NEWS
Trade groups praise DOT committee’s decision on ancillary fees
By Kate Rice
Industry groups with conflicting views on
the way distribution systems treat airline
ancillary services each put their own spin
on recommendations made last week by the
Transportation Department’s (DOT) Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer
Protection.
The committee said that the DOT should
ensure transparency in air carrier pricing
but offered no specifics on how to do that
and made no mention of GDSs.
At the request of ASTA and others, the
DOT is considering requiring airlines that
participate in the GDSs to include ancillary
services and the fees for those services in the
content they provide the GDSs. They do not
do so now.
Bruce Bishins, managing director of
ARTA, who had lobbied against the idea of
a DOT mandate, said he felt “vindicated” by
the committee’s recommendation.
But while the committee’s report would
seem to be a setback for ASTA, Paul Ruden,
the Society’s senior vice president for industry and legal affairs, said he did not expect
the committee to recommend that the DOT
mandate the inclusion of ancillary services.
“I was pretty happy that they went as far
as they did, considering the nature of the
composition of the task force,” Ruden said.
Task force members included consumer ad-
vocates and representatives of airline and
airport trade groups. Lisa Madigan, the at-
torney general for Illinois, served as com-
mittee chair.
The Travel Technology Association,
representing online travel companies and
GDSs, also praised the committee’s recom-
mendation but added that “more must be
done to eliminate the problem of hidden or
misleading ancillary fees.”
It said the DOT “should require airlines to
make their essential ancillary fees available
for consumers to both
see and purchase at
the same time and in
the same manner they
make their airfares
available, no matter
where the consumer
chooses to buy his or
her ticket.”
Similarly, the Open
Allies for Airfare
Transparency, representing numerous
Paul Ruden
Sr. Vice President
ASTA
individual agencies, ASTA and various cor-
porate departments and technology compa-
nies, applauded the committee report but
said “this does not go nearly far enough,”
adding that it is “necessary that the DOT
step in to fix this market failure.”
In a statement, Sabre said it applauded the
advisory committee’s “strong support for
greater transparency in air travel pricing.”
“Sabre has long advocated for consumer
protections that ensure travelers ‘know the
cost of the entire trip before purchasing a
ticket,’ as the committee’s report recom-
mends, the GDS said in a statement.
Notification rule
But while the committee refrained from
recommending that the DOT force airlines
to include ancillaries in the GDS, it did conclude that the DOT should impose a new
notification requirement on agents about
the airlines they sell or do not sell.
The committee said the DOT “should
require all ticket agents, including online
ticket agents, to disclose the fact that they
do not offer for sale all airlines’ tickets, if
that is the case, and that additional airlines
may serve the route being searched.”
According to the committee, “In some
instances, it may appear that a route is not
served at all because the airline or airlines
serving that route have chosen not to par-
ticipate in a particular distribution system;
this can be confusing for consumers.”
ASTA did not directly support or op-
pose the proposal, saying, “The disclosure
issue is vastly more complicated than ap-
pears on the surface, and there are many
potential unintended consequences that
need to be considered before DOT adopts
such a rule.”
Hurricane marks another setback for Atlantic City
By Danny King
Hurricane Sandy’s damage to Atlantic
City’s dozen hotel-casino resorts may have
been less than city officials and hotel executives feared, but the longer-term impact
may be more severe for a coastal resort
town that’s already been battling for business against increasing competition in the
Mid-Atlantic region.
Hotels in Atlantic City closed on Oct. 28,
the day before the storm hit the Jersey Shore,
and remained shuttered as of press time.
CEO Gary Loveman of Caesars Entertain-
ment, which operates four of the city’s 12
hotel-casinos, said on a conference call with
analysts last week that “none of [Caesars’
hotel-casinos] appeared to have suffered ex-
tensive damage.”
He added that Caesars, whose Bally’s,
Caesars, Harrah’s and Showboat resorts to-
tal almost 6,700 rooms, has a $25 million
deductible on property damage and that the
company doesn’t expect to exceed that total.
AFLJG<M;AF?;K9F<9DK;;DGN=;F=KL;!/";*;02& 1"0
ADVERTISEMENT
L@AK;AK;O@9L;A;;9DD : =<;;:9L@;9F<;:=QGF<;
Call your Tour Operator or 1-800-SANDALS • sandals.com
Sandals® is a registered trademark. Unique Vacations Inc., is the worldwide representative for Sandals Resorts.
LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED
