ASTA’s Eben Peck testified on Thursday earlier than the DOT’s Aviation Shopper Safety Advisory Committee, the place he expressed the Society’s long-held perception that customers ought to have full
transparency relating to airfare and ancillary charges however argued
that disclosing these charges throughout every offline transaction would place a
burden on an company’s operations.
Eben Peck
The testimony by ASTA’s government vice chairman of advocacy got here as a part of a daylong committee listening to to think about a regulatory proposal put ahead by the DOT in September that will require airways in addition to third-party sellers of airline tickets, together with journey advisors, to reveal further charges upfront.
Underneath the proposal, air ticket sellers must clearly disclose baggage charges, change charges, cancellation charges and family-seating charges to shoppers each time fare and schedule info is offered for flights to, inside and from the U.S. The rule would apply not solely to on-line transactions, however to off-line transactions, together with telephone calls and in-person encounters between journey advisors and purchasers.
• Associated: ASTA has ‘serious concerns’ about DOT’s proposed rules on airline fees
As an alternative choice to the pending DOT plan, Peck used for instance the the division’s January 2017 proposal on baggage disclosures. It acknowledged that ticket brokers solely wanted to reveal baggage charges “upon request” of the patron. He prompt the DOT make use of the identical method for ancillary charges, enabling journey advisors to make use of their skilled judgement to make sure purchasers are totally knowledgeable (a seasoned airline passenger, as an illustration, would want much less steering than an rare flyer).
“Including these two phrases — ‘upon request’ — to right now’s proposal will make all of the distinction for our members,” Peck mentioned.
Advisors are already required to make as much as seven disclosures per transaction relating to air tickets, Peck mentioned. Annual compliance prices are estimated at north of $8.8 million.
• Authorized Briefs: What the proposed DOT rules will require of agents
Peck additionally supplied one other different: “a unified disclosure regime for ticket brokers in offline transactions.” That “extra bold” method, he mentioned, would see shoppers referred to the DOT’s web site and airways’ web sites to see disclosures.
Peck additionally addressed whether or not the DOT ought to require carriers to offer ancillary payment info to the GDSs. ASTA does imagine that must be a requirement, particularly contemplating the funding that companies have made to combine GDSs into their programs.
“In our view, a device exists within the market to transmit this info — we should always use it,” Peck mentioned.
Aviation editor Robert Silk contributed to this story.
