Quartz: Biden’s plan to eliminate hidden airline fees is taking flight
The Biden administration wants air travelers to have complete transparency when booking flights.
The Department of Transportation will require air carriers and ticket agents to “clearly disclose” passenger-specific or itinerary-specific baggage fees, change fees, cancellation fees, and adjacent seating fees, according to a new proposed rule (pdf) published yesterday (Sept. 26). All fees “should be disclosed at the first point in a search process where a fare is listed.” The new rule will affect any flight to, within, and from the US.
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What experts say: Several smaller, scrappier airlines have been scooped up by giants in the past. The remaining biggies—particularly American, Delta, United, and Southwest—have gotten “too big to fail and too big to care,” Bill McGee, an aviation expert at the American Economic Liberties Project, which opposes concentrated power within industries, told ABC News. “We feel that there should be a moratorium on all mergers in the airline industry until (federal regulators) go back and look at all the negative effects of all the consolidation.”