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6/2/2010 20:26

Oops. Some people used the Site FEEDBACK button for their comments. Sorry about the confusion.

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Airlines are private companies and should not be micro-managed. The regulations should address such subjects as safety and not subjects of compensation to customers for inconvenience. Consider that any extra expenses airlines will be facing with new regulations will be paid by customers. Look at it as forcing customers to pay for air travel insurance that covers any delays and other events that airlines can not control. Customers will be paying high premium for such insurance and will not be able to decline it( how similar to mandatory health insurance! ). Most customers if given choice prefer to travel at lower cost rather than having additional travel interruption insurance.

    6/2/2010 20:30

    Oops. Some people used the Site FEEDBACK button for their comments. Sorry about the confusion.

    Here’s a comment left there by an unidentified participant. (If you submitted this comment and want to have it posted under your user name, contact us.)

    A previous comment stated that airlines are private companies and should not be micro-managed. What about the passenger’s individual right of freedom? I do not want to be stuck on the tarmac or at the gate for more than 2 hours without the option of de-planing. I want to be able to choose another flight, drive to my destination, or come back another day. I do not want to feel like a prisoner of the “private airline companies”. DOT should require the airlines to build valid contingency plans and include them along with their application for right of carriage. Right of carriage does NOT include RIGHT of INCARCERATION!

6/3/2010 00:02

Without details regarding the methodology of this cost-benefit analysis, it is difficult to comment on the ‘reasonableness’ of what is proposed. Disclosure of fees to the consumer should not have a quantifiable cost.

    6/3/2010 00:11

    Details on methodology can be found via the Source Material information in the body of the post. Please report back on any thoughts.

7/25/2010 19:44

It is but a fraction of what the airlines spend to misrepresent their service to the gullible flying public. Add that to the amount of legal gymnastics the public is put through to seek recovery of costs due to non delivery of service. And while there the tortoise-like speed of having a credit card debit reversed. I have no problem with near regulation of the industry again.

    7/26/2010 09:25

    Hi Fairness; thanks for your comment! Any suggestions on how a simplified refund system might work?

7/30/2010 23:29

This will bite the consumer in increased fees and put further strain on carriers….not to mention airports struggling with less planes. To me, the fees will need to be incorporated with a pricing scheme that will include a bare minimum airfare carriers need to charge. Going after volume is a risk to people and the industry.

    7/31/2010 12:04

    Thank you for your comment, thetravelerman. Most consumers seem to be in favor of regulating airline pricing, but little has been said about the impact this may have on airlines/airports which will eventually carry over to effect passengers. The DOT wants to know more about these potential impacts.

9/2/2010 04:06

I think you guys need to make this more clear, as I am looking over this I cannot really figure out what it is you want us to comment about..

    9/4/2010 14:49

    For the costs and benefits, the DOT is looking for your reactions to the estimated costs and benefits, as well as your reactions to their methodology. Do you think they did a good job in their calculations? Do you think the balance of costs & benefits justifies each of the proposed regulations?

Airline Passenger Rights "Costs & benefits"

Agency Proposal
By the Regulation Room team based on the NPRM
Agency Documents
1 6

COSTS & BENEFITS Overview:
Just how much would more passenger protections cost US and foreign airlines and other air ticket sellers? DOT Department of Transportation calculates the 10-year cost of doing everything it’s proposing in this rulemaking at nearly $26 million — a big number. But it calculates the value to passengers at $87.59 million. It’s done a separate analysis for small airlines, airports, and travel sellers. If you’re a numbers junkie — or connected with a small business that will be affected — you might want to dig in to see how DOT Department of Transportation got to those numbers.

This post will give you the details and point you to the source material. DOT Department of Transportation wants your reaction to any and all parts of its cost and benefit calculations.

2 4 The Details:

DOT has broken out its cost and benefit calculations for each major change that might be adopted in this rulemaking. All figures are projected ten-year costs (2010-2020), discounted at 7%/year to 2010. In all cases, only “quantifiable” costs and benefits are included; that means that sometimes DOT Department of Transportation did not reach a value estimate.

TOTAL: Costs—$26 million; Benefits—$87.6 million

In all these cases, DOT Department of Transportation identified a list of benefits it considered real but unquantified; in some cases, is also identified unquantified costs. See the list.

For small US airlines, DOT Department of Transportation estimated a total of $6,000 or less per year in compliance costs.

For small foreign airlines, the compliance cost estimate is considerably higher.

For small travel agencies, tour operators and similar air sellers, estimated one-time compliance cost for advertising revision is estimated at no more than $3,000.

For small airports, compliance would involve estimated time costs of a few hours on average to coordinate tarmac contingency plans with airlines.

3 0 Source Material:

Methodology and data can be found in the Preliminary Regulatory Analysis, prepared for DOT Department of Transportation by Econometrica, Inc.