VARIOUS ENTITIES SUBMIT COMMENTS ON DOT’S PROPOSED REFUNDS RULE
October 14, 2021
On September 20, 2021, DOT received a final round of comments from several entities on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on “Refunding Fees for Delayed Checked Bags and Ancillary Services that Are Not Provided”. The entities, which now includes several airlines, have submitted comments on the proposed rule noting various concerns.
In the final days leading up to and including the September 20th deadline, 23 entities including but not limited to United, Spirit, Virgin Atlantic, and IATA, submitted comments to DOT noting the parts of the proposed rule and considerations that they agree with, as well as issues they have with the proposed rule that they would like to see changed before the rule is finalized. For example, IATA issued comments on five main components of the proposed rule, which included:
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Concerns regarding the length of delay triggering the refund requirement (12 hours for domestic flights, and 25 hours for international flight) given the innumerable amount of factors that can occur and are outside of an airline’s control;
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Support for not requiring carriers to refund checked baggage fees in instances where a passenger fails to a pick up their bag when available at the first point of entry into the U.S. when the bag needed to be picked up by the passenger for rechecking at a subsequent domestic flight segment;
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Disagreement with DOT’s proposal to start the clock on a potential bag delay when the passenger reaches their destination and is given the opportunity to deplane from the last flight segment, as opposed to when a mishandled baggage report is filed;
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Disagreement with DOT’s proposal to require that fees for oversized and overweight bags be refunded in the same way as for standard bags in the event of delay; and
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A recommendation that the final rule become effective no sooner than one-year after publication in the Federal Register so that carriers would have time to implement the rule and account for its complexities.
With the notice and comment process now completed, the fate of the final rule rests in the hands of DOT.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Andy Orr (aorr@eckertsemans.com or 202-659-6625).
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