Tag Archives for department of transportation.
Michael Trager, who runs frequent traveler and casino loyalty site TravelZork, had one of the most interesting “bump” stories I’ve heard in a long time. He was involuntarily denied boarding on an American Airlines flight last week, and airport staff refused to provide him any compensation saying that they “do not care about DOT Rules.”
The Essential Air Service program was created in the late 1970s as a temporary measure to soften the blow of deregulation. It provided for a ’10 year transition’ period in which small community service could receive subsidies. And it’s the perfect example of the old axiom that there’s nothing as permanent in life as a temporary government program. The program was supposed to end in 1988.
Instead, the Senate’s FAA reauthorization bill includes a tripling of funding for the program going forward.
It is possible for a loyalty program to return points to a bank transfer currency! Now a customer is asking the Department of Transportation to force United Airlines to do it.
The Department of Transportation has settled with Southwest Airlines over its meltdown last Christmas, with the airline agreeing to a $140 million penalty (but not really). It took DOT a year to deal with this. Customers who were inconvenienced in the mess do not get anything from this. And Southwest Airlines doesn’t deserve it in any case.
President Biden sent out an odd tweet about airline consumer protections on Wednesday. He claims that airlines did not used to provide refunds when they cancelled flights, but thanks to his administration they do now. That just is not true.
United Airlines has attacked the American Airlines plan, saying that the DOT should look at connections served rather than the local market to determine consumer benefit. Now that the federal government has broken up its JetBlue partnership, American’s ability to serve connections in the New York market is far more limited. The Department of Justice handed a huge win to United and to Delta in New York by preventing American-JetBlue from becoming a large competitor with their New York duopoly.
According to United, DOT set a precedent in preferring connecting markets to Tokyo Haneda over non-stop ones in their 2019 proceeding originally awarding the routes since that was a justification for denying Las Vegas a Haneda flight.
In the battle for limited takeoff and landing slots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, U.S. airlines like Delta, American, and United vied for positions, with Delta receiving the most slots despite not having a Japanese airline partner. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) now faces decisions on slot reallocations, as Delta relinquishes its Portland-Tokyo route and other airlines propose routes that overlap with their joint venture partners, raising questions about competition and consumer benefit.
The FAA’s docket on public charter regulation advocated by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines has closed.
So far over 58,000 public comments have been posted to Regulations.gov. JSX says the number of submitted comments is 76,000 (there is a lag in posting comments to the web). Already it’s the most comments ever received on a Department of Transportation or FAA proposed rule. Drones topped 50,000. Emotional support animals topped 15,000. Usually there are just a handful.
There hasn’t been a single safety issue identified with Part 380 carriers complying with the rules applicable to Part 121 operations. In fact, the rulemaking even notes that “the FAA has adjusted its oversight of these increased operations” and has not expressed a concern about JSX or similar carriers.
The only reason the agency cites for potentially banning their operation is they’ve grown, but that is literally what the rules – and the Department of Transportation – are designed for.
5,821 passenger were involved in these delays – so the total possible fine was $166,077,500. And American is only actually paying $2 million. In some cases it’s five years since the known violation occurred.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
