In a letter sent to lawmakers Thursday, ASTA outlined its
issues with the proposed Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of
2016, including the method of disclosure of airline ancillary fees and some
additional disclosures that must be performed during transactions made in
person or on the phone.
The FAA reauthorization process has been ongoing for some
time now. At the end of March, one day before the first FAA extension expired,
the president signed a bill to extend FAA funding through July 15.
In ASTA’s letter, president Zane Kerby wrote the society
believes “that on the whole the legislation meets its goals to support U.S.
jobs, improve safety, advance beneficial drone technology and help passengers.”
However, ASTA does have some concerns.
First, ASTA took issue with a section of the proposed legislation
that, one year after the act is enacted, requires air carriers and ticket
agents to disclose baggage, cancellation, change, ticketing and
seat-selection fees to consumers “in a standardized format.”
With ticketing done online, the fees would have to be
“prominently displayed to the consumer” before the point of purchase. Ticketing
via telephone would require the agent to expressly state the fees during the
call before the point of purchase.
“While we share the committee’s goal of full transparency
in airline ancillary fees, we have concerns with [this section] as written,”
Kerby wrote.
The society’s first issue with this disclosure
requirement was that the subject is already part of pending Department of
Transportation (DOT) rulemaking on the subject. The rulemaking, proposed in
2014, would require carriers and ticket agents to disclose fees for ancillary
services at all points of sale. The rulemaking does not stipulate agents be
allowed to sell ancillaries.
“While we would have preferred DOT go further and mandate
that such fees are not only transparent but also ‘transactable’ (purchasable by
the consumer regardless of distribution channel), we view the fee-related
portion of the proposed rule as a step in the right direction,” Kerby said in
the letter.
ASTA believes the one-year timeline outlined in the
legislation might delay the pending rulemaking further.
The society also said the legislation requires agents to disclose
the fees to their clients, but doesn’t require airlines to provide that
information to agents, which would legally require agents to disclose fees to
which they would not be guaranteed access.
Thirdly, the society said the requirement would put a
“substantial disclosure burden” on agents making over-the-phone transactions.
ASTA asked for the full deletion of that section of the
legislation, or a requirement that airlines must provide agents with ancillary
fees.
Disclosure burden was also ASTA's point of consternation
with several other sections of the legislation. Those sections add more
disclosures that would have to be made during in-person or over-the-phone
transactions, specifically with regard to seat assignments, child seating and
consumer complaints.
ASTA argued that agents consummate 155 million air travel
transactions a year and are required to make between eight and 10 disclosures
per transaction (including codesharing and hazardous materials). The additional
proposed disclosures would add to that list.
“We do not believe it is the committee’s intent, nor is
it in the public interest, that consumers be forced to listen to a multi-minute
litany of disclosures if they wish to conduct business over the phone instead
of online — especially frequent fliers who will have to listen again and again
and again,” Kerby said in the letter.
The society asked lawmakers not to require those
disclosures for phone or face-to-face transactions, or to create “a unified
disclosure regime where consumers are referred to a single website covering DOT
rules and airline policies.”
ASTA also asked lawmakers to include the creation of a
national commission on airline competition in the act, a commission that ASTA
proposed in January, and to add a seat for a representative of the independent
travel distribution industry on the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer
Protection.
The letter was addressed to Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, as well as Sens. Kelly
Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair and ranking member,
respectively, of the Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security.