rwoman
Aug 1, 12, 1:42 am
USA Today: Flight price comparison fight ramps up (http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-07-31/Flight-price-comparison-fight-ramps-up/56621924/1)
WASHINGTON – Everyone involved in air travel — online travel agents, federal transportation officials, consumer advocates and airlines — claims to want to give passengers more information about prices for options such as meals and seat assignments while buying tickets.
Airlines contend they provide the fees on their own websites and can spread the information more broadly through specific deals such as the one Delta Air Lines has to market seats with extra legroom on its two-class aircraft.
I know charges for Economy Comfort on DL are not transparent. As such, on the DL thread, we've put together a spreadsheet detailing the costs for FO/GM and non-status passengers. I would think it would be easier for DL to just publish the information based on flight distance, etc., but it has not happened.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1275228-faq-economy-comfort-seating.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1356482-request-ec-pricing-support-ec-faq.html
But consumer advocates, travel agents and the companies that provide ticket-price comparisons argue that the government needs to force airlines to provide the data so customers can compare. The difference is between going to specific sites, such as Southwest Airlines, or to comparison sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity.
Is this really something that requires legislation? Is it really protecting consumers...or rather informing them? At what point should we, as consumers, be responsible for educating ourselves...albeit some information can be difficult to find!
WASHINGTON – Everyone involved in air travel — online travel agents, federal transportation officials, consumer advocates and airlines — claims to want to give passengers more information about prices for options such as meals and seat assignments while buying tickets.
Airlines contend they provide the fees on their own websites and can spread the information more broadly through specific deals such as the one Delta Air Lines has to market seats with extra legroom on its two-class aircraft.
I know charges for Economy Comfort on DL are not transparent. As such, on the DL thread, we've put together a spreadsheet detailing the costs for FO/GM and non-status passengers. I would think it would be easier for DL to just publish the information based on flight distance, etc., but it has not happened.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1275228-faq-economy-comfort-seating.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1356482-request-ec-pricing-support-ec-faq.html
But consumer advocates, travel agents and the companies that provide ticket-price comparisons argue that the government needs to force airlines to provide the data so customers can compare. The difference is between going to specific sites, such as Southwest Airlines, or to comparison sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity.
Is this really something that requires legislation? Is it really protecting consumers...or rather informing them? At what point should we, as consumers, be responsible for educating ourselves...albeit some information can be difficult to find!