Misleading US airline travelers: Concerned American travel providers want US Senators’ attention

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

This open letter to US Senators Cantwell and Ayotte was sent by a number of leading travel industry providers in the United States in regards to misleading US airline travelers.

This open letter to US Senators Cantwell and Ayotte was sent by a number of leading travel industry providers in the United States in regards to misleading US airline travelers.

The Honorable Maria Cantwell
Chair
Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
427 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Kelly Ayotte
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
560 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senators Cantwell and Ayotte:

We the undersigned write to add our voices to other consumer and travel industry groups in unequivocal opposition to the Senate Commerce Committee adopting a companion bill to the Orwellian-titled House bill, the Transparent Airfares Act of 2014 (H.R. 4156). This airline-inspired bill would reverse a critically important U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rule adopted in 2012 as a cure to opaque and misleading airline advertising.

H.R. 4156 was passed out of the House Transportation Committee with no hearings at which stakeholders would have had an opportunity to inform Congress of their views and the flaws in this bill. Indeed, The Washington Post reported on April 25, โ€œConsumers have reacted to this bill in the same way their advocates have: Theyโ€™re dead-set against it.โ€ The New York Times likewise criticized the bill in an editorial saying, โ€œThis push to mislead consumers is particularly galling since recent mergers, like that of American Airlines and US Airways, have made the industry less competitive.โ€

In rejecting the airlinesโ€™ 2012 court challenge to the DOT rule, that airlines now hope to use Congress to override, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rightly sided with DOT observing: โ€œBased on common sense and over three decades of experience and complaints, DOT concluded that it was deceitful and misleading when the most prominent price listed by an airline is anything other than the total, final price of air travel.โ€

In short, this proposed legislation would reduce price transparency, harm consumers with higher prices-paid and undermine DOTโ€™s authority to safeguard consumers from unfair and deceptive practices. Airlinesโ€™ efforts here are stunning and set a dangerous precedent for participants in any industry, such as gas stations and banking, to undermine their regulator.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 consolidated virtually all airline consumer protections at DOT by force of the federal preemption doctrine. The recent Ginsburg v. Northwest Airlines decision of the U.S. Supreme Court is an illustration of the fact that except for the protection that DOT provides them, airline consumers (with rare exceptions) are absolutely bereft of any rights or remedies for unfair or deceptive acts or practices. The real damage done then, by H.R. 4156, would be to destroy the only bastion of protection that consumers have and strand them in a consumer protection no-manโ€™s-land.

Congress should be evaluating policies to strengthen DOTโ€™s consumer-protection authority, not ways to eviscerate it.

Sincerely,

American Society of Travel Agents
Business Travel Coalition
The Travel Team, Inc.
Hickory Global Partners, LLC
McGill University Institute of Air & Space Law
Dubai Travel and Tour Agents Group
Stanley Hotel
Balboa Travel, Inc.
Spokane International Airport
Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau
World Travel, Inc.
NAAFA
MacNair Travel Management/American Express
Association for Airline Passenger Rights
CI Travel
Montgomery Airport Authority
HealthCare California
TravelStore
National Instruments
Dollar Tree
Eaton Corporation
AirlinePassengers.org
Uniglobe Travel USA
Travelers United (formerly Consumer Travel Alliance)
JC Penney
Kellogg Company
Topaz International
The Travel Insider
Joselyn, Tepper & Associates, Inc.
HNTB Corporation
VISA Tours and Travel Ltd
Makino, Inc.
Adelman Travel Group
Global Travel
Travel Agency Lesser
Commercial Air Consulting
Dutch Broadway Travel
Air Land Sea Consultants
Kilauea Travel Group Inc.
Avia Marketing Consultants, Inc.
Classic Travel
Travelink Incorporated
Topco
Geraci Travel
Discount Travel and Cruise
RMA Travel & Tours
Child Travel Services
North Island Travel
Dream Travel
Travel Simplicity
Menno Travel Service
The Remington Group
Berger Travel Agency, Inc.
Hidden Treasure Tours, Inc.
Premiere Travel
Cresta World Travel
Frosch-GlobalPoint Travel, LLC
Corporate Travel Management
A & I Travel Management, Inc.
Antietam Travel Service, Inc.
Aker Solutions
Abundant Travel
Sun Travel
Colwick Travel
Options Travel
Traveline
Travelwise International
HNL Travel Associates
Teel’s Travel Planners, Inc.
Anthony Travel, Inc.
Corniche Travel Group
LXR Travel LLC
Changing Planes
Redfern Travel
Up and Away American Express Travel

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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