The Department of Transportation (DOT) has refused to give the airlines an extra year of lead time to comply with two new regulations about the disclosure of baggage fees and allowances.
Instead, the DOT said it will be lenient in the enforcement of the new rules until airlines can modify their reservations and check-in systems to comply.
The move affects two of several new consumer rules developed last year that are slated to become effective on Jan. 26.
The first requires that airlines disclose, in online receipts and on e-ticket confirmations, the specific fees and allowances that apply to the particular itinerary for carry-on items and the first and second checked bag, including information on how the fees are affected by the traveler’s frequent flyer-status, affinity card usage or other circumstances.
The second rule stipulates that the baggage allowances and fees on multi-carrier itineraries must be the same throughout, governed by the first carrier on the itinerary or, in the case of codeshares, the marketing carrier whose code is displayed.
Airlines from around the world deluged the DOT with comments and affidavits in November claiming that their systems cannot be modified in time to comply for numerous technical reasons.
It turns out, for example, that many widely used airport check-in systems cannot access information about previous carriers on an itinerary in order to apply their baggage policies and fees.
In an order issued late last week the DOT acknowledged that technical hurdles remain, but refused to change the effective date. It said carriers have already had many months to program their systems to comply, and passengers deserve the protection that the rules are intended to provide.
According to the DOT, it should be no problem for airlines to apply the two rules to their own itineraries and to connecting itineraries that involve regional affiliates or alliance partners.
As for other types of itineraries, the DOT said it will suspend enforcement of the rule for six months on interline itineraries and international codeshares if two conditions are met.
First, carriers must provide a link on the e-ticket confirmation to websites of codeshare or interline partners, where passengers can find the applicable baggage allowance and fee information.
Second, carriers must reimburse passengers upon request if the airlines’ failure to apply the same fees throughout an itinerary results in an overcharge.
In a related action, the DOT said recently that it will suspend enforcement of another provision of the new consumer rules that prohibits airlines from increasing the prices of ancillary services after the passengers purchases a ticket.
This provision is under review by the U.S. Court of Appeals because some airlines claim the DOT lacks the authority and/or the justification to freeze the price for services such as meals and WiFi at the rates in effect when the passenger books, if these items are not purchased with the ticket.
The DOT said in a recent advisory that it has decided to “revisit” the issue and will suspend enforcement, except with respect to baggage fees, pending a new rulemaking on the matter.
This means that effective Jan. 26, a passenger’s baggage fees will be those in effect on the date the ticket was purchased, but the fees for other ancillary services will be those in effect at the time the services are purchased.