Trump Administration Blocks Travel-Consumer Protections

27.07.2023 - 18:24 / smartertravel.com

Airline pricing transparency: Who’s for it, and who’s against it?

Obviously, consumers are pro-transparency. Without it, travel buyers don’t know the full price, the real price, of an airline ticket until they’ve worked their way through the entire booking process, when all the ancillary fees (for bags, seat selection, and so on) are finally folded into the advertised price.

Without transparency, the advertised price amounts to bait-and-switch.

Against transparency — at least government-mandated transparency, which is the only reliable form of transparency — are the airlines, both individually and via the trade organization that represents their interests, Airlines for America. They argue that forcing full disclosure is unnecessarily intrusive and expensive. It’s their version of the same argument that Big Business predictably raises against consumer protections: There’s no need for the government to impose rules; the invisible hand of the marketplace will ensure that consumers’ best interests are accommodated.

Mediating between the two is the federal government, which is charged with overseeing the best interests of both travelers and travel suppliers. Which brings us to the Department of Transportation’s supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to the Transparency of Airline Ancillary Service Fees rule.

The proposal would have required full disclosure of all ancillary fees, early in the booking process, by both airlines and travel distributors like Expedia and Travelocity. The proposed rule had been subject to comments from the public and the travel industry, with the overwhelming opinion favoring pricing transparency.

And it was clear that, based on the evidence and feedback, the DOT was leaning toward imposing rules that would require transparency:

Nevertheless, last week, the new DOT secretary, Elaine Chao, prematurely suspended further public comment, to “allow the President’s appointees the opportunity to review and consider this action.” That’s none-too-subtle code for “No further action.”

Naturally, Airlines for America, speaking for the industry at large, was thrilled with the move:

Travel consumers, on the other hand, should be disheartened that their voices were overruled by the interests of a few corporations and their well compensated lobbyists. That will be business, Big Business, as usual, at least for the next four years.

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years