Originally Posted by Hairbus380

This. I frequently travel light, without checked bags, and would hate to have those costs bundled into my base fare.

Originally Posted by joshwex90

When discussing "marketing airline" for on-time stats, does that only apply to UA/DL/AA/AS and their Express/Shuttle/Connection subsidiaries/partners, or does it apply to all code-share arrangements (i.e. UA/LH)?

Originally Posted by FirstInFlight

One of the more interesting issues that has arisen recently is the value placed on a refund when a passenger is downgraded. For example, if I go online today and buy a ticket from DCA to ATL I will see a coach price and a first class price.

Let's say the difference in price is $100 so I decide to splurge and buy the $100 upgraded seat. Then, in a few months when it's actually time to fly, the airline determines that it has oversold first class or changed equipment or for whatever reason it downgrades me to coach.

So, I ask for a refund of the $100 that I paid to upgrade my ticket. But the airline say that the price of my ticket, at flight time, was only $20 less than the price of a first class ticket at flight time. That's because, at flight time all the cheap coach tickets are gone and only Y class coach tickets are available. So the airlines refunds me $20 instead of the $100 that I paid.

When you talk about consumer protection and fairness and transparency - any chance you will address this situation?

Originally Posted by SAT Lawyer

Thanks to the DOT for the time that will be spent today discussing consumer protections for air travelers. I would appreciate it if the DOT would shed insight on the following:

In 2011, the DOT implemented a strong consumer protection rule that prohibited airlines from trying to increase the cost of air transportation after a ticket had been purchased and issued. 14 C.F.R. § 399.88. In 2012, the DOT clarified that Section 399.88 protected consumers who had purchased and confirmed tickets from claims by the airline that the fare was mistakenly priced too low, thereby disallowing airlines from voiding tickets that had been issued on what essentially amounted to cases of seller’s remorse:
Unfortunately, on May 8, 2015, the DOT announced that, as a matter of prosecutorial discretion, it was going to suspend enforcement of Section 399.88 with respect to fares sold by an airline that the airline later claimed to be mistaken, except that it would require the seller of air transportation to make whole a consumer who had incurred reasonable, actual, and verifiable out-of-pocket expenses in reliance on the ticket purchase. This was a disappointing development to many of us consumers because it eroded and watered down what had previously been a strong, clear, and consumer-friendly regulation. In its May 8, 2015 announcement, the DOT indicated:
Can you provide an update as to the status of the DOT issuing a final rule regarding mistaken fares? Does the DOT intend to restore Section 399.88, as originally written and interpreted by the DOT, before its enforcement was suspended? If not, does the DOT at least intend to impose a requirement on sellers of air transportation that they must notify passengers that they are claiming mistake for which they are seeking to cancel the ticket that was purchased and issued within a fixed period of time – for example, the corresponding 24-hour period of time that consumers often are afforded to cancel their own ticket purchases without penalty – or else the DOT will require them to honor those tickets?

Originally Posted by Cloudship

...is the real consumer concern the fact that they have little choice and transparency anymore over which airlines they can choose from, and what little difference there is between the big three?

Originally Posted by mherdeg

Thanks for sharing your time with us. Can you please spell out how today's proposed changes will improve competition between the remaining airlines?

The DOT press release says that these changes will "relieve undue burden on competition". But it's non-obvious how the specific changes pinpointed in the press release relate to competition between carriers.

From the frequent traveler's perspective, the Obama administration's legacy is one of customer-unfriendly mergers leading to a slowly eroding consumer experience. Airline share prices are up, but that's cold comfort for people who have to buy tickets instead of stock. It might help shake the feeling that federal regulators have shepherded a decade of oligopolistic progress if we could better understand how these rule changes are meant to improve consumers' available choices.

Domestic travelers see that in a market with less competition, everything seems to be getting worse — from withering frequent-flyer programs to shrunken, oligopolistic "capacity-discipline" schedules to expansion of high-density seating in domestic markets to sky-high peak-season fares that surge even as industry costs retreat.

If anything, it seems like recent DOT activity has hurt competition, rather than helping it, which is why I'm wondering how these changes will reverse the trend. An October 2016 ProPublica feature story chronicled how the DOT and DOJ were roundly outclassed and outmaneuvered by merging companies which promised pro-consumer improvements and then delivered essentially the opposite, with no penalty for lying (https://www.propublica.org/article/a...ying-antitrust). Today's press release doesn't seem to give any hint that if another two airlines wanted to merge (or if the remaining airlines wanted to coordinate some additional passenger-unfriendly change), that the DOT or DOJ or any agency would be effective in providing any consumer protection at all -- which is a gap I'd like to understand.

To be specific about the question:

(1) I'm struggling to understand how requiring baggage fee refunds for delayed baggage, demanding that smaller airlines report passenger service metrics to the DOT, retooling passenger service metrics to attribute regional carriers' performance to the affiliated mainline carrier, increasing reporting requirements about baggage, increasing reporting requirements about mishandled wheelchairs, or adding members to an advisory committee will have any effect on competition. What is the link?

(2) And I'm also not sure how forcing airlines and OTAs to change the way they market flights ("prohibited from biasing on behalf of certain airlines how they present available flights for purchase without disclosing this bias") will affect competition -- can you explain how you think this change will affect the fact that the vast majority of city pairs are served nonstop by one or at most two airlines who typically maintain monopoly or duopoly pricing power in the market?

(3) And I also see that the DOT is considering a rule that would prevent airlines from hiding inventory, fare information, and schedule information from "online travel sites". (I know you guys mean "Southwest shouldn't be able to hide its prices from Expedia!" but in my heart of hearts I'm hoping you end up doing something great and publish a rule that means "Delta shouldn't be able to hide from ExpertFlyer".) Is this coming rule change designed to be pro-competition? How?

(4) Finally I'm not sure whether the proposed "explore whether we should require airlines to be more transparent about unbundling" experiment is meant to affect competition. Is it? How?

Thanks for your time. I'm really interested in understanding how the DOT believes these changes will accomplish their stated objectives.

Originally Posted by thejaredhuang

I would also like clarification about this. It is already widely known that there are baggage fees and for some airlines fees to check in at the airport. By incorporating all of these fees into a ticket price, wouldn't that just increase the price the average consumer sees? Most people know how to avoid fees when they travel. A much simpler and quicker solution would be to post a guide on how to check for certain fees (e.g. baggage, boarding pass, etc) instead of creating an committee to try to force airlines to incorporate fees into the base fare.

A la carte is how the world is shifting, don't try to fight it. For example people are starting to bundle their cable TV and picking channels a la carte.