Order 2013-6-20

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Issued by the Department of

Transportation

On the Twenty-Eighth day of June, 2013

JetBlue Airways Corporation

Docket OST 2013-0004

Served June 28, 2013

Violations of 14 CFR 259.5(b)(4), 399.84(a), and

49 U.S.C. § 41712

CONSENT ORDER

This order concerns violations by JetBlue Airways Corporation (JetBlue) of 14 CFR 

259.5(b)(4), 14 CFR 399.84(a), and the statutory prohibition against unfair and deceptive 

practices, 49 U.S.C. § 41712. It directs JetBlue to cease and desist from future similar 

violations and assesses the carrier $60,000 in civil penalties.

Applicable Law

On April 25, 2011, the Department issued a set of rules designed to enhance protections 

for air travel consumers. Among these rules, 14 CFR 259.5(b)(4) requires airlines to 

adopt and adhere to a provision in their customer service plans allowing reservations to 

be held at the quoted fare without payment, or cancelled without penalty, for at least 

twenty-four hours after the reservation is made if the reservation is made one week or 

more prior to a flight’s departure (“qualified reservation”). This provision became 

effective on January 24, 2012. Under this provision, an airline that chooses to comply 

with the rule by allowing a qualified reservation to be cancelled within 24 hours of 
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booking1 must promptly refund the full airfare paid by consumers without assessing any 

cancellation fees that would otherwise apply under the carrier’s cancellation policy. 

The Department’s amended full-fare advertising rule, 14 CFR 399.84(a), which took 

effect on January 26, 2012, requires that advertisements specifying airfares and tour 

package prices with an air component state the entire price to be paid by the consumer. 

This rule ensures that consumers are not deceived and are given accurate and complete 

fare information on which to base their travel purchase decisions. Although charges 

included within the single total price listed, e.g., government taxes, may be stated 

separately or through links or “pop ups” on websites that display the total price, such 

charges may not be false or misleading, may not be displayed as prominently as the full 

fare, may not be presented in the same or larger font size as the total price, and must 

provide cost information on a per passenger basis that accurately reflects the cost of the 

item covered by the charge. 

Following the issuance of section 399.84(a), the Department’s Office of Aviation 

Enforcement and Proceedings (Enforcement Office) provided guidance to airlines and 

ticket agents on when they may appropriately advertise an airfare as “free.”2

 Through 

this guidance and enforcement precedent, the Department has distinguished among fares 

that are, in fact, free (i.e., those that can be obtained without any monetary cost to 

consumers) and fares that require monetary payments, such as government-imposed taxes 

or carrier-imposed charges.3

 If a carrier advertises an airfare as “free,” the carrier may 

not assess the consumer any monetary charge when the consumer attempts to obtain the 

“free” travel. Advertising a fare as “free” when consumers must pay governmentimposed taxes and fees or mandatory carrier-imposed charges violates the full-fare 

advertising rule and constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice and an unfair 

method of competition in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712. 

Facts

To comply with section 259.5, JetBlue adopted a “Passenger Service Plan” and posted 

the plan on its website. Among other commitments in the plan, JetBlue’s plan stated that 

following the receipt of a payment from a customer, it would allow a reservation to be 

canceled within 24 hours of booking without a cancellation fee if the reservation was 

made one week or more prior to the flight’s departure. However, an investigation 

conducted by the Enforcement Office found that between January and November 2012, 

JetBlue imposed its cancellation fees on a limited number of qualified reservations

 1 A carrier can choose either to hold the reservation free of charge for 24 hours or to allow 

consumers to cancel the reservation within 24 hours and receive a full refund. A carrier is not required to 

offer both options. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions Concerning the Enforcement of the Second 

Final Rule on Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections (EAPP #2), issued Aug. 19, 2011; revised Sept. 6, 

2011, Oct. 19, 2011, and Jan. 11, 2012. 

2 Guidance on the Use of the Term “Free” in Air Fare Advertisements and Disclosure of Consumer 

Costs in Award Travel, May 17, 2012. 

3 See, e.g., British Airways Plc, Violations of Articles 17 and 19 of the Montreal Convention, 14 

CFR 399.84 and 49 U.S.C. § 41712, Order 2012-10-1, Oct. 1, 2012. 
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towards which a full refund should have been issued when the reservations were 

cancelled. 

Further, in November 2012, the Enforcement Office reviewed JetBlue’s “Go Pack” 

Internet promotions and found that the carrier failed to comply with section 399.84(a). 

The “Go Pack” promotions consisted of seven different packages, each of which included

ten booking codes that could each be redeemed for a one-way nonstop flight on a 

specified route or routes. For each package, JetBlue quoted the price in the format of 

“total base fare + taxes/fees per flight.” For example, the price for the Pittsburgh package 

was presented as “$899+ $7 taxes/fees per flight.” For the San Juan package, the price 

was presented as “$699 + up to $69 taxes/fees per flight.” The advertising did not state 

the entire price of the package including taxes and fees that had to be paid to redeem all 

of the booking codes. Price advertising that states a fare without taxes and fees does not 

state the entire price to be paid by consumers and, therefore, violates section 399.84(a). 

Also between October and November 2012, JetBlue advertised its “Election Protection”

sweepstakes on the Internet and through several regional news media networks. 

Specifically, JetBlue invited consumers to enter the sweepstakes by voting for a 

presidential candidate, and stated that each winner of the sweepstakes would receive a 

“free ticket” or a “free flight.” Notwithstanding the use of the term “free,” JetBlue’s 

“Official Rules” stated that “[p]assenger is solely responsible for all fees, taxes, 

surcharges, and service charges for all travel booked using a Travel Certificate” and that 

the government taxes and fees for each way international travel could be up to $329. 

Although consumers who won the prizes were not charged airfare, they did have to pay 

government taxes and fees in order to book tickets. JetBlue’s advertisements of “free” 

airfares when the fares were not indeed “free” to consumers violated section 399.84(a). 

JetBlue’s failure to comply with sections 259.5(b)(4) and 399.84(a) as described above 

also constitute unfair and deceptive practices in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712. 

Mitigation

In mitigation, JetBlue believes that it substantially complied with the requirements of its 

customer service plan and 14 CFR 259.5(b)(4) requiring it to issue refunds without 

penalty to passengers cancelling reservations within 24 hours of booking and seven days 

prior to the date of travel. JetBlue states that it identified 118,679 cancellation requests 

received within 24-hours of a reservation made for travel more than a week in advance

that it processed between January and November 2012. JetBlue asserts that it processed 

99.925 percent of the cancellation requests in compliance with its customer service plan 

and the regulations. JetBlue states that of these cancellation requests, it identified only 89 

instances where a passenger requested a refund and was erroneously assessed JetBlue’s 

cancellation fee. JetBlue asserts that, after the Enforcement Office’s intervention, it 

investigated each of these instances and learned that 24 had already received refunds. 

JetBlue further states that it attempted to contact the remaining 65 passengers, reaching 

and issuing refunds (totaling $5,700) to 63 of them. Given that the regulation took effect 

in January 2012, JetBlue submits that these performance figures reflect a diligent and 

successful effort to implement the refund requirement.
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With respect to the full-fare advertising rule, JetBlue states that its Go Pack offer is an 

innovative, consumer-friendly air travel product, which was sold differently than most air 

travel. JetBlue believes that the full fare advertising rule as drafted did not consider the 

possibility of this innovative and consumer friendly offering. Because certain taxes are 

not assessed until the time of booking and because the taxes vary widely on international 

routes, JetBlue argues that it could not calculate the total amount of the taxes due until all 

the booking codes had been used or the time to use them had expired. Accordingly, 

JetBlue asserts that the best way to calculate the “entire price to be paid by the customer” 

as required by 14 CFR 399.84(a) was ambiguous. JetBlue submits that the advertising for

its Go Pack promotion represented a good faith effort to describe the offer accurately to 

consumers and JetBlue received no customer complaints with respect to the Go Pack or its 

marketing. 

JetBlue submits that it considered it unfair to consumers to require them to pay the 

maximum amount of taxes for all potential flights a Go Pack could provide at the time of 

purchase. Specifically, JetBlue contends that a consumer might choose not to use all 10 

booking codes or, with respect to Go Packs covering international routes, might choose to 

book flights with lower taxes. JetBlue believed that the most accurate way to describe 

the offer to consumers was to state the package price and provide the maximum amount 

of the taxes that could be due as each booking code was used. Accordingly, JetBlue 

asserts that it decided to advertise the base price of the Go Pack while separately but 

clearly identifying the amount of taxes that would be collected upon each booking. 

JetBlue asserts that its advertising was a good faith attempt to accurately describe the 

product to consumers.

With respect to JetBlue’s Election Protection promotion, JetBlue states that it did not 

derive any direct pecuniary benefit from the advertising campaign. JetBlue submits that 

the campaign complied with applicable sweepstakes laws and resulted in the award of 

1006 roundtrip international travel certificates to consumers. JetBlue confirms that 

consistent with sweepstakes laws around the country, consumers were not required to 

provide any monetary consideration to receive their opportunity to win the prize. 

Although winners did have to pay applicable taxes upon using the awarded travel 

certificates, JetBlue states that it did not receive a direct financial benefit for providing 

the transportation.

Decision

The Enforcement Office has carefully considered the information provided by JetBlue, 

but continues to believe enforcement action is warranted with respect to all three issues 

discussed above. The Enforcement Office and JetBlue have reached a settlement of this 

matter in order to avoid litigation. The Enforcement Office considers the violation 

concerning cancellations fees serious, but notes that the number of violations is small 

particularly compared to the number of cancellations processed by JetBlue during the 

relevant time period where it complied with the 24-hour cancellation rule, 14 CFR 

259.5(b)(4). JetBlue also quickly provided refunds of the fees improperly charged upon 
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becoming aware of them. With respect to the “Election Protection” sweepstakes, the 

Enforcement Office also views this violation to be serious, but notes that JetBlue received 

no direct financial gain from the advertisements. Based on the foregoing and the other 

mitigating factors, JetBlue is ordered to cease and desist from those violations in the 

future but will not be subject to any civil penalty with respect to these two issues. 

Without admitting or denying the violations described above, JetBlue consents to the 

issuance of this order to cease and desist from future violations of 14 CFR 259.5(b)(4)

and 399.84(a) and 49 U.S.C. § 41712, and to the assessment of $60,000 in compromise of 

potential civil penalties otherwise due and payable pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 46301.

The compromise assessment is appropriate considering the nature and extent of the 

violations described herein and serves the public interest. It establishes a strong deterrent 

to future similar unlawful practices by JetBlue and other U.S. and foreign air carriers.

This order is issued under the authority contained in 49 CFR Part 1 and 14 CFR 385.15.

ACCORDINGLY,

1. Based on the above information, we approve this settlement and the provisions of this 

order as being in the public interest.

2. We find that JetBlue Airways Corporation violated 14 CFR 259.5(b)(4) by failing to 

adhere to its customer service commitment with respect to allowing a reservation to 

be cancelled without penalty within 24 hours of making such a reservation, when the 

reservation is made one week or more before the flight’s departure.

3. We find that JetBlue Airways Corporation violated 14 CFR 399.84(a) by advertising 

“Go Pack” multiple-flight packages that did not include applicable taxes and fees.

4. We find that JetBlue Airways Corporation violated 14 CFR 399.84(a) by advertising 

a “free” ticket or “free” flight when consumers were required to pay applicable taxes 

and fees.

5. We find that by engaging in the conduct described in ordering paragraphs 2, 3, and 4,

above, JetBlue Airways Corporation engaged in unfair and deceptive practices and 

unfair methods of competition in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712. 

6. We order JetBlue Airways Corporation, and all other entities owned or controlled by, 

or under common ownership and control with JetBlue Airways Corporation, its

successors, affiliates, and assignees, to cease and desist from further violations of 14 

CFR 259.5(b) and 399.84(a) and 49 U.S.C. § 41712.

7. We assess JetBlue Airways Corporation $60,000 in compromise of civil penalties that 

might otherwise by assessed for the violations described in ordering paragraph 3, 

above. Of this total penalty amount, $30,000 shall be due and payable within 20 days 

of the issuance date of this order, and the remaining $30,000 shall become due and 
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payable if, within one year of the issuance date of this order, JetBlue Airways 

Corporation violates the cease and desist provision in ordering paragraph 6, above, or 

fails to comply with the payment provisions in this ordering paragraph, in which case,

the entire unpaid portion of the civil penalty shall become due and payable 

immediately. 

8. We order JetBlue Airways Corporation to pay the penalty through Pay.gov to the 

account of the U.S. Treasury. Payments shall be made in accordance with the 

instructions contained in the Attachment to this order. Failure to pay the penalty as 

ordered shall subject JetBlue Airways to the assessment of interest, penalty, and 

collection charges under the Debt Collection Act and to further enforcement action 

for failing to comply with this order.

This order will become a final order of the Department 10 days after its service date 

unless a timely petition for review is filed or the Department takes review on its own 

motion.

BY:

SAMUEL PODBERESKY

Assistant General Counsel for

 Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings

An electronic version of this document is available at

www.regulations.gov