For reasons best left inside the Beltway, Congress decided to use the must-pass FAA Reauthorization Bill as a rack on which to hang a lot of divergent extras. Reauthorization is necessary to keep the FAA funded, an objective that even in today’s fractured venue is truly bipartisan. Reauthorization has already been kicked down the road once to keep the FAA going, but it looks like Congress will act on the comprehensive bill fairly soon.
But which version of the bill? The Senate and House versions are quite different, in general and specifically on consumer issues. The Senate version includes some important consumer benefits; the House version adds little and takes away one important benefit consumers currently enjoy. Here’s the picture.
- Airlines must set the minimum time of delay before compensation requirements kick in at no more than three hours for a domestic flight, six hours for an international flight.
- Any vouchers or future credits issued by an airline as delay or cancellation compensation must remain valid for at least five years.
- Airlines and airports must clearly advertise passenger rights and Department of Transportation (DoT) complaint forms.
- The DoT should establish a position of Assistant Secretary for Aviation Consumer Protection.
- Airlines must give frequent flyers a 90-day notice of point devaluation and a 30-day notice of voucher expiration.
Still unaddressed is the problem of ensuring a standard of care and compensation for travelers delayed or canceled for reasons nominally within an airlines’ control but which it could reasonably be expected to anticipate. “Standard of care” means providing meals in long delays and hotel accommodations in overnight delays, and compensation means monetary payments. Both provisions are available to European travelers under EC 261 but missing from U.S. regulation. Consumer advocates also hoped for a voucher limitation that goes further than the Bill: A voucher must revert to cash at the end of its validity period rather than vanish.
Also unaddressed is the longstanding recommendation of consumer advocates that Congress clarify the language in the Deregulation Act that denies states the ability to enforce rules on airlines and denies easy access to court action by consumers. We generally believe that the writers of the Deregulation Act did not intend the extremely broad interpretation that courts have applied.
House. On the other side of the Capitol, the House version mainly ignores the key points on the Senate bill. On the delay issue it just requires airlines to submit documentation on what their policies are, not meet any minimum requirements. And it includes one provision that actually does harm to you: It eliminates the current DoT requirement for all-up full-fare price postings. This current requirement has been a great benefit for consumers, in that it puts airfares among the few consumer purchases that meet the gold standard of price advertising: “What you see is what you pay.”
I’m not sure why consumer protection has become a partisan issue—after all, everybody from the hard-right to the ultra-woke left is a consumer. Unfortunately, it has.
Apology. Normally, I like to confine these columns to information you can actually use to improve your travel experience and avoid glitches, gouges, and gotchas. But this bill will have a big impact on your travel for years to come. So whatever your politics, this bill is important. If you agree, you can help protect your interests by contacting your congressional delegation to express your support.
