Tuesday, July 31, 2012

US DOT fines Mexican budget carrier Volaris $130,000 Consumer Travel Alliance Director named to US D




Protection (ACACP), established by the U.S. Congress and overseen by the Department of Transportation, has invited Business Travel Coalition (BTC) to participate in its initial meeting today to represent the interests of large corporate purchasers of commercial airline luxury exotic car rental in houston services. BTC will implore the committee to support the restoration of comparison-shopping for air travelers.
. For nearly half-a-decade all consumers have been forced to purchase airline tickets without the complete information (base fares and ancillary fees) necessary to easily evaluate the full cost of air travel. Airline fees have been expanding in number and rising in cost. They have become time-consuming to research and virtually impossible to compare in combination luxury exotic car rental in houston with base airfares across airlines. In most cases, base airfares are defined differently among airlines, and thus, have become meaningless. Robust price competition when it comes to ancillary fees doesn't exist.
information needed to make informed decisions. Since 2008 airlines have refused luxury exotic car rental in houston to provide ancillary fee information to travel distribution participants such as travel agencies and websites that allow across-airline price comparisons. Consumers need real-time, comprehensive fee information that enables them to purchase the complete air travel product.
allowed to easily compare prices across airlines including baggage luxury exotic car rental in houston and seat reservation fees. This means that airlines must be required to release their prices, including luxury exotic car rental in houston those for ancillary services, through local community travel agents, online travel companies and other outlets where airlines choose to sell their tickets.
transportation services, who largely luxury exotic car rental in houston underwrite the aviation system, the ancillary fee issue can be even more vexing. The mission of modern managed travel is to control costs through travel policy, sourcing strategies, efficient travel management company and travel department operations and the ability of travelers to choose travel options that best balance cost, productivity, luxury exotic car rental in houston convenience and safety for each given trip.
(TMCs) - that support corporate travel departments - to efficiently present relevant luxury exotic car rental in houston routing options for business travelers, let alone if ancillary services and associated fees were included. Combined fare and ancillary services prices are currently not automated and presented to travelers for
. Corporate travel managers understand this and are frustrated over the many wholly avoidable problems caused by airlines denying them the automated and dynamic ancillary fee data necessary to run managed travel programs effectively and efficiently. A static list of services and fees on an airline website hardly represents transparency and offers little benefit
. Consider that the fees may apply to some fares, but not to others according to an individual airline's fare rules. It may apply for some negotiated rates but not for others. Some travelers may receive ancillary services for free based on the charge card used or frequent flyer tier status; others may not. The list goes on and on and on.
. In order for there to be true transparency, ancillary services and fees need to be combined with airfares via this massive computing power so that fully priced, side-by-side comparative travel options can be presented for a traveler's consideration. Otherwise, fees remain, luxury exotic car rental in houston for all intents and purposes, completely obfuscated from the millions of disparate options that were once so efficiently comparison-shopped.
. True transparency requires that fees be purchasable during the same transaction with airfares. In this symbiotic relationship, there can be no real transparency without purchasability and no effective purchasability without automated and real-time transparent fee data.
. The consequences of this problem for corporate travel managers are significant and growing with each day that airlines refuse to provide their best customers with what they require for success within modern managed travel programs.
luxury exotic car rental in houston The most significant problem with hidden airline fees is the erosion of the effectiveness and benefits of a professionally administered managed-travel program - in short an escalation in costs deriving from diminished control. After four years of airlines stonewalling their most financially important customers' demands for ancillary fee data, the only reasonable conclusion is that there is a market failure that apparently will only be remedied with U.S. Department of Transportation intervention.
US DOT fines Mexican budget carrier Volaris $130,000 Consumer Travel Alliance Director named to US DOT Advisory Committee on Consumer luxury exotic car rental in houston Protections Spirit Airlines $100 carry-on baggage fee a wake-up call for DOT Proposed US Airways-American luxury exotic car rental in houston Airlines merger causes concern Spirit Airlines on robbing its passengers: US DOT made me do it Congress urged to stop airlines from violating Federal Aviation Act BTC: Spirit Airlines lying to its customers and flying public US DOT wants to explicitly ban e-cigarettes on planes
Airlines need to wake up and up the ante on customer service. There should be no travel restrictions imposed because of the ongoing swine flu threat. The current global economic luxury exotic car rental in houston crisis has trumped climate change as the day s most significant topic

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