The Biden administration proposed that airline should have to pay cash compensation to passengers for flight delays and cancellations. They never actually proposed the rule – so for anything to come of it the President would have to first be re-elected. This was intentional.
The Biden DOT also issued final fee disclosure rules, which specify how airfares must be displayed along with the fee items they believe are important. (The rule also requires prompt refund when the airline doesn’t provide the service you paid a fee for.) American, Delta, United, JetBlue, Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines have filed suit against the rule.
With the whole world talking about the President’s debate performance Thursday night, whether he should still be running, and whether he’ll be replaced at the top of the ticket the campaign would very much like a return to normal discourse. So they’re back to talking about middle class pocket book issues. And nobody ever loses points beating up on airlines.
It’s time America got a better deal.
My Administration is hard at work to lower surprise travel junk fees, saving folks over half a billion dollars every year in airline fees.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 1, 2024
The President’s defenders have made much of his opponent, the former President lying during the debate. So it’s only fair that we fact check his claim that Americans will save “over half a billion dollars every year in airline fees because this is not what the administration’s own Department of Transportation says in laying out its case for the rule.
- How would changing the way fees are disclosed save customers $500 million per year? Especially when, for the most part, airlines already disclose fees fairly well? The rule won’t bring much new information to consumers, and it will add a new layer of complexity to fare search. For most passengers, at best it’s additional clutter on the screen likely to fade into the background, like terms and conditions that nobody reads.
- There are some edge cases where consumers might spend less. If they really didn’t realize they would have a seat on the plane eventually assigned to them, even if it’s a middle seat in the back, should they skip paying for a seat – or maybe they’re buying what they think is a fully refundable business flexible fare but that actually has a $500 refund fee and pass on buying it.
- But DOT actually says the savings is time savings. DOT says that consumers go on a search for fees when buying tickets, but having those fees included up front in search saves them time. This isn’t ‘over half a billion dollars’ it’s ‘almost half a billion dollars at the high end of our range estimate’.
- This isn’t even net savings. DOT estimates that the rule will cost “$239 million to $331 million annually” to comply with.
- But there are costs to consumers that aren’t factored in. You’re going to spend more time waiting on hold, even if you spend less time reading different web pages. Each call to reservations that involves searching for flights will take a little longer as reservations agents have to read out required fee information. So each call takes longer. And DOT doesn’t assume that airlines will add call center agents to offset this either (that would have driven up cost estimates of the regulation).
There may be some consumers that save money, for instance if they get their checked bag fee refunded when their checked bag gets lost and they wouldn’t have otherwise. But we’re not talking about $500 million, in fact the benefits and costs are probably close to a wash.
But if we can all talk about things like this that’s probably better than talking about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Donald Trump, or Don, Jr.
As for the rule that’s expected to go into effect, unless blocked by the courts, ordering refunds for services not provided makes a lot of sense. Deciding what information every consumer has to see before buying a ticket goes too far in commoditizing the air travel market. We want airlines competing on a wide variety of things, not forcing displays to focus on a narrow range: fare, schedule and specific fees.
Instead, how about making information on seat width and pitch available, quality of wifi (bandwidth and latency for instance), meal service and more? And let airlines compete over those things?
Biden is done, his campaign is in freefall and will NEVER recover, he is mentally unfit to even own a pet.
Trump will win and be president again, any other outcome will certainly be fraudulent.
The next president likely will be decided by counting the two votes cast by a deceased woman of color who resided in Michigan and enjoyed flying Spirit Airlines with its laid out pick-and-choose a la carte fees.
This “junk fee” nonsense is just political pandering to the same cohort that thinks tickets to a Taylor Swift concert will become affordable if we just get rid of Ticketmaster.
The sole means by which Bi-Done can be re-elected , is if the false mail-in ballots include All of the deceased over the past 100 years , And also include All of his illegal aliens swarming into the country .
In Hawaii , which votes dem for the freebes , everyone is laughing at the thought that Bi-Done can play any golf without being prop-up by a scaffolding . Forget about him riding a horse like Reagan .
Biden is so demented he doesn’t know what he has said or understand anything about it. Also thank God SCOTUS knew capped the administrative state with 3 major rulings over the past 2 weeks. Federal agencies will have much more difficulty enacting rules and those that exist can be challenged. Forget any administrative action on “junk fees”, expansion of student loan forgiveness or tree hugging environmental rules. Like I said – thank God!!
As a business user and l frequent traveler I do not need to find out later that delta is going ito changer me $50 per bag or that southwest is going to charge he $50 for early boarding. Do I really need to read ever airline policy on their website. My hourly fee is $200 an hour so when it takes me that long to book a simple ticket then yes that is a cost to add
Regulations increase prices, absent subsidies, which is even worse. This should be obvious to anyone but the dimmest leftist, because if doing some action would reduce a company’s costs and improve profitability, they would do it voluntarily. Any fake savings to consumers will be more than offset by price increases to cover these new risks and overhead…and everyone will be worse off because a lot of the response to the regulations will reduce efficiency.
But of course any sane person must ask themselves why an incumbent would suddenly promise something at the end of their term that they never even tried to pursue in 3 1/2 years. If this is what saves him from being exposed as brain dead in the debate, then good luck Dems.
Yes, it seems more likely that Trump will win. Unlike the pathetic Reagan, Biden’s decline could not be kept hidden. But remember, the president did talk about climate change as a serious threat, while the ex-president said we needed to drill for more oil. And that’s the difference between facing a threat and grubbing for more money. The same thread runs through everything these two have done; one tries to do right, the other can only hurt and betray. A smooth pathological liar might get away with a lot, but even if a dictator he is still a little man. And the one thing he cannot steal is the truth.
Smoke and mirrors, load after load of bullshit – typical brain dead Biden administration governing. America has had enough of these liars – MAGA2024!
The good news is that Pelosi has convinced Bi-Done that he already quit last week .
The bad news is that Bi-Done’s wife re-convinced Bi-Done that he already won the election .
Unfollow. I want civil discourse unburdened with political debate.
Now he’s ticked at the Supremes for squashing the plan he thought would take out the competition.
and the SF west coast mama is the one who is really worried about big orange’s statement that he will get even.
the consumers aren’t fooled. Airline fees are nothing next to housing and food which half of the nation can’t afford
Gotcha fees like the 70+ “optional fees” on Spirit and some other airlines buried on their websites are deceptive and unfair. This is the legal justification for some of major fees to be displayed before ticket purchase. Currently, hidden and gotcha fees allow ads for fares that are not real for most and especially for the average person that flies only every 1-3 years.
If the airlines can’t get it in ancillary fees, they’ll eventually bake it into airfares which would be easier for them anyway. Nobody is going to save any money long term.
This is govt getting in the way of business. Anyone who books a ticket sees the total price before they buy the ticket. Compare that to restaurant…you get a lovely reservation, get seated only to open the menu and see fees like (at Yellowstone lodge – in the National Park!) a utility fee will be added (like, seriously!) or San Francisco, where it’s a health fee and other fees — and oh yes, you will pay for your bread. That’s harder to handle. In short, it should be “this is the price”. I love that when I book Southwest, I see the final price. When I book Costco Travel car rentals, they show me the full price. When I looked at Avis – oh my gosh! They show the car base price, before taxes and fees – so you think you’re getting a good deal only to get a huge upcharge. But I still know what my final will be before I sign – so I have time to shop around (or to just go back to Costco Travel 🙂
Government getting in the way of business isn’t intrinsically a bad thing. If government got out of the way of all business being business and that was an intrinsically good thing, then a business that makes money from forced prostitution would be able to grab the above Carole and make her do things no business should be able to make her do. All because of some bizarre sense that government getting in the way of business is some kind of intrinsically bad thing.
Since Roosevelt, no president has won 3 elections.
Lets see if Trump can break that this time around.
Biden has my vote in 2024 and has been a great president. He’s up for the job. I’ve never had more money in my life, my wages have increased way past inflation, and everything around in my town is being built and just looks nicer.
These blogs get inundated with pro trump and anti-Biden comments, but me and my friends and my family are all Biden 2024, no doubt in my mind at all.
I also think Federal Agencies need rule making capabilities because congress is so inefficient in designing how these agencies work. They endowed them with authority to a certain extent and they should use it. While I do agree that regulation on fees just pushes the price up somewhere else (airlines are not just going to abandon money making schemes) I think the real progress lies with making those fees transparent.
Awesome.
Time is valuable. As a business owner I do I really need to read ever airline policy on their website to understand how much an airline ticket costs after all the junk fees?
This is the kind of deregulation that costs businesses a ton. I should be spending time running the business, not reading page after page of airline fees just to find out whether whether I should buy a trip from airline A or airline B or airline C, since the advertised price is practically “fake” as most everything is charged as an extra junk fee.
Gary, you’re correct here. There are places where fee disclosure should be addressed (as an extention of false advertising). That $120/night room costing you $275/night is an example. Airline fees are not a case. My apologies for not making a pro/anti Biden/Trump comment. “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…”
Given the McConnell-Tr*mp-stacked Supreme Court has given US Presidents de facto immunity for even violent acts against Americans that would be criminal if done by Señor Leff or any other American here, I have no choice but to again vote for the Democratic ticket for President in November and support an effort to get a constitutional amendment in place making sure US Presidents aren’t above the laws applicable to the rest of us. The Supreme Court knows full well justice delayed or otherwise avoided is justice denied, and that is what these “Republican judges” are giving America — injustice and a de facto king.
This biased website has lost my clicks. Anyone who believe Trump is fit for office after his attempts at stealing an election through fake electors and then violence is truly deranged and airline fees should eb the least of their worries.
Biden has been one of the best Presidents since Roosevelt. The Orange man is insane lying about every word out of his mouth. What a low life …
Yet another desperation move to “buy votes.” One more last ditch in an unending series of governmental overreaches into the private business sector. Way past time to bring back ‘Dandy Don” for one more chorus of “turn out the lights!!”
@Nate – you may feel that federal agencies need rule making authority but SCOTUS, in a series of rulings over the past week, decided that isn’t going to happen (or at least the rules must comply exactly with legislation and parties can seek judicial relief).
This is great. I love any move to limit the administrative deep state. Say goodbye to many proposed Biden admin actions including expansion of college loan forgiveness, excessive EPA rules and his prohibition on non-competes (which is basically now dead). Again, thank God! Government has to be cut back and get out of our day to day lives
No one is proposing doing away with wage and labor laws or other items specified by Congress or already in place (Chevron ruling doesn’t void prior actions but does allow parties harmed by them more courses of action) but we don’t need government lawyers, administrators and pencil necked geeks telling us how to live
AC seems to not have grasped how the Supreme Court has granted Biden an immunity card to make the “administrative deep state” way less accountable in court as long as the President makes sufficient claim his actions with “the administrative deep state” was part of official acts of the President.
If Biden weren’t such an old fogey and if he had the drive of indecency that Trump has, Biden could go into overdrive and push through his agenda and stick to make it a fait accompli and let the whining MAGAheads have the issues bounce around slowly among various levels of the court and dare the “Republican judges” and Congressional Republicans to try to successfully remove him from office and undo his “official acts” as long as he is in office. Given his state during the debate with his cold, even MAGA jurors should buy into the notion that it isn’t probable beyond a reasonable doubt that Biden’s “official actions” were willfully and deliberately wrongful on his part.
If your vote is dependent on airlines fees, you have many choices of how to negate those costs. If your vote is depended on the cost of housing, food, healthcare, security and taxes, then there is only one choice. The past 3.5 years of the current administration has been devastating to many Americans.