Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protections — Leocha’s remarks

As the consumer representative on this Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protections, I welcome everyone who is attending this meeting. Today we are discussing important topics that influence travel.

Posters
First, getting the word out to travelers about their rights is an ongoing education process. However, right now the education is taking place with notices in the federal regulations and in the fine print of airline contracts of carriage. The few rights that airline passengers have are difficult to dig out and learn.

I dare say most members of this committee have no idea of the amount that passengers can claim if their luggage is lost. What happens when your luggage is delayed and you need a ski outfit and your skis to enjoy your mountain vacation? Or, something vital for an event?

The information is not easy to find, nor is it identical across airlines. Posters at airports are a beginning. A reminder to the flying public that they have rights.

Personalization
We are a point in the airline ticket buying process where airlines, which have already confused passengers with scores of fees with various exceptions and exemptions and that refuse to disclose those fees in a meaningful, dynamic way prior to purchase of airfare.

Now, the airlines have seized upon a new panacea — personalization. We will hear from airline representatives with their vision about how they will present individual passengers with personalized packages created by the airlines.

We will also hear from the world of travel agents and consumers who are buying air travel with another view of customization created by the consumer.

Long lines at customs and passport check at entry airports
Airlines and airports have been working together with Customs and Border Protection personnel about how to move passengers through the customs and passport check process more efficiently. Currently, there are often waits of around four hours for visitors to the USA at several of the major gateways.

Today, we will hear about the problem and some of the solutions that CBP is proposing. Our interest is to make sure that the Secretary knows that consumers are being harmed by these unreasonable wait times, and to offer encouragement to CBP to better coordinate with airlines and airports.

Privacy
At our last meeting, in May of this year, we devoted the meeting to privacy across the aviation spectrum from airlines to GDSs, from travel agents to consumers and from DOT to the FTC. The meeting was an historic event — the first time that the entire aviation industry (and by extension a major part of the travel industry and its central reservation capabilities) discussed privacy together. Now, the next step is to move in a direction that will shape privacy practices as we move forward. A group of 16 consumer groups and privacy groups have joined in a letter to our committee urging action that will be considered later in this meeting.

FlyersRights and the National Consumer League are here to present issues this afternoon that they hope this committee will consider in the future such as a new Passenger Bill of Rights and problems with skyrocketing and unreasonable change fees and the increasing sales of trip cancellation insurance and its disclosure.

Let’s get on with making travel a better and more functional place for travelers. At airports, buying tickets and while going through passport control. I look forward to the discussions and presentations.

Closing remarks

Before closing, I want to remind everyone that consumer protections are now more important than ever. With the latest merger between American Airlines and US Airways, the aviation world in the United States has been reduced to three major network carriers and Southwest Airlines together with a collection of smaller airlines.

Competition has been slashed and the ability of consumers to vote with their wallet has be all but eliminated as major airlines move in lockstep changing fees and airfares and slashing service to coach class, while at the same time lavishing customer service and exemptions to their rules upon their frequent fliers, business and first class travelers. The airline industry is catering to world of haves and have nots, some of whom are created by the airlines’ own whimsical definitions of who becomes designated an elite flier and who is left in the back of the plane with no amenties and little customer service.

There is only one place where consumers have equal rights. That is the area of consumer protections. Whether you are a super-rich travelers being whisked between connecting flights by airline-provided Porsches or the entitled frequent flier walking down a special carpeted lane to the jetway before the unfortunates relegated to back of the plane and stuffed overhead bins, all passengers have the same rights when it comes to rules controlling overbooking, lost luggage, tarmac delays and truth in advertising.

Even when it comes to taxes and fees, airlines are squirming through definitional loopholes and have been caught lying
about (let me put that in good bureaucratic-speak, misrepresenting) carrier-imposed surcharges as taxes, misleading consumers.

We need to be more vigilant about making the few rules promulgated by DOT and Congress are followed and that passengers know what few rights they have. Consumers should be expected be treated with truth, dignity and honesty.

Finally, as I close out my remarks, I want to say goodbye to Sam Podberesky, who has headed the Enforcement Division of DOT forever, it seems. He is retiring in January. The next Advisory Committee meeting will be the first to be held without his official presence. He has been an important resource to me and has provided consumers wise counsel. His office has been the arbiter of many of the clashes between the airlines and the public and other factions in the industry over the past decades. The fact that everyone I know in the industry holds him in high regard, is evidence that he must have been doing something good and judicious during his enforcement reign.

Thanks, Sam, for you help peering into the machinations of the bureaucracy and you insightful and unvarnished comments. Good luck on your new projects.