Notice of Proposed Rulemaking - Enhancing Transparency of Airline Ancillary Service Fees

Link to Federal Register Notice

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing a rule which would significantly strengthen protections for consumers by ensuring any fees charged to seat a young child with an accompanying adult, change or cancel a flight, or travel with a first checked bag, a second checked bag, or a carry-on bag would be disclosed whenever fare and schedule information is provided for flights to, within, and from the United States. These fees would be required to be displayed as passenger-specific or itinerary-specific based on the consumer’s choice. The proposal would also require airlines and ticket agents to enable consumers traveling with young children to purchase adjacent seats with their airline tickets at all points of sale. Airlines that do not charge a fee for adjacent seating to those traveling with a young child would not be required to disclose or make transactable adjacent seating fees. The Department further proposes to require that carriers provide useable, current, and accurate information to ticket agents regarding baggage fees, change fees, cancellation fees, and adjacent seating fees for families traveling with young children, if any, to ticket agents that sell or display the carrier’s fare and schedule information. The Department does not dictate the method that carriers would use to share fee information with ticket agents. 

Comments on the NPRM must be received within 60 days of the date it is published in the Federal Register. Comments can be filed on www.regulations.gov, docket number DOT-OST-2022-0109.