Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday announced that the department is evaluating fines totaling $7.5 million against six airlines that asked them to reimburse hundreds of thousands of customers.
Patrick Semansky/AP
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Patrick Semansky / AP
Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday announced that the department is evaluating fines totaling $7.5 million against six airlines that asked them to reimburse hundreds of thousands of customers.
Patrick Semansky/AP
The Department of Transport is cracking down on airlines that refuse to refund customers for canceled flights.
Transport Minister Pete Buttigieg on Monday announced that the department is evaluating fines totaling $7.5 million against six airlines and that the DOT is asking those airlines to pay $600 million. la refunds for hundreds of thousands of customers have been declined.
Buttigieg said: “When a flight is cancelled, the passenger who wants a refund must be refunded immediately. “Whenever that doesn’t happen, we take action to hold airlines accountable on behalf of American travelers and get passengers money back.”
“Cancelling flights is annoying enough and you don’t have to haggle or wait months for a refund,” he said.
Airlines are required to refund customers when a flight is canceled for any reason, but typically, to keep cash, many airlines offer vouchers or credits for future travel exchange instead of a refund.
Airlines’ refusal to refund passengers has become a major source of consumer complaints, especially in the early days of the pandemic when almost no one was on a plane.
Bill McGee, an airline consumer advocate for the American Economic Freedom Project, cites data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics showing that complaints against airlines for denial Cashback offers have skyrocketed in 2020 to over 89,000, a 57x increase from just about 1,500 in 2019.
“That’s really unprecedented,” McGee said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Buttigieg said DOT will ensure that refunds are available and processed in a timely manner
One big problem is that potential travelers often cancel their plans because of the pandemic and significant travel restrictions in place, but the airline won’t cancel flights until the last minute. In those cases, airlines are not usually required to issue refunds, but instead, many have offered vouchers or credits for future travel. But those vouchers and credits often expire before some people can or feel comfortable traveling again.
And delays, cancellations and significant changes to flight schedules have become a serious issue this year, as airlines initially scheduled more flights than they staffed. available to operate.
Buttigieg said airline operations have improved in recent months after a terrible summer of flight disruptions.
“Flights are still canceled, though. And when that happens, DOT will be here to make sure a refund is available and that it’s processed as quickly as possible, that we’ll assist.” people when they have a disruption,” Buttigieg told reporters during a press conference via Zoom on Monday.
But consumer advocate Bill McGee isn’t so sure. While he says these coercive actions are a small step in the right direction, “It’s really too little and too late. In fact, the biggest offenders here don’t seem to be being addressed.”
He noted that a single relatively small US airline, Frontier, is under sanctions, along with five foreign airlines (six if Air Canada is included, which was fined by the DOT last year). And he agrees that Frontier “is one of the worst criminals.”
“Why aren’t any other airlines fined?”
However, he said consumers have filed thousands of complaints against United, Delta, American and other airlines for their refusal to offer refunds.
“Why aren’t any other airlines fined?” McGee asked. “And why did it take so long…why did it take (nearly) three years to investigate this, especially since all the data is public?”
“Airlines that brazenly implement the rule deserve fines, but this latest round of USDOT enforcement comes nearly three years late and weeds out America’s most egregious violators,” McGee said. McGee said.
Airlines facing fines include only one US-based airline, Frontier, which was ordered to pay $222 million in refunds and a $2.2 million fine. But in a statement, Frontier said it would only pay $1 million out of pocket, after receiving a good faith repayment credit of $1.2 million.
Other airlines subject to enforcement action on Monday are:
- Air India – $121.5 million in mandatory refunds and $1.4 million in fines
• TAP Air Portugal – $126.5 million in refunds paid and $1.1 million in fines
• Aeromexico – $13.6 million required refund and $900,000 fine
• El Al – $61.9 million required refund and $900,000 fine
• Avianca – $76.8 million required refund and $750,000 penalty
All agreed orders are available at www.regulation.govreceipt number DOT-OST-2022-
0001.
Department has also proposed stricter regulation on refunds to airline customers.
Under the DOT, consumers can file an air travel consumer complaint online at http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm or by voice mail at (202)-366-2220.
