The President highlights the Administration and DOT’s steady progress in eliminating extra airline fees. Calls for end to fees for families sitting together.
Photo of White House by Suzy Brooks from Unsplash
Hidden or unexpected ancillary fees are costly to consumers. They stifle competition by encouraging airlines to use increasingly sophisticated tools to disguise the true price consumers face. By reducing these extra airline fees and increasing transparency, we can provide relief to consumers and make our aviation system more competitive.
Since the President urged agencies to focus on reducing junk fees at the September 2022 meeting of the Competition Council, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has delivered in the following ways.
The Department of Transportation proposed a rule to require airlines and online booking services to show the total price of a plane ticket up front, including baggage and other fees. DOT also published a dashboard of airline policies when flights are delayed or canceled due to issues under the airlines’ control, leading 9 airlines to change policies to guarantee coverage of hotels and 10 airlines to guarantee coverage of meals, none of which was guaranteed before.
As the executive departments are embarking on the long road to rulemakings, the President is calling on Congress to pass a Junk Fee Prevention Act that cracks down on four types of junk fees that cost American consumers billions of dollars a year. Should Congress act, it will make these anti-consumer extra fees much easier to eliminate and ensure transparency.
Ban extra airline fees for family members to sit with young children.
Many airlines today charge a fee to select a seat in advance, including for those traveling with children. Parents can find themselves unexpectedly not seated with their young child on a flight or paying large fees to sit next to their children. The President believes no parent should have to pay extra to sit next to their child. So does Congress.
According to Christopher Elliott in USA Today, “In 2016, Congress passed a law requiring airlines to seat families with children together without charging them more. But the Transportation Department hasn’t written the required regulation…” There is no need for DOT to make any more efforts, Congress has already decreed that families and children between 2 and 13 years of age should sit together for no additional cost.
In July 2022, the DOT issued a notice stating that it is the Department’s policy that US airlines ensure that children aged 13 or younger are seated next to an accompanying adult with no extra charge. DOT will publish a family seating fee dashboard and launch a rulemaking to ban the practice. The President is calling upon Congress to fast-track the ban on family seating fees so that the DOT can crack down on these practices more quickly than through rulemaking. At least DOT is making sure that there are no new complaints about their family-seating rules.
Ban surprise resort and destination fees.
When families set their budget for a vacation, they expect that the hotel price they see is the price they will pay. But many travelers encounter surprise “resort fees” or “destination fees” when they check out or at the end of a lengthy online reservation process. These ancillary fees harm consumers by preventing them from seeing the true price when they pick out a hotel and by limiting their ability to comparison-shop. Over the past decade, many hotels have imposed these fees on consumers, which can be $50 or more per night. More than one-third of hotel guests report having paid such fees. According to one report, hotels collected billions in these fees and surcharges in 2018.
The President urges Congress to ban these surprise fees by requiring that hotels include them in the room’s price so consumers aren’t surprised. Travelers should know which hotels charge these fees and which ones do not so that they can plan and budget accordingly.
The President calls for the passage of a Junk Fee Prevention Act to save Americans billions a year and make our markets more competitive — creating a more even playing field so that businesses that price fairly and transparently no longer lose sales to companies that disguise their actual prices with hidden fees.
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Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
