Tag Archives for department of transportation.
Air Canada was one of the worst offenders during the pandemic for keeping customers’ money even when they cancelled flights. This is clearly against U.S. law and Air Canada will pay the largest-ever consumer protection fine assessed by the Department of Transportation.
The U.S. government proposed to fine Air Canada $25.55 million for selling tickets to customers, cancelling their flights, and refusing to issue refunds. When customers complained to the Department of Transportation, Air Canada claimed they weren’t subject to U.S. law. And Air Canada sought to dismiss the fine arguing that, despite U.S. government claims, the law doesn’t require refunding customers when an airline fails to provide the paid-for service anyway.
The response from the Department of Transportation to this nonsense is brutal.
The Biden administration plans to crack down to require refund of fees when bags are delayed for over 12 hours.
The Department of Transportation proposed rulemaking is expected to cover refund of other fees for services that an airline charges for but doesn’t deliver, such as payment for inflight internet when the service is unusable.
During the pandemic, Air Canada cancelled the flights and kept passenger money. They didn’t deliver the service that was promised, but wouldn’t issue refunds. That’s stealing.
The DOT proposed a $25 million fine. Air Canada wants it dismissed, arguing that the law doesn’t actually forbid them from selling flights they don’t operate and pocketing the cash.
After more than a year Air Canada is issuing refunds to customers whose flights were cancelled due to the pandemic. They’re only doing this now that the Canadian government has forked over subsidies. They told the government they’d give money back to consumers, but only if the government gave them far more money first.
The Canadian government had backed Air Canada’s decision to keep customer money for transportation that was never provided. For flights to and from the U.S., though, this is a clear violation of U.S. law.
The CDC declared that science supports not wearing a mask indoors if you’re vaccinated however you’re still required to wear a mask in airports and on planes through September 13.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was challenged on the contradiction and argued that mask mandates should remain on planes even though they aren’t needed for vaccinated individuals in restaurants, bars and gyms.
His FAA has asked its Drone Advisory Committee for “recommendations on how it might use more gender-neutral language” eliminating words like ‘unmanned aircraft’ and ‘airman’. The head of the FAA’s drone integration office wants to see “the adoption of gender-neutral language…in aviation generally.”
And the FAA plans to look at updating language throughout existing regulations to scrub gendered words.
The Jones Act requires cargo ships traveling between U.S. ports to be built in the U.S., owned by U.S. companies, employing only U.S. workers. That means a ship from Asia can’t stop in Hawaii, drop off food and other products, pick up other cargo and continue to the West Coast. As a result goods are generally shipped to the mainland and then from the mainland to Hawaii. That’s one reason why things are so much more expensive in Hawaii.
Secretary-designate Buttigieg supports this because unions like it, and West Coast Senators like it, and the voices of the poor in Puerto Rico who are kept poor aren’t heard nearly as loudly.
American and JetBlue are giving up specific slots, agreeing to terminal and gate leases, and imposing restrictions on their own behavior.
The Department of Transportation has finalized its rule increasing the minimum amount of cash an airline has to pay a passenger for involuntarily denying them boarding, and banning airlines from denying boarding to passengers that have already boarded. The rule increases the maximum amount airlines can be on the hook for when they mishandle domestic checked baggage as well. These changes go into effect April 13, 2021.
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 »
