ASTA Fights Transparent Airfares Act

As part of a new grassroots campaign to fight anti-consumer legislation, ASTA is calling on travel agents and their clients to write to their members of Congress to oppose the Transparent Airfares Act of 2014.

ASTA said the bill (H.R.4156) could be acted on as early as next week, and that airlines are looking for sponsors in the Senate for a companion bill.  

 “What this bill enables airlines to do is post a low-ball base fare and hide the total price of a ticket,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition (BTC).

 “We need for anyone concerned about anti-consumer practices to tell their member of Congress that this so-called Transparent Airfare Act doesn’t fly,” said Zane Kerby, ASTA president (pictured above). “This bill would allow airlines to deceive travelers about the actual cost of a flight, a fight they already lost in 2012 when the Department of Transportation put rules in place to prevent precisely this situation.”

Under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) full-fare advertising rule advertised airfares must prominently state the full and final price to be paid by the consumer, including all government-imposed taxes and fees.

According to Mitchell, the Act “undercuts the airline’s regulator, which is an extremely dangerous precedent. If they succeed in doing this they’ll do it again and again and again.”

In other developments, a group of seven consumer groups drafted a letter to the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation urging it “oppose any effort to replicate” similar legislation.“This legislation is blatantly anti-consumer and serves no purpose, in our view, other than to mislead consumers about the real price of airfare,” the letter said.