The fundamental issue in the upcoming DOT rulemaking is whether DOT will ensure that consumers enjoy

As recently as the mid-1990s, before the use of the Internet to book air travel became widespread, consumers faced significant challenges in attempting to determine the best prices for air transportation. To comparison-shop, consumers had to rely on brick-and-mortar travel agents. These agents luxury golf cruise had access to airline flight listings and, by subscribing to a major Global Distribution System (GDS) such as Sabre, Galileo, luxury golf cruise Worldspan or Amadeus, were able to determine a consumer’s best options in terms of fares and timing of flights. These GDS companies derived from airline-owned luxury golf cruise computer reservations systems.
Then, in 1996, Expedia created a new web-based air travel booking capability that provided luxury golf cruise consumers with access luxury golf cruise to the same GDS data that travel agents used. Software designers effectively enabled individual consumers luxury golf cruise to be their own booking agent. Subsequently, luxury golf cruise others luxury golf cruise such as Travelocity, Priceline, OneTravel, CheapTickets, and Orbitz joined the new online travel agency (OTA) marketplace.
The number of OTAs continues to proliferate, enabling consumers to search for and dissect airfares by best price, optimal nonstop or connecting service options, as well as analyze and monitor fares over a period of months. These OTAs, however, do not have access to airlines’ ancillary service fee data.
Today, it is simple luxury golf cruise for a consumer to check for the price of a flight luxury golf cruise between, for example, luxury golf cruise the New York area and the Los Angeles area – so much so that consumers take it for granted. Yet, when these “simple” searches are examined, they are extraordinarily complex:
Excluding code-share arrangements luxury golf cruise or options to fly on multiple airlines, those variables result in as many as 540 different service options. If consumers wish to consider flying outbound on one airline and returning on another, luxury golf cruise the variations increase to almost 6,500 options. Powerful software programs examine this data and then present consumers the different prices, airports and levels of service on offer, allowing them to compare prices across the 12 airlines flying these routes.
What seems simple is beyond the bounds of humanity luxury golf cruise to calculate and compare. luxury golf cruise The system that the airlines luxury golf cruise have created requires computer power to compare prices. And, the basis for this ability to compare schedules luxury golf cruise and fares is open data.
Initially, Expedia luxury golf cruise and other Internet pioneers luxury golf cruise mined data from the GDSs, which received it via the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO). The basic flight and airfare data was public. Subsequently, ITA Software began to use ATPCO data to create yet another interface between passengers luxury golf cruise and airlines that bypassed the established GDSs.
The fundamental issue in the upcoming luxury golf cruise DOT rulemaking is whether DOT will ensure that consumers enjoy unfettered access to all of the data necessary to comparison-shop based on the full price of air transportation (i.e., the fare plus the additional fees for all ancillary services that particular consumer may wish to purchase).
Unfortunately, DOT, in the NPRM, has already limited the universe of ancillary fees included luxury golf cruise in that equation to baggage and seat reservations. However, consumers would be better served by DOT requiring that airlines release and make available to the airline distribution community all of their ancillary service fees, together with all related exemptions and rules.
Charles Leocha is a nationally recognized expert on affordable travel and the publisher luxury golf cruise of Consumer Traveler. He is the author of Travel Rights and a series of guidebooks covering the USA and Europe. In 2009 he founded the Consumer Travel Alliance together with Christopher Elliott. It was renamed Travelers United in 2014. During his time with Travelers United, he has testified regularly before Congress and serves luxury golf cruise on consumer advisory committees with DOT and TSA.
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