Thank you for contacting me to share your views on H.R. 4156, the Transparent Airfares Act. Your opinion is important to me, and I appreciate having the opportunity to respond to you on this issue.

As you may know, the Transparent Airfares Act, introduced by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), would allow advertisements for passenger air travel to state the base airfare and separately disclose any government imposed taxes and fees to the total cost of travel. While I understand your views, I support the bill because I believe it will make the costs associated with travel more transparent, as it will allow customers full disclosure of the breakdown of the cost of an airfare ticket.

H.R. 4156 was marked up by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on April 9, 2014, and was ordered to the full House of Representatives. While we disagree on this issue, please know that I will continue to monitor airfare transparency with your concerns in mind.

Thank you for the response. Can you explain how the proposed change would make the costs associated with travel more transparent? There is no existing law preventing airlines from presenting the full breakdown of taxes and fees. My receipt for an upcoming flight to Europe has all this information on it:

Fare Breakdown
Airfare: 980.00 USD
U.S. Customs User Fee: 5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee: 7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee: 5.00
U.S. Federal Transportation Tax: 35.00
September 11th Security Fee: 2.50
France Airport Tax: 28.40
France Air Passenger Solidarity Tax: 6.20
France Passenger Service Charge: 39.20
International Surcharge: 516.00
U.S. Passenger Facility Charge: 4.50
Per Person Total: 1,629.30 USD
eTicket Total: 1,629.30 USD

The airfare you paid on this itinerary totals: 980.00 USD
The taxes, fees, and surcharges paid total: 649.30 USD

This seems transparent to me. If anything, the "International Surcharge" is opaque. I believe it's a fee assessed by the AIRLINE, but how can I tell? Maybe you can work on that?

I also performed a search (on United.com) and as soon as I choose all my flights, the web site displays a total of "Additional taxes/fees" including a link that provides the same type of breakdown as I provided above. The same information is also made available again before I pay, on the Payment Information page.

So if there is some transparency that HR 4156 would add that I am missing, please explain.

The Department considers any advertising or solicitation by a direct air carrier, indirect air carrier, an agent of either, or a ticket agent, for passenger air transportation, a tour (i.e., a combination of air transportation and ground or cruise accommodations) or tour component (e.g., a hotel stay) that must be purchased with air transportation that states a price for such air transportation, tour, or tour component to be an unfair and deceptive practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. 41712, unless the price stated is the entire price to be paid by the customer to the carrier, or agent, for such air transportation, tour, or tour component. Although charges included within the single total price listed (e.g., government taxes) may be stated separately or through links or “pop ups” on websites that display the total price, such charges may not be false or misleading, may not be displayed prominently, may not be presented in the same or larger size as the total price, and must provide cost information on a per passenger basis that accurately reflects the cost of the item covered by the charge.