American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) Executive Vice
President, Advocacy, Eben Peck, releases the following statement in response to
the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposal on airline ancillary
fees:
"ASTA has
long believed that consumers deserve full transparency in airfares and optional
ancillary service fees, as well as the ability to buy those services
(‘transactability’), regardless of the channel in which they elect to book
their travel. Viewed through that lens, the DOT’s proposal is a step in the
right direction in that it requires airlines to provide travel agencies with
ancillary fee information that is ‘usable, accurate and accessible in realtime’
and mandates transactability for some fees (those that enable family seating).
"That said, ASTA has serious concerns about the effect the
requirement to disclose multiple fees in each and every ‘offline’ transaction
(over-the-phone and face-to-face) – even to repeat customers and frequent
fliers – will have on agency operations. In its last proposed rulemaking on
this topic in 2017, it
mandated these disclosures only upon the customer’s request. It should do so
again here.
"As with the Department’s separate proposal on airline refunds, we will consult with ASTA members and allied
organizations, file comments and otherwise work around the clock to protect the
interests of our members and their clients."