WASHINGTON, DC – An ill-conceived bill that will legalize drip pricing, a form of bait-and-switch advertising, may be voted on soon by the House of Representatives. The Airfares Transparency Act needs careful consideration and open debate, not a hustled and hushed vote on the floor of the House similar to the one it received in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
This bill is totally without merit and unnecessary. Everything that this bill claims to do for consumers in regards disclosure of taxes and fees is legal under current Department of Transportation (DOT) rules. Though the title suggests the bill aims at making “airfares” more transparent, the plain language of the bill does just the opposite. It enables highly deceptive advertising of airfares charges. Plus, the bill is based on blatant untruths.
UNTRUTH #1: Bill sponsors claim DOT forces airlines to hide taxes and fees.
FACT: Current rules allow airlines to display taxes and fees just less prominently than the full fare in the same advertisements. This bill will hide these taxes and fees even more behind a link or a pop-up.
UNTRUTH #2: Airlines want customers to know the extent of airline taxes and fees.
FACT: Airlines have many ways to communicate with their passengers that they choose not to use. They can use their power of outreach to educate passengers about creeping taxation using their inflight magazines and videos, boarding passes, blogs, social media, websites and itinerary printouts. They have chosen not to do so.
UNTRUTH #3: Airlines and the bill sponsors want to make airfares more transparent.
FACT: Airlines have continually fought efforts by travel agents and consumers to make airfares more transparent through publication of mushrooming ancillary fees. They continue to withhold pricing data from travel agencies that sell more than half of all airline tickets in the country. Airlines want prices to be more difficult to decipher and compare. This bill will do exactly that.
UNTRUTH #4: Airlines should be treated like other industries, allowed to add taxes and fees at the end of the buying process.
FACT: Airlines and the bill sponsors are confusing federal taxes and fees with state and local taxes and fees. No other industry adds on federal taxes and fees at the completion of the buying process. Virtually all taxes and fees that the airlines so forlornly point to are local sales taxes and fees imposed on hotels and car rentals.
CONSUMERS CONSEQUENCES: This bill is a blueprint for misleading and deceptive bait-and-switch drip pricing that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the DOT have been fighting for decades. The bill’s language will allow airlines to advertise low-ball prices and then later in the buying process add in mandatory federal taxes and fees.
The current full airfare rule mandates truth in advertising and is designed to make comparison shopping easier for consumers. It mandates truth in advertising that ensures when a consumer sees the price of flying from departure to destination in an advertisement, they can purchase the ticket for the advertised price.
These current airfare rules are supported by an unprecedented collection of consumer groups. Plus, a historic petition from Travelers United circulated through Change.org gathered signatures from more than 127,000 consumers, and the number or signatories is still growing. Their take: We like knowing how much something we buy actually costs — that’s real transparency.
The current rule works for airline consumers. It should not be eliminated by unwise legislation based on untruths with dramatic negative consequences for travelers.
About Travelers United
Travelers United (formerly Consumer Travel Alliance) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to provide consumers an articulate and reasoned voice in decisions that affect travel consumers across travel’s entire spectrum. Travelers United’s staff gathers facts, analyzes issues, and disseminates that information to the public, the travel industry, regulators and policy makers.
