s an axiom of economic theory. And it’s a truth known to any kid who was forced to cut the price of his lemonade when the neighbor opened another lemonade stand across the street.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Big Three legacy airlines have changed their pricing policy for multi-city trips. And yes, you guessed it: The new policy makes such trips more expensive. In some cases, much more expensive.

For the first time in more than 50 years, U.S. airlines have received federal approval to operate scheduled flight services to Cuba.

Thanks to the DOT, U.S. airlines are required to allow customers who book non-refundable tickets more than seven days in advance to either 1) hold the reservation for 24 hours before being charged for it, or 2) pay for the reservation but cancel within 24 hours and receive a refund.

This year’s ongoing security difficulties (read: long TSA wait times) are about to get a multi-million dollar fix. Earlier this month, Congress approved $28 million in funds to convert 2,784 part-time officers to full-time, which will open an additional 53 security lines nationwide. The funds will also expedite the hiring of 600 new officers before the end of September.

United has come in for more than its fair share of criticism lately, from travelers, from employees, from Wall Street. Now, the Department of Transportation can be added to the list of United-bashers.

In the final stages of the duel between the Anbang-led investor group and Marriott to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts, two questions remain. The first is whether Marriott will counter Anbang’s latest offer with a higher-value offer of its own. The second is which of the two outstanding offers Starwood stockholders will vote to accept at the company’s shareholder meeting on April 8.

Well, these are some expensive pretzels.