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On the last day the U.S. Department of Transportation would accept formal comments on its proposed rules regarding disclosure of airline ancillary fees, two major advocacy groups came out swinging.
Both the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and the Business Travel Coalition (BTC) filed their formal comments today, with ASTA asking the DOT "to strike a decisive blow for consumers by requiring full transparency and 'transactability' in airline ancillary fees," said ASTA Executive Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs Paul Ruden. "The roughly 50 percent of consumers who use a travel agent should be as informed and empowered as those who buy directly from airlines."
As it stands, the proposed rules by the DOT, issued in May, would require airlines to provide agents with real-time information about core ancillary services and fees such as seat selection, baggage fees, carry-on bags, etc. However, the agents would not be allowed to sell these services to consumers). The proposed rules would also impose detailed regulations on the operations of travel agencies, ASTA noted, despite no meaningful record of consumer mistreatment or dissatisfaction.
[BLURB]"The roughly 50 percent of consumers who use a travel agent should be as informed and empowered as those who buy directly from airlines." - Paul Ruden, ASTA Executive Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs[/BLURB]
"The only realistic way that the government can assure that the airlines will open the door to independent distribution of the array of ancillary services and fees they have developed," ASTA argued, "is to order them to do so…A directive to this effect from DOT can reasonably be expected to have immediate and significantly positive effects on the ability of consumers to see, understand and purchase ancillary services at the same time and in the same transaction through which they buy the airfare."
The BTC filed its comments on behalf of 300 corporate, university and government travel departments, travel management companies, industry associations, consumer groups, airport authorities and foundations.
In its comments, BTC claimed "Airlines have been increasingly able - without competitive repercussions - to ignore the demand for ancillary fee data even from their largest, most sophisticated corporate, university and government customers. In eschewing true price transparency, airlines increasingly mask the all-in price of air travel, with two major adverse effects. First, lack of price transparency prevents consumers from efficient comparison-shopping of air travel offerings across multiple airlines - a hallmark of U.S. airline industry deregulation. A second consequence of the deterioration in price disclosure is that ancillary fees go largely undisciplined by market forces."
The DOT has been analyzing and studying the issue for more than six years regarding ancillary fees. With the comment period ending today, the DOT is expected to announce its new rules in early 2014.
"Consumers should be able to see, compare and buy basic ancillary services through all of the distribution channels that airlines have opted to use," the BTC concluded in its comments.
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