A4A AND DOT MEET TO DISCUSS CONSUMER RULE 3
October 5, 2014
On August 7, 2014, Airlines For America (A4A) met with representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on “Transparency of Airline Ancillary Fees and Other Consumer Protection Issues” Rulemaking (i.e. Consumer Rule 3). The following are some key points from a report that was recently published in Docket DOT-OST-2014-0056.
- Carriers are only required to provide ticket agents fare, schedule, availability and ancillary service information. They are not required to provide customer-specific information such as frequent flyer status, or the fee rules for particular passenger types. The reference to carriers being required to provide ticket agents the fee rules for particular passenger types (e.g., military, frequent flyers, or credit card holders) was erroneous.
- Under the proposed rule, DOT would require carriers to provide ancillary fee information to ticket agents that is “useable, current, and accurate,” but has not defined the terms. If a dispute arose between airlines and ticket agents about what constitutes a “useable” format, DOT indicated that it would prefer to interfere as little as possible in such disputes.
- Carriers cannot pre-select the “opt out” option of the rule proposed in requiring carriers and ticket agents to disclose basic ancillary fee information because the Department wants consumers to choose the information they do and do not see.
- DOT encouraged interested parties to file comments as to when in the search process a customer should receive an “opt in” choice if the Department decides to require ancillary service fee information only upon the consumer’s request.
- DOT said that the proposed rule’s prohibition on charging for distributing information via contract provisions would last as long as the existing contracts between airlines and GDSs — DOT does not want to disrupt existing contracts. After that time, any price charged for distribution of ancillary service fee information would be negotiated by the parties involved, just like the price for distributing fare information.
To date, numerous parties have filed comments, including Air Transat, Aeroflot, The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, Virgin Atlantic Airways, AeroMexico, Google, Hipmunk, Tripadvisor LLC, and masFlight.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).