### Comments of the National Consumers League b efore the Advisory Committee

for Aviation Consumer Protection, US Department of Transportation

[D ocket # DOT

- OST

- 2012

- 00870]

Sally Greenberg, Executive Director

June 28, 2012

The National Consumers League appreciates the opportunity to present our views before the

Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection. We wish to touch on areas that involve

core consumer protections including privacy, fare and fee transparency and fair pricing, and

frequent flyer program rule changes.

I. Privacy Protections

The airlines collect a great deal of personal information when consumers buy tickets for flights,

including:

• Name, address and telephone numbers

• Date of birth

• Gender

• Redress number

• Known Traveler number

• Email addresses

• Cell phone, fax and pager numbers

• SkyMiles account number and flight information

• Credit/debit card number(s), associated billing address and expiration date(s)

• Travel

- related information such as travel company, emergency contact(s), seating

preferences, medical needs and dietary requests

• Passport number, nationality and country of residence

• Personal information and preferences provided by Internet activity, survey responses and

marketing efforts

• Corporat e contract, employer or affiliation (such as employer name, title and contract

information)

• Information from the use of products or services such as online check

- in, airport kiosk

access and self

- service devices2 Most airline sites give assurances that t hey don’t sell personal information, but their privacy

statements are so full of caveats you can drive a truck through them. For example, Delta Airlines

contains this privacy statement on its site:

This Privacy Policy will answer frequently asked questio ns about the kinds of information we or our agents

collect and how it is used. Delta reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time and without

prior notice. We will post any changes on delta.com so please check regularly for the most recent version

of our Privacy Policy. While this Policy is not a contract and does not create any legal rights, it does serve

as an expression of Delta’s commitment to protecting personally identifiable information.

We routinely share your information with our SkyMiles Partners and Promotional Partners and our

subsidiaries including Delta Connection® Carriers. From time t o time, we may engage third parties to

process your information on our behalf; however, Delta requires that these third parties comply with

Delta’s Privacy Policy when processing this information.

We believe that the airline industry should be bound by an industry

- wide standard for protecting

personal information and that these protections must not be subject to the whims of the airline

–

as in “we can change the terms at any time.” Consumers have no choice about providing this

information ; if you buy an airline ticket, you are required to provide the information.

Recommendation: W e urge the Advisory Committee to recommend adoption of airline industry

wide privacy protections for personal information.

II. Airline Change Fees and Cancellation Fees

Consumers strongly dislike the hefty fees they are asked to pay for simple transactions like

changing the time or date they need to fly or canceling a flight because circumstances have

changed. Things hap pen in all of our lives that make it impossible to fly on a certain day or at a

certain time. Why should the airlines enjoy a windfall as a result of these changed

circumstances?

The inflated charges imposed by the airline for what is often a quick and s imple transaction

doesn’t sit well with the public. The results from a March 2012 Consumer Reports survey on

airline customers notes that f orty percent of respondents who said they're flying less these days

gave increased fees as the major reason

-- far more than those who blamed flight delays, poor

service, or any other annoyance.

We believe that change fees and cancellation fees should bear some relationship to the actual

cost to the airlines. It’s not unusual for consumers to be required to pay $150 or more for

something as simple as changing the time of a flight by one or two hou rs.

Recommendation: We urge the Advisory Committee to determine from airline and DOT data

what the actual cost is of changing or canceling a flight, and that the Advisory Committee

recommend that fees be tied closely to actual cost, insisting that co nsumers not be gouged.3 III. Posters Displayed in Airports with Consumer Information

As with all consumer rights and protections, very often we don’t know what our rights are. And

we suspect the airlines like it that way because they can create their own rules for compensation

when consumers are bumped from a plane, their luggage is lost, their flight is cancelled, or they

are delayed without explanation.

But there is a better model. We would like the Advisory Committee to review posters that the

E uropean Commission requires be displayed in airports throughout the EU countries letting

consumers know in clear and concise language what their rights are. They are colorful and

impossible to miss, asking the questions: “Denied Boarding, Cancelled, Delaye d for a Long

Time?” and stating in bold type that consumers have rights and are entitled to compensation in a

number of circumstances: if they are denied boarding, if they face long delays, if there are

cancellations without warning

-- and these ci rcumstances may result in compensation involv ing

food vouchers, transportation and a paid

- for overnight stay.

Recommendation: We urge the Advisory Committee to recommend that similar posters be

displayed throughout airports in the United States informing traveling consumers of their rights

and where they go to for redress.

IV. Frequent Flyer Program Protections

Consumers who are members of frequent flyer programs have few protections because the terms

of these programs are subject to the whims of the airlines. The way in which airlines advertise

their frequent flyer programs and what they actually re quire in miles is a form of bait and switch.

The rules have changed. N ow you need stepped

- up award levels

— usually 50,000 miles

— to

travel on nearly any date you're likely to want. Which means, in effect, that the airlines have

quietly doubled the number of miles needed to redeem those frequent flyer rewards.

Frequent flyer programs are the airlines ’ way of building customer loyalty and getting consumers

to buy their tickets, as opposed to those of a competitor. In so doing, the consumer is often

making a choice to fly on one airline based on information presented at the time of purchase,

including th e number of frequent flyer miles required for a free ticket. Airlines benefit from the

offers they make to consumers and from consumers choosing them over competitors.

It is true that many consumers have booked travel with frequent flyer miles and used p rograms

that didn’t exist several decades ago. But often times, trying to get a ticket using miles is an

exercise in frustration. Much has been written about the ways in which the airlines manipulate

these programs to suit their needs. Among the frustrations are added fees for making a

reservation less than several weeks in advance, change fees for altering dates or times of the

reservation, and the most aggravating of all : lack of availability.

TIME Magazine wrote in a 2010 article abo ut a reporter tr ying to make frequent flyer

reservations for a round trip from New York City to Los Angeles, one of the nation's most4 heavily traveled routes, with a half

- dozen airlines offering nonstop flights, for any date in July or

August. TIME found that on American Airlines, not a single 25,000

- mile

- award round trip was

available for the month of July. A few outbound seats were available in late August, but only a

single return: Aug. 31. Delta Airlines had not a single frequent flyer round tr ip available in July;

for August, just one outbound flight was available and no return. Continental was only slightly

better: no round trips in July, but a few in August, while United could offer one flight in July and

had a few round trips left in Augus t. As the reporter noted, this was “Not according to your

schedule, of course

— but the airlines' timetable.” Unfor t una t ely, TIME ’s experience is typical

of what the average consumer often experiences in trying to book a trip with frequent flyer miles.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1995592,00.html#ixzz1yqk6tToa

Recommendation: We urge the Advisory Committee to look at airline practices regarding

frequent flyer miles and recommend standard contract protections for consumers.

V. Fees for Seat Assignments on Coach Flights

Until several years ago, it was unheard of for airlines to impose a charge for the privilege of

having an assigned seat on an airplane. But today

, several airlines charge anywhere from $6 to

$36 or more for assigning seats. This presents significant added costs to consumers, especially

famili es traveling with young children. Let’s say the assigned seats are $20 each and a family of

five is traveling. That’s an additional $100 each way

- $200 total added cost

– simply to have a

seat assignment that ensures the family can sit together. That’s no t fair to consumers and may, in

fact, be prohibitive for families traveling.

These charges for seat assignments are yet another example of the incessant piling on of fees by

the airlines for just about everything it is possible to charge for.

Recomm endation: We recommend that the Advisory Committee review in particular the charging

of fees for the simple act of having a reserved seat in your name in advance of a flight.

VI. Access to State Courts To Bring Claims

Outside of Small Claims Courts, which have limits on the amount of damages that can be

claim ed ( many in the $5

- 10,000 range )

, consumers with legitimate cases against an airline

cannot bring cases in state courts; they are thrown out of state court and sent to the federal court,

which can be located hours from a consumer’s home and be far less consumer

- friendly. There

are many scenarios in which the small claims limits exceed the damages , including the case cited

below

.

For example, a family that misses a cruise due to an airline delay could lose the entire cost of the

cruise. Just this year, Arizona res i dent Valsala Chatham organized an Alaskan cruise for her

husband's 70 th birthday. It was t o be a once

- in

- a

- lifetime celebration with 11 family member s

attending. Her party of 11 arrived at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport with plenty of time

, but the5 check

- in lines were long and United Airlines officials somehow failed to listen to their concerns

and didn’t manage to get them on the plane on time

. The family missed its flight and cruis e and

ultimately lost the entire cost of the cruise. Not until a consumer reporter for an Arizona

television station intervened, did United agree to increase to $500 the vouchers offered to the

passengers who missed their flights. But the f amily reported that the cost of the cruise wa s l ost.

Ms. Chatham should have to right to take her claim to state court to seek compensatio n

.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2012/06/18/20120618United

- Rep

- Airport

- Delay

06192012.html#ixzz1yuFDc4gU

Recommendation: W e urge the Advisory Committee to allow consumers to use their state

courts to bring claims for damages against the airlines.

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