Airline passengers may be relieved of some frustrations when flying abroad, as new rules now make air travel more transparent.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a new set of airline passenger protections in efforts to eliminate the levels of uncertainty associated with flying.
These protections will aim to reimburse passengers for bag fees over lost baggage, provide greater compensation for consumers who are bumped from flights and shine a light on hidden fees.
“The rules will definitely have an improvement,” said Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance. “They will help with communication between the airlines and consumers so that we start to know what the problems are when flights are actually being delayed or cancelled. They will also help in terms of better compensation for denied boarding, or ‘bumping’ as we normally call it.”
In a press release issued by the Transportation Department, Secretary Ray LaHood said air travelers should be treated with the respect they deserve.
“Airline passengers have a right to be treated fairly. It’s just common sense that if an airline loses your bag or you get bumped from a flight because it was oversold, you should be reimbursed,” LaHood said.
A full disclosure of baggage fees, changes in reservations, meals and upgraded seats are now available to passengers. In addition, government taxes and fees that were previously kept from the public are included in the up-front fare quotation.
“The big changes here are the fact that what you see advertised will soon be the total airfare and all the mandatory taxes and fees,” Leocha said.
Along with more transparency, the DOT is expanding the existing ban on lengthy tarmac delays. This will require foreign airlines to adhere to a four-hour hard time limit on tarmac delays when flying internationally from U.S. soil. The new rule came to light after the December 2010 blizzard where passengers experienced extended delays by foreign carriers at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
In spite of these improvements, Leocha said he would like to see additional changes to the rules.
“If you’re flying from Chicago to Miami and you’re going to be charged for one bag, you should be able to go on-line to find out how much that’s going to cost you, airfare plus the baggage,” Leocha said. “So right now the airlines have dodged a bullet, but it looks like the Department of Transportation is going to keep working on this and come out with a new rule by, I think, the end of this year.”
Until then, passengers can look forward to an easier travelling experience come August when these rules will take effect.
