The Business Travel Coalition is trying to get the White House involved in the ongoing battle over the transparency of ancillary fees, via an online petition to require airlines to provide fee information in channels where they sell base fares.
The BTC filed the petition on the White House website’s “We The People” section, an online avenue the Obama administration created to allow people to petition the federal government on a range of issues.
The petition calls for immediate Department of Transportation rulemaking to "restore air travel comparison shopping for consumers."
“Airlines have been able to withhold fee information for five years — evidence of a failing market,” says the petition.
If the petition gets enough support — 25,000 signatures by Dec. 25 — White House staff will review it, send it to the appropriate public policy experts and issue a response.
The petition had less than 700 signatures on Wednesday afternoon.
“If it gains traction and there’s good media covering of it, the White House will take a closer look,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the BTC. The goal is to encourage the DOT to make a “very robust” rulemaking on the matter, Mitchell said.
The BTC is conducting a PR campaign to publicize the petition drive. Mitchell said that other entities in the travel industry are involved in publicizing the campaign, as well.
The “We the People” platform has a multitude of petitions. They include several requests for U.S. states to secede and form their own government, and calls to federally legalize marijuana and repeal Obamacare.
Follow Kate Rice on Twitter @krtravelweekly.