Could a ‘Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous Fees Act’ help CT passengers avoid a travel ‘debacle’?

Passengers whose flights were canceled or delayed could band together in a class-action suit and airlines would no longer be able to charge high fees for checked bags and seat changes under the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, introduced by U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.

Included in the bill is Markey’s reintroduction of the Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous Fees Act, known as FAIR, which forbids high fees for checked baggage, seating changes and other charges. During a press conference, Markey said airlines took in $109 billion in non-ticket revenue in 2019, up from $22 billion in 2010.

Both bills aim to be included in the Federal Aviation Administration’s reauthorization later this year.

“From my standpoint, the enforcement provisions are as important as the specific rights because now consumers … cannot sue the airlines,” Blumenthal said. “Under this provision, they could sue them and they could come together in class actions.”

The bill of rights would include compensation of at least $1,350 to passengers who are bumped off an oversold flight and immediate refunds for damaged or lost luggage. It would also remove a $25,000 cap on penalties the U.S. Department of Transportation could place on airlines.

During a cold-weather wave in December, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 16,700 flights, according to CNN. Outdated computer systems were blamed as well as the weather, which did not affect other airlines to a great extent. The incident, which Blumenthal called a “debacle,” is being investigated by the DOT.

More than $400 million in ticket revenue was refunded to customers, CNN reported.

A message seeking comment was left with Southwest.

During the press conference, Christine Pastore of Stratford told of her Dec. 26 Southwest flight to Denver being canceled. She and her husband were on their way to see their daughter, who is hospitalized, on her birthday.

“She’s been in Denver since the end of August,” Pastore said. “She’s fighting a terrible illness. She’s in a hospital. We had to do a lot of setup to get to see her and get to have her be able to leave the hospital for a few hours a day to spend time with us. A lot was put into this trip.”

Arriving at the airport for a 7 a.m. flight, the Pastores received a text canceling their flight at 4:58 a.m., she said. She was told they wouldn’t be able to book another flight on Southwest until Thursday, three days away, and that Southwest doesn’t have relationships with other airlines so they couldn’t be put on one of their flights.

Other airlines were charging as much as $3,000 for flights that day. The Pastores looked at flights from other cities, to no avail. Meanwhile, her husband was on hold for 5½ hours waiting for an agent.

Blumenthal told Pastore he sensed “the emotional impact of these disruptions, which are needless; they’re reckless.”

“And the other point that’s highlighted for me is that Southwest had no relationship with other airlines to put you on other flights,” he said. “That’s a conscious policy on their part. … Passing the bill of rights would bar that kind of non-operability, would require that there be relationships between Southwest or any airline to put you on an alternative flight without the price-gouging fees that were going to be charged to you.”

Blumenthal also said Southwest agents, grounds crews and other employees “are as much victims of the airline’s bad management. … What Southwest did was airline malpractice that inflicted harms on its own employees as well as on consumers.”

He said airlines have “monopolistic dominance over certain routes. If you had more competition, they wouldn’t be able to.”

“The present charges for airlines are so chaotic and seemingly arbitrary,” Blumenthal said. “You can go on a site one day and see a fare and then the next day it can be double. So yes, unfortunately, the present system can be devastatingly unfair in the amounts that are charged for airline travel.”

While the FAIR Act and most provisions of the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights failed to pass in the last FAA reauthorization, Markey said he thought the Southwest problems and increased pricing gave them new momentum.

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.