The new rules created by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) will surely drive agents away from booking airline tickets.
While airlines are launching a backlash of lawsuits against the DOT for what the airline industry sees as an insufferable set of rules designed to protect travellers, agents are horrified by the risks they now face while American consumers are cautiously optimistic.
"It's a good start," said Anthony Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor, a company that helps consumers file airline complaints, reports US news site, USAtoday.com, in an article written by Chris Elliot, himself a consumer advocate.
"It will mean fewer passengers being taken advantage of," said another consumer and frequent traveller.
One thing is incontrovertible – US agents are exposed to massive risk under these new rules. Where a member of the public has booked a ticket through a travel adviser, that travel adviser, not the airline, will be responsible for a prompt ticket refund from their own pocket and then it will be up to that travel agency to recoup the money from the airline.
"I'm already seeing travel advisers who had been providing flight booking services to their clients, who are now choosing not to offer that service," US travel adviser Brandi Taylor told USAtoday.com.
The most-discussed aspects of these consumer protection rules are:
- Airlines (or the merchant of record, which could be the travel agent) are to automatically refund tickets when they cancel or significantly delay a flight. The latest version of the Bill will require airlines/agents to refund passengers for a domestic flight if it's delayed more than three hours and for an international flight, six hours.
- The Bill disallows airlines from charging fees for families to sit together.
- Airlines must disclose ‘junk fees’ (fees for checked or carry-on luggage, or for changing or cancelling a reservation) at the same time they display a fare quote.
- State attorneys (rather than the FAA or the DOT) will have the power to hold airlines and ticketing agents accountable when the airline crosses the line of violating consumer protection laws.
- The FAA is also likely to make a determination on minimum seat sizes.
- The DOT wants the refunds to be issued automatically, ie to be pushed from the airline side rather than the consumer having to apply for a refund. This remains a bone of contention. Bill McGee, a senior fellow for aviation at the American Economic Liberties Project, said a lot of money was at stake in unpaid refunds, as many folk did not know they had a refund due and might never claim it. “Airline lobbyists are fighting tooth and nail to ensure the onus remains on consumers to jump through hoops, rather than having carriers issue automatic refunds," he said.
Consumer activists are a little sceptical that these new rules will be enforced. According to Radchenko, there is a perception that airlines can get away with anything. He told usatoday.com that out of almost 300 complaints he had filed over the last year, the DOT had not made any decisions or issued enforcement actions.
Radchenko called for the US government to prescribe penalties for airlines that ignored or failed to comply with the new rules. He also wants consumers to have the right to recover attorneys' fees and legal costs when they bring lawsuits against airlines.
Elliot, the author of the article, says the gold standard for consumer protection (at least according to consumer advocates), is a European rule known as EC 261. It requires airlines to assist passengers and compensate them when they are denied boarding or their flights are cancelled or delayed. Those two simple tenets are now established in the new US rules, but whether they will be upheld remains to be seen.
