Travel Groups Meet With DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Representatives of several leading U.S. consumer and traveler groups on Tuesday met with U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg to urge action on the most pressing consumer protection priorities affecting consumers flying commercially.

It was the first time representatives of consumer groups were granted a meeting with a U.S. Secretary of Transportation in nearly five years.

Several of the representatives said they found Buttigieg keenly interested in the important issues currently affecting travelers and were “impressed with his transformational vision for protecting consumers’ rights, increasing airline competition and safeguarding passenger health and safety while flying on commercial airlines through U.S. airports.”

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Among the items introduced included:

– John Breyault, vice president of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud for the National Consumers League, urged the secretary to make consumer protection a strategic priority for the DOT. Breyault stressed that due to federal preemption and previous court decisions, DOT is the sole consumer protection agency that flyers can turn to for redress from airline industry abuses.

– Kurt Ebenhoch, executive director of Travel Fairness Now, presented the groups’ position on ticket refunds and expiring travel credits given to travelers related to COVID-19 cancellations in lieu of full refunds. Ebenhoch shared the groups’ consensus position that DOT must immediately ensure that ticket vouchers issued during the COVID-19 pandemic will never expire.

– From Consumer Reports, William J. McGee, aviation adviser, and Anna Laitin, director of Financial Fairness and Legislative Strategy, urged DOT to ensure that families with children 13 and under can always sit together on flights without incurring additional fees or purchasing tickets at higher fares. Despite a 2016 congressional directive for DOT to address this issue, nothing has been done, and a Freedom of Information Act request from Consumer Reports indicates children as young as one, two or three years old have been assigned seats alone.

– Paul Hudson, president, FlyersRights.org, pressed the case for DOT to initiate a rulemaking for minimum seat sizes and to update emergency evacuation standards to be completed within one year.