President Joe Biden plans to announce today a new proposed rule that would require airlines to disclose upfront certain fees, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday. The proposal “seeks to provide customers the information they need to choose the best deal.”
Under the proposal, U.S. carriers, foreign carriers and ticket agents would be required to clearly disclose passenger-specific or itinerary-specific baggage fees, change fees, cancellation fees and family seating fees to consumers whenever fare and schedule information is provided to consumers for flights to, within and from the United States.
“Airline passengers deserve to know the full, true cost of their flights before they buy a ticket,” DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
DOT has invited comments on this proposal, which will be open for 60 days from the date the notice is published in the Federal Register.
Industry trade group Airlines for America wrote in an email that its member passenger airlines already offer transparency to consumers “from first search to touchdown.” These carriers “provide details regarding the breakdown of airfares on their websites, providing consumers clarity regarding the total cost of a ticket. This includes transparency regarding taxes and government fees on airline tickets, which account for more than 20 percent of many domestic one-stop, roundtrip tickets.”
The group also noted that member carriers “offer a range of options—including fully refundable fares—to increase accessibility to air travel and to help customers make ticket selections that best fit their needs.”
Earlier this month, DOT released a new airline customer service dashboard listing specifics on passenger meal or hotel voucher entitlements when flights are delayed or canceled, which the agency said led to nine of the 10 largest U.S. carriers changing those plans. DOT also has published two additional airline-related proposals in the Federal Register—on air ticket refunds and for insight on seat sizes. The deadline for seat-size proposal comments is Nov. 1, and the deadline for refund comments is Nov. 22.
The agency recently reported that while airline cancellations in July had declined from the prior month, consumer complaints increased 16.5 percent and were 264 percent above pre-pandemic levels.