Well, we certainly got the airlines’ attention with our Mad as Hell About Hidden Airline Fees campaign. Last night, I had a chance to meet with many of the top airline PR folk at a reception in Washington, DC, and later this morning I am meeting with them to see how we can work together to promote consumer rights and airline transportation in the future.
The refrain I have heard more than any other in our cocktail chatter is that this action of mandating that airlines reveal their fees is tantamount to re-regulating the airline industry.
I don’t think the grocery store industry feels like it is unjustly regulated when rules mandate that prices have to be put on the shelves next to products. Gas stations don’t feel unjustly regulated when gas pumps are forced to display prices.
Why should the airline industry feel that it has the right to hide the cost of airline travel? Frankly, I don’t understand the reluctance of the airline industry to being transparent about fees as well as their airfares.
Everything that the airline sells adds value to their product. One would think that the marketing mavens at major airlines would be fighting each other touting the benefits of these fees.
Perhaps a series of ads listing the prices of overnight delivery of a suitcase via Fedex or UPS versus the paltry charge of having luggage delivered in real time on an airline. Or the difference between front row orchestra seats on Broadway versus the difference between back of coach and front of coach on airlines. Or comparing the cost of driving complete with IRS approved mileage costs and tolls between Washington, DC, and Boston, Mass., versus the cost of flying with two pieces of luggage on an advanced-purchase airline ticket.
Passengers might get the idea that the airlines are not trying to gouge them. They are actually giving them a good deal — a great deal.
Instead, some misguided marketer has determined that hiding extra fees and then dribbling them out so as to surprise passengers is the right way to develop customer loyalty and a warm feeling about the airlines.
In case you haven’t noticed, that approach is backfiring. Your customers are mad as hell. In our petition we have signed up 10s of thousands of furious passengers. Your passengers, even your elite frequent flier members are all but hanging out the windows screaming, “I’m mad as hell and I’m going to take it any more.”
Luckily, long-suffering passengers now have an opportunity to get the attention of the airline industry with new regulations that will be formulated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) over the next few months.
I hope that DOT in its infinite wisdom doesn’t decide to impose some kind of two-tiered fare disclosure system or make any operational and presentation mandates. I hope that DOT simply requires the airlines to file their complete fees together with their airfares through the same channels that they presently use so that ticket agents wherever tickets are sold can tell customers the full cost of travel.
The airlines already seem to know that this day is coming. It is the airline-owned ATPCO that has been at the forefront of creating a system to disseminate the growing airline fees. The airlines have already tested the programs. They are ready to go.
The only problem is that no one wants to be the first to jump into the pool of full fee revelation. The airlines feel that the first to start with this program will be at a competitive disadvantage. They are probably right. I guess, the airlines are harboring a secretly wish for a DOT mandate because that means that everyone will have to jump together and there will be no competitive advantage lost.
Don’t worry. DOT doesn’t have to figure out exactly how to present the fees. I promise you these fees will find their way into new websites and new travel agent displays in ways that we can not even envision today. That’s the magic of the free market system.
Sometimes, some of our industries need a bit of encouragement to jump into the pool all together.
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.
