In a poll conducted by Travelers United in response to requests from the Department of Transportation (DOT) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) more than 2,600 consumers dramatically responded loud and clear, “Tell us how much it costs!”
The poll was distributed to this blog; sent to be distributed to readers of other travel blogs like JohnnyJet, Bootsnall, GoNomad.com, wanderlustandlipstick; hobotraveler.com, perceptivetravel.com, tweeted out daily for two weeks; boosted on Facebook to another 50,000+ Facebook users between the ages of 25 and 55 who have traveled in the past year and the survey was spread through word-of-mouth.
We ended up with 2,600+ respondents. Once we hit about 800 respondents, the survey answers didn’t vary much. The biggest changes were in the makeup of the demographics of the surveys. We started out skewing to an older audience and then shifted to a younger group of travelers.
All age groups follow similar patterns in their answers within 2-3 percentage points. The answers were amazingly consistent. Travelers want to know how much their trip will cost. They want to be able to compare complete prices of airline transportation while planning travel and when purchasing travel.
The questions were created from suggestions included in DOT’s Transparency of airline Fees and Other Consumer Protection Issues NPRM. This poll was submitted to DOT as one of the comments on September 29. 2014.
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.