In the long-running battle for passengers’ rights, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are hoping to land better outcomes for airline consumers thanks to new guidelines from federal authorities and a new federal-state collaboration.
In the case of unreasonably long delays at the airport, Blumenthal says, “Consumers deserve, and need, relief right away… an end to the headaches and the haggling.”
Most recently, the Biden administration issued new rules on passenger refunds and so-called “junk fees.”
The Department of Transportation (DOT) says airlines will soon be required to issue automatic refunds for cancelled or significantly delayed flights. The guidelines define a “significant delay” as lasting at least three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.
A separate rule requires airlines to disclose upfront what they charge for checked and carry-on bags and for cancelling or changing a reservation.
“There’s a ton of different fees now that are not entirely clear, or that are larded into the true cost of air travel,” says Tong. “Now, US DOT, working with us, is going to make sure that that is disclosed to people at the outset.”
The new rules will take effect over the next two years.
“We are saying to those airlines, ‘You need to disclose right up front how much it’s going to cost,’” says Blumenthal, “’You need to eliminate those junk fees, like charges for the second and third bag and for carrying on bags.’ And, most important, ‘You need to guarantee people automatic cash refunds, not vouchers, not credits for some flight in the future… cash, automatic, prompt.’”
There’s also an expansion of how federal consumer laws regarding the airlines are enforced. The DOT is deputizing attorneys general from Connecticut and fourteen other states to investigate complaints about airline service.
“We step in (DOT’s) shoes,” adds Tong. “We use their authority to investigate and to get the airlines to do the right thing for Connecticut travelers on cancellations, on unreasonable delays, on hidden fees that they did not expect to pay for.”
Consumers can file their concerns to ct.gov/AGcomplaints.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.