Comments of the National Consumers League before the Advisory Committee

for Aviation Consumer Protection, US Department of Transportation

[Docket # 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

• Corporate 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 devices
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Most airline sites give assurances that they 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 questions 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 to 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: We urge the Advisory Committee to recommend adoption of airline industrywide 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 happen 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 simple transaction 

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

airline customers notes that forty 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 hours. 

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 consumers not be gouged. 
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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 

European 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, Delayed 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 circumstances may result in compensation involving

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 require in miles is a form of bait and switch. 

The rules have changed. Now 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 the 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 programs 

that didn’t exist several decades ago. But oftentimes, 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 about a reporter trying to make frequent flyer 

reservations for a round trip from New York City to Los Angeles, one of the nation's most 
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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 trip 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 August. As the reporter noted, this was “Not according to your 

schedule, of course — but the airlines' timetable.” Unfortunately, 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

families 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 not 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. 

Recommendation: 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 

claimed (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 resident Valsala Chatham organized an Alaskan cruise for her 

husband's 70th birthday. It was to be a once-in-a-lifetime celebration with 11 family members 

attending. Her party of 11 arrived at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport with plenty of time, but the 
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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 cruise 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 family reported that the cost of the cruise was lost. 

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

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2012/06/18/20120618United-Rep-Airport-Delay06192012.html#ixzz1yuFDc4gU

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

courts to bring claims for damages against the airlines. 

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