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If the airline fails to deliver the baggage within 12 hours of the passenger’s U.S. flight or 25 hours after the international flight departs, the proposal will require a refund.
The U.S. Department of Transportation will propose that if the luggage is not delivered to the passenger quickly enough, the airline must refund the fee for the checked luggage.
If the proposal is finalized after a long process of formulating regulations, if the airline fails to provide services during the flight, it will also require immediate refund of additional fees such as Internet access.
A department official said that the agency will release the proposal in the next few days and may take effect next summer.
If the airline fails to deliver the baggage within 12 hours of the passenger’s U.S. flight or 25 hours after the international flight departs, the proposal will require a refund.
The current regulations only require a refund when the baggage is lost, but the airline must compensate passengers for “reasonable” miscellaneous expenses incurred by the delayed baggage. Even if luggage is severely delayed, the government does not know how often airlines charge fees.
According to a senior official of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the baggage fee proposal is the first of a number of aviation consumer regulations formulated by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden in accordance with an executive order to be signed by the president. A. Discuss anonymous proposals that have not yet been made public. The official stated that the order is intended to promote competition and give consumers more power.
Kurt Ebenhoch, executive director of the airline consumer organization Travel Fairness Now, called baggage refunds “a long list of consumer-friendly items that require DOT action.” He said the top priorities include refunds for cancellations related to the coronavirus pandemic, stricter rules to allow families with young children to sit together without paying additional fees, and to improve the transparency of flight schedules and fares.
According to John Breyault, vice president of the National Consumers League, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appears to be better than Zhao Xiaolan, who held the position during the reign of former President Donald Trump. (Elaine Chao) pays more attention to consumer issues. But he said that he hopes that the Biden administration can act faster.
Breyault said: “After benign neglect at best and active regulatory disruption at worst, whether the DOT will make consumer protection a real priority is an unresolved evidence.”
Last year, more than 100,000 consumers complained to the government about airline services. Refunds are the biggest complaint, although most claim that airlines refuse to refund consumers who have cancelled their trips due to the pandemic. The Department of Transportation is seeking to impose a fine of US$25.5 million on Air Canada, but has not yet taken action against other airlines regarding refunds for cancelled flights.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, passengers paid $5.76 billion in checked baggage fees to American Airlines. Last year, due to the pandemic, travel declined, and this figure fell to 2.84 billion U.S. dollars. These figures do not include the cost of carry-on baggage.
For many years, customers can check one or two pieces of luggage on almost any airline without paying a fee. This situation began to change during the travel slump caused by the 2008 financial crisis. Now, with the exception of Southwest Airlines, most U.S. airlines even charge for a single piece of luggage, although customers who purchase expensive tickets or carry airline credit cards are usually free of charges.
In the past two years, American Airlines has earned US$2 billion from checked baggage fees, followed by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, each generating approximately US$1.5 billion. Due to their small scale, discount airlines, including Spirit and Frontier, receive less revenue, but the proportion of revenue derived from fees is higher.
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