SILVERBERG 

GOLDMAN& 

BIKOFF, L.L.P. Georgetown Place • Suite 120 • 1101 30TH Street, NW • Washington, D.C. 20007 

Voice (202) 944-3300 • Facsimile (202) 944-3306 

ATTORNEYS AT LAW 

VIAE-MAIL 

Ms. Angelia Ames 

Docket Section 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E. 

West Building Ground Floor 

Room W12-140 

Washington, D.C. 20590 

October 17, 2013 

Re: Benjamin Edelman v. American Airlines, Inc. 

Corrected Version of the Response of American Airlines, Inc. 

Docket DOT-OST-2013-0024 

Dear Ms. Ames: 

As you requested, enclosed please find the complete, corrected version of the Response 

of American Airlines, Inc. to the Supplemental Filing of Benjamin Edelman. The enclosed 

corrected version of the Response includes the errata page 3 that we filed with the Department on 

October 16, 2013. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. 

Very truly yours, 

SILVERBERG, GOLDMAN & BIKOFF, LLP 

Attorneys for 

AM~MRLmE~ 

By: 4 ~~ /_ //;1'~- RobertP. Silverberg ~J 

cc: Samuel Podberesky, Esq. 

Benjamin Edelman, Esq. 
BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Benjamin Edelman, 

Third-party Complainant 

v. 

American Airlines, Inc. 

) 

) 

) 

) 

) 

) 

) 

Docket DOT-OST-2013-0024 

RESPONSE OF AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. 

TO SUPPLEMENTAL FILING OF BENJAMIN EDELMAN 

Communications with respect to this document should be addressed to: 

Alec Bramlett, Esq. 

Senior Litigation Attorney 

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. 

MD 5675, P.O. Box 619616 

DFW Airport, Texas 76261 

Dated: October 7, 2013 

Robert P. Silverberg, Esq. 

SILVERBERG, GOLDMAN & BIKOFF, LLP 

1101 30th Street, NW 

Suite 120 

Washington, DC 20007 

Tel: 202-944-3300 

E-Mail: rsilverberg@sgbdc.com 

Attorneys for 

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. 
Benjamin Edelman, 

BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Third-party Complainant 

) 

) 

) 

v. 

) Docket DOT-OST-2013-0024 

) 

) 

American Airlines, Inc. ) 

RESPONSE OF AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. 

TO SUPPLEMENTAL FILING OF BENJAMIN EDELMAN 

American Airlines hereby responds to the Supplemental Filing of Benjamin Edelman 

submitted in the above-referenced Docket on September 20, 2013. Mr. Edelman's Supplemental 

Filing purports to provide further examples of practices by American that he maintains do not 

comply with the Department's full price advertising rule, 14 C.F.R. §399.84(a), and related DOT 

guidance. Specifically, Mr. Edelman claims that American's telephone reservations agents 

continue to include carrier-imposed charges in amounts quoted as "tax," that American did not 

disclose a telephone ticketing service charge prior to ticketing, and that American's website 

presents carrier-imposed charges under the heading "Taxes & Fees." Mr. Edelman also gives 

examples of instances in which he claims American's website presented him with contradictory 

fare quotes. 

Mr. Edelman describes in sections I through III ofhis Supplemental Filing three 

telephone calls he made to American Airlines reservations agents. He claims that during each of 

the three calls American's reservations agents included carrier-imposed surcharges in amounts 

described as "taxes." While it may be correct that American's reservations agents inadvertently 

did so, except with respect to the $25 telephone ticketing fee discussed below, Mr. Edelman was 
Response of American Airlines, Inc. 

October 7, 2013 

Page2 

provided during these calls with accurate information regarding the total price of the ticket he 

was purchasing. 

In addition, while American believes that it is imperative that its reservations agents 

provide customers with accurate information regarding the components of the ticket price, the 

eTicket Itinerary & Receipt Confirmations that American sent after each of the three transactions 

described by Mr. Edelman provided an amount for "Taxes and Carrier-Imposed Fees" that 

equaled the amount described as "taxes" during the course of the telephone calls. Thus, even if 

the reservations agent mistakenly included a carrier-imposed charge when stating the amount of 

the tax during the course of the telephone call, with one exception related to the telephone 

ticketing fee, Mr. Edelman was advised prior to purchase the correct full price, including all 

applicable taxes and carrier imposed fees. There clearly was no intent by American to deceive 

Mr. Edelman and Mr. Edelman was not deceived since a proper description of the elements of 

the total price to be paid for his transportation was provided on the eTicket Itinerary & Receipt 

Confirmation sent shortly after purchase. 

Nevertheless, the three calls described by Mr. Edelman indicate the need for American to 

provide yet additional training over the original and supplemental training it has already 

provided its telephone reservations staff regarding how to accurately distinguish between 

government taxes and fees and carrier-imposed charges. As American explained in its March 22, 

2013 answer to the original Edelman complaint, the company provides its telephone reservations 

agents all of the information necessary to fully and accurately address customers' questions 

regarding the amount of applicable taxes and carrier-imposed fees included in the full price of a 

ticket. After Mr. Edelman's February 4, 2013 complaint to the Department, American provided 

its reservations agents with further instructions on how to provide customers with precise 
Response of American Airlines, Inc. 

October 7, 2013 

Page 3- Errata (10/16/2013) 

information that properly distinguishes between taxes and carrier-imposed fees. Despite these 

efforts, it appears based on Mr. Edelman's Supplemental Filing that some of American's 

reservations agents may not be acting in accordance with their training and instructions. While 

this is not intended to suggest that American's over 4,000 telephone agents are not conscientious 

in performing their duties, American intends to redouble its efforts to ensure that all of its 

telephone reservations agents are trained to the highest standards and are fully knowledgeable 

about how to provide customers with accurate and precise information regarding the components 

of ticket prices. 

Finally, American notes that it does not impose a fuel surcharge on any of the flights 

conducted by American. Each of the three examples provided by Mr. Edelman involve 

inadvertent mistakes by American's reservations agents who did not properly characterize 

surcharges that were imposed by American or by other carriers on interline or codeshare flights 

sold by American. These were simply inadvertent errors by the reservations agents involved and 

it is clearly not the intention of American to attempt to deceive its customers into thinking that 

surcharges imposed by American or by other carriers are actually government taxes. Nor are any 

customers actually deceived as to the correct total price for their transportation because a carrier 

charge is incorrectly labeled a tax. 

In section IV of his Supplemental Filing, Mr. Edelman maintains that he was not advised 

of a $25 telephone ticketing service fee before purchasing for his colleague an Around the World 

ticket and that he first learned of the fee when it appeared on the e-ticket confirmation sent after 

ticketing. However, Mr. Edelman fails to reveal in his pleading that there is a pre-recorded 

message at the beginning of his telephone call to American's Around the World desk stating 

"Please note that ticketing and checked baggage charges may apply. Check AA.com or with 
Response of American Airlines, Inc. 

October 7, 2013 

Page4 

your reservations representative for details." Thus, while American agrees that the telephone 

reservations agent should have specifically advised Mr. Edelman as to the amount of the 

ticketing fee that applied to the transaction, and the agent's failure to do so was in violation of 

American's policy and procedure, Mr. Edelman was given notice at the beginning of the call that 

such a fee could apply. 

In section V of his Supplemental Filing, Mr. Edelman asserts that American's website 

presents fuel surcharges within "Taxes & Fees" and not in the fare and provides two screenshots 

from the AA.com website (Attachments 1 and 2) to illustrate this issue. American appreciates 

the fact that the Department's Notice dated February 21, 2012 addressed the issue of possible 

consumer confusion if carriers combine under the heading of "taxes and fees" an amount that 

includes both government-imposed taxes and carrier-imposed fees even if the carrier also states, 

as required by §399.84(a), the full ticket price including all government taxes and carrierimposed fees. American agrees that the webpage and the pop-up shown in Attachments 1 and 2 

of the Supplemental Filing can be revised to more clearly describe to customers what elements 

are included in each of the components of the ticket price. American's past efforts to ensure 

clarity on this point were initially focused on revising website pages in connection with award 

travel and to ensuring that its post-purchase confirmation documents included the correct 

heading. This effort has been expanded and by the end of the week of October 7, 2013 American 

will have revised all relevant webpages to clearly state "taxes and carrier-imposed fees" where 

today the heading "taxes and fees' is used as in Attachment 1 of the Supplemental Filing. In 

addition, the pop-up window shown in Attachment 2 of the Supplemental Filing has been revised 

to state even more clearly that the prices quoted include the base fare, carrier-imposed fees and 

government-imposed taxes and airport-imposed passenger facility charges. With these changes, 
Response of American Airlines, Inc. 

October 7, 2013 

Page 5 

American is confident that there will be no consumer confusion regarding the elements of the 

prices charged by the carrier for air transportation. 

In section VI of the latest filing Mr. Edelman asserts in one instance and provides a 

screenshot in another instance of apparent arithmetic errors in the calculation of fares offered by 

American. Upon receipt of Mr. Edelman's Supplemental Filing American began its inquiry into 

the issue raised by the two examples cited. While American hoped to have developed a full 

understanding of the issues raised in this section of the Supplemental Filing in order to provide 

the Department with a substantive response, it is unable to do so at this time as its analysis has 

not yet been completed. Rather than seek additional time in which to respond, American has 

chosen to file its response within the time it initially coordinated with the Department and to 

state its intention to file a further response upon completion of its inquiry into the subject matter 

of section VI of the Supplemental Filing. 
Response of American Airlines, Inc. 

October 7, 2013 

Page 6 

The Supplemental Filing submitted by Mr. Edelman raises certain issues that American 

has addressed or is continuing to address in the interest of meeting both the letter and spirit of 

DOT's regulations and policies. Having noted that, American maintains that the Department 

should dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Rule 406(a)(2) as the allegations do not rise to the 

level that warrant instituting formal enforcement action. 

Respectfully submitted, 

SILVERBERG, GOLDMAN & BIKOFF, L.L.P. 

Attorneys for 

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. 

Dated: October 7, 2013 
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I hereby certify that I have on this ih day of October 2013, served a copy of the 

foregoing Response of American Airlines, Inc. by e-mail upon the following persons: 

Benjamin Edelman, Esq. 

169 Walnut Street 

Brookline, MA 02445 

ben@benedelman.org 

Samuel Podberesky, Esq. 

Assistant General Counsel for 

Aviation Enforcement & Proceedings 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

sam. podberesky@dot. gov 

L ef ey Johnson