“Airline ticketers find ways to skirt new law” |
| Airline ticketers find ways to skirt new law Posted: 13 Dec 2010 07:41 AM PST WASHINGTON -- A great deal was offered by CheapOair.com last week if you needed to fly from Buffalo to Newark, N.J., on Jan. 4: a one-way, $78 ticket on Continental Airlines. Trouble is, that 5:19 p.m. flight isn't really on Continental Airlines. It's on Colgan Air -- the smaller, cheaper regional operator of turboprop planes like the one used on Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed in Clarence Center nearly two years ago, killing 50 people. On CheapOair, it was possible last week to book that flight to Newark without realizing you were on a regional airline that Continental hired to operate the flight. That was the case even though a new federal law requires airlines and travel websites to say which airline is operating the flight "on the first display of the website following a search of a requested itinerary." A Buffalo News study of 10 top travel websites and five major airline sites last week found CheapOair to be more flagrantly skirting the law than any other airline ticket-seller. But CheapOair was by no means alone. Seven of the 10 travel websites that The News surveyed did not make it immediately clear to consumers that a regional airline was handling flights for the major carriers. Even though the new law says that information must be displayed "in a format that is easily visible to a viewer," travel giants such as Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline made that information tricky to find. And while four of the five major airlines clearly said which carrier is flying the plane, US Airways didn't. The News study echoed the findings of the Families of Continental Flight 3407, the group that pushed for the aviation safety law that includes the disclosure provision. Most travel websites "are not, in our opinion, adhering to the full-disclosure intent of this provision of the law," said Scott Maurer, a leader of the families group. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed. "The law is crystal clear, and travel websites that are not yet providing full disclosure to customers are ignoring Congress and the law of the land," he said. "The flying public should be provided with all the information about the flights they are going to take, and there should be serious repercussions if that information is not provided as intended by Congress." He urged the Department of Transportation, which can fine airline ticket-sellers for deceptive business practices, to take action. In fact, a DOT spokesman said: "The department is currently conducting an investigation of major airline and large Internet travel agency websites for compliance with our disclosure requirements." Such an investigation will likely find what both The News and the families group found when doing trial searches for upcoming flights on various travel websites. The News study found that three sites -- CheapTickets, Orbitz and Yahoo!Travel -- clearly comply with the law. Not so the others. "Each has its own quirk of how they're playing the shell game," said Maurer, who lost his daughter, Lorin, in the Colgan crash. The most popular travel website, TripAdvisor, doesn't offer any disclosure of regional flights on the first page of its search result, and the company contends that it doesn't have to. "As a flight meta-search engine, TripAdvisor Flights is a marketing partner for airlines and online travel agencies and is not actually a ticket seller," said Bryan Saltzburg, general manager of TripAdvisor Flights. "As such, TripAdvisor is not within the scope of the regulations." But the two largest online travel agencies, Expedia and Travelocity, are clearly subject to the regulations, and Expedia appears to be in violation of them. If you search for that Jan. 4 flight to Newark, Expedia will give you a range of options -- and no indication of whether a regional is flying a particular flight until after you click "Choose This Flight." Expedia did not respond to a request to comment. A Travelocity search, meanwhile, provides a list of flights, each with a link that says "See Flight Details." Clicking on that link will show that Colgan operates the flight. In addition, "the details show up when you move your mouse over the 'Operated by' symbol on the first page of the search results," said Travelocity spokesman Dan Toporek. But there's no reason for viewers to do that, or to have any idea what that symbol stands for. Much more prominent is the "Select" button, where you can purchase your ticket -- and find out that Colgan is operating that Jan. 4 flight. Similarly, a search for that same Jan. 4 flight on Priceline -- the online giant made famous by pitchman/actor William Shatner -- doesn't show that Colgan is operating that flight on the page that pops up as soon as you do a search. Each flight on Priceline's list of options for that day includes a link that says "Full Flight Details." Clicking on that link will identify Colgan as the operator of that flight, as will clicking on the "Choose Itinerary" tab. To Priceline, that equates to complying with the law's requirement that the plane's operator be made clear on the first screen a customer sees after searching for a flight. That "Full Flight Details" link is part of the initial display page, said Priceline spokesman Brian Ek. "Our legal staff looked it over, and they are very comfortable with it," Ek said. But why not say who's flying each airplane on the first page of search results, as CheapTickets, Orbitz and Yahoo do? "It's just simpler for customers" to do it the Priceline way, Ek said. The Flight 3407 families see things very differently. Noting that most of their loved ones had no idea they were flying with pilots far less experienced than those hired by Continental, the families have long pushed for full disclosure of which airline is operating each flight. And they see no reason why any travel website, or any airline, can't comply fully and clearly with the law. "If Orbitz and Continental Airlines can do it, then Expedia and Travelocity and US Airways can do it," said Kevin Kuwik, who was Lorin Maurer's boyfriend. In fact, anyone ordering that Jan. 4 ticket on Continental's website would see quite clearly that Colgan is operating the flight. But that's not true for anyone choosing a connecting US Airways flight. Supposed US Airways flights operated by the likes of Air Wisconsin are accompanied by a code -- the USAirways logo followed by the initials "ZW" in tiny type. Only by going to the legend at the bottom of the search page can consumers figure out that that is an Air Wisconsin flight. "US Airways is in full compliance with the federal disclosure requirements," company spokesman Derek Hanna said. The families contend, though, that the US Airways policy violates the provision of the law that says the flight operator must be "easily visible to the viewer" of the website. "They do have their little flag and [two- or] three-letter code," said Karen Eckert, whose sister Beverly Eckert, a 9/11 activist, was killed in the Colgan crash. "The average customer would probably not know there is any meaning to it." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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