President Joe Biden announced a new set of rules for airlines to fight we he called “unnecessary hidden fees” that “weight down family budgets.” The proposed new rules require the airlines, to include third-party travel sites, to be more transparent about the true cost of a ticket.

Under the proposed rule, airlines and travel search websites would have to disclose upfront—the first time an airfare is displayed—any fees charged to sit with your child, for changing or cancelling your flight, and for checked or carry-on baggage.

The impetus behind the change is to increase competition between carriers and hopefully lower costs to the consumer.

Under the Department of Transportation’s proposal, U.S. air carriers, foreign air carriers, and ticket agents (third party sellers of air transportation and online “metasearch” sites that display air travel options) 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.

These fees would be required to be displayed as passenger-specific or itinerary-specific based on the consumer’s choice. Because seat availability and fees can fluctuate frequently, the Department is also proposing to require carriers and ticket agents to enable consumers traveling with a young child to purchase the seats with the fare at all points of sale.

The Department further proposes to require that carriers provide useable, current, and accurate information regarding baggage fees, change fees, cancellation fees, and adjacent seating fees for families traveling with young children, if any, to ticket agents that sell or display the carrier’s fare and schedule information.

The issuance of the Enhancing Transparency of Airline Ancillary Service Fees NPRM is one of the many steps the Department is taking to protect consumers. Below are additional actions DOT has taken: 

• Earlier this month, the Department rolled out a new airline customer service dashboard to help consumers determine what they are owed when a flight is cancelled or delayed because of an airline issue. Previously, none of the ten largest U.S. airlines guaranteed meals or hotels when a delay or cancellation was within the airlines’ control, and only one offered free rebooking. However, after Secretary Buttigieg called on airlines to improve their service and thanks to the creation of this dashboard, nine airlines now guarantee meals and hotels when an airline issue causes a cancellation or delay and all ten guarantee free rebooking. 
• The Department is currently collecting comments on a proposed rule to ensure customers get prompt refunds when their flights are cancelled or delayed. If adopted the proposed rule would: 1) require airlines to proactively inform passengers that they have a right to receive a refund when a flight is canceled or significantly changed, and 2) define a significant change and cancellation that would entitle a consumer to a refund. The rule would also 3) require airlines to provide non-expiring vouchers or travel credits when people can’t travel because they have COVID-19 or other communicable diseases; and 4) require airlines that receive significant government assistance related to a pandemic to issue refunds instead of non-expiring travel credits or vouchers when passengers are unable or advised not to travel because of a serious communicable disease. The Department is also considering options for an additional rulemaking that would further expand the rights of airline passengers who experience flight disruptions.
• The Department has proposed a rule to refund passengers for services they paid for that aren’t actually provided (e.g., broken WiFi). 
• The Department’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection recently concluded its investigation of 10 airlines and is pursuing enforcement action against them for extreme delays in providing refunds for flights the airlines canceled or significantly changed. The Office is actively investigating refund practices of additional airlines flying to, from, or within the United States. In November 2021, the Department’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection issued its largest fine ever for extreme delays in providing refunds to thousands of consumers for flights to or from the United States that a carrier canceled. 

For information about airline passenger rights, as well as DOT’s rules, guidance and orders, the Department’s aviation consumer website can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer. 

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