Originally Posted by red456
Of course it's there, but go to, for instance, the American Airlines website and tell me how many layers you have to go through to find this information. There's not a category for "Customer Service" on the dropdown menu on the left side of the page; you have go to "Customer Commitment" before even beginning to find the CoC.
You can pull up any airline's CoC by going to google and typing in "site:_____.com contract of carriage" (where ____.com is the airline's website). That doesn't excuse them from making it hard to find through their own sites, however.
And if you're buying a ticket over the phone, you've no idea what you are getting yourself in for because they aren't going to voluntarily tell you.
This has always been the case. The CoC is a dense, lengthy document, and the vast majority of pax have no interest in ever seeing it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the CoC evolved as part of deregulation The carriers converted the old fed regs into private "contracts" with the pax so that they could continue operating under essentially the same rules, but could tweak those rules when necessary. This is why so many airlines' CoCs have near-identical langugage and structure.
It needs to be in big, bold letters on their website: By purchasing a ticket to fly on Such and Such Airlines, you acknowledge that you are aware that you may be subject to a physical search of your person before being allow to board your flight.
I believe NW has a big link to the CoC right before you hit "purchase." Don't know about other airlines. Most airlines also have signs at the ticket counters reminding you that your ticket is governed by the CoC--although that is a bit pointless now that so many people use self-service checkin methods.