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DOT Rolls Back Proposed Requirements For Airlines To Clearly Disclose Baggage Fees

Checked baggage being screened by US Transportation Security Administration 

Forbes-The Department of Transportation is cancelling the pursuit of new legislation that would require airlines to clearly state luggage fees in airfare searches. In a statement on December 5th, the department said that it is “committed to protecting consumers from hidden fees and to ensuring transparency,” however it did not “believe that Departmental action is necessary to meet this objective at this time.”

Originally proposed in January of 2017, the initial Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) was created as an extension of a 2014 filing to bring better transparency around fees to consumers when shopping for airfare.

The legislation proposed in 2017 focused specifically on baggage fees. In the last several years, legacy U.S. carriers have introduced a range of fees for checking bags on domestic and international flights, adding a significant cost for many travellers (as of last week, Delta Air Lines is also starting to charge the fees in some international cabins).

Those fees, however, aren’t exactly clear throughout the airfare booking process. Shopping for airfare through a carrier’s website, for example, only shows baggage fees after flights and base fares are selected, while some online travel agents don’t expose a traveller to the potential costs at all.

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