Airlines such as United, Delta, American and Southwest support a bill that would make it difficult to shop for airfares (Photo: Delta Air Lines)
Remember in 2011 when the Department of Transportation cracked down on airlines with new passenger rights legislation? It included consumer friendly changes such as requiring airlines to allow us to change our minds within 24 hours of booking, and penalized airlines for holding us captive on planes for more than 3-4 hours.
Another thing it did was to force airlines to provide “all-in” pricing, which means they had to include all mandatory fees and taxes in advertised ticket prices. That made it much easier to compare apples to apples when searching for fares, and reduced the likelihood of getting stuck with fare surprises, like buying what you think is a $99 fare, which ends up being $179 once you get to the “purchase now” button.
Well, the airlines could be on the verge of undoing that rule with the deceptively named “Transparent Airfares Act of 2014” that their powerful lobbyists recently introduced in the House of Representatives. They claim that having to include mandatory taxes and fees reportedly costs them over $1 billion per year. That’s malarkey. All airlines (except United) have been consistently profitable since the rule was enacted.
But airlines say that they are singled out—no other industry is required to include taxes and fees in advertised pricing like they are. (Hmm, What about gas stations? They include taxes in their price-per-gallon signage).
Thankfully, a new senate version of the bill introduced this week (The “Real Transparency in Airfares Act”) seems to make more sense and will hopefully thwart the ill-conceived effort in the house.
If you’re a frequent traveler or just a frequent airfare shopper, this is worth keeping an eye on! Do you think airlines should be able to advertise “base” fares only? Please leave your comments below.
–Chris McGinnis
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Douglas says
May 19, 2014 at 4:47 amAbsolutely not… Airlines were able to advertise incredibly low fares, click purchase and an international flight would have tax and fuel surcharge more then the base fare. For that, I lost interest in their sales because I didn’t have the patients to click through the booking process only to be turned away by the destinations / airport taxes.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Name says
May 14, 2014 at 1:41 pmJust sent you an email directly, Chris. I have now gone from JudyNagy to Name again. No clue why but it happens often.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Natalie says
May 14, 2014 at 1:06 pmPlease remember to post something to the old/current RSS if you update the new one. I read via RSS and won’t notice that I’m not getting posts if I’m not notified to change it via a post.
Chris McGinnis says
May 14, 2014 at 12:54 pmHey Kirk: Not a way to do that yet… but give us a chance and see what you think… look forward to your feedback. You’ll be able to tell from the headline whether or not the info applies to you. Thanks! — chris
bbinsf says
May 14, 2014 at 12:42 pmLooking forward to it!
Kirk says
May 14, 2014 at 11:50 amHopefully I can configure it to get emailed only when there’s a post in the “SFO tab”? Probably a deal-breaker for me otherwise