Curves_back
Saturday, August 30, 2008
| Search For Venues | Search:
Topics

show top ten
show top 100
Topics
venue logo
meeting planners
venue owners
Subscribe
Subscribe free of charge to receive a daily e-mail with the headline news from TravelDailyNews International. Just type your e-mail and click the check-marked button.

Member of :



National Business Travel Association
NBTA warns against micromanagement of airline customer service
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) submitted comments on three proposed regulations under development by the Department of Transportation (DOT) aimed at alleviating air traffic congestion and improving airline customer service.

NBTA Executive Director & COO, Bill Connors, CTC, said, “NBTA congratulates the Administration and the Department of Transportation for taking proactive steps to address the challenges faced by our nation’s air transportation system. While we support some of DOT’s proposed measures, others are misguided. Our basic position is this: government should establish systems for basic consumer protection and then get out of the way to let business function. No one benefits from micromanagement of customer service; the added costs of overregulation of the airline industry would only serve to inhibit innovation in the industry and increase costs for passengers.”

NBTA’s written comments notes, “Generally NBTA believes that customer service is a market-driven issue, with purchasers able to make informed buying decisions based on facts related to airline service. As certain types of information are only in the possession of air carriers, NBTA generally supports greater transparency and reporting requirements so long as such requirements provide useful information to the airline passenger and/or their purchasing agent and can be conducted with reasonable costs…Moreover, while NBTA believes the federal government has an interest in mandating certain baseline consumer protections for airline customer service – or ‘passenger rights’ – in general, airlines are in a much better position to ascertain what their customers expect and whether certain practices are worth the cost they entail. Basic economics dictate that government mandates create private sector costs, and those costs are going to be borne, directly or indirectly, by the traveling public.”

NBTA supports a number of measures aimed at increasing transparency in the aviation system, including reports on tarmac delays, a bright-line test for chronically delayed flights, and publishing delay data on carrier websites.

That transparency will increase competition by helping airline passengers and corporate travel buyers make well-informed decisions.

With respect to reimbursing passengers for involuntary denials of boarding due to overbooking, NBTA notes in its filing, “Business travelers are more likely to be flying at peak schedule times at the beginning and end of the business day, they are at much greater risk to book tickets on a flight that ends up being overbooked.” Thus NBTA proposes that DOT “require that carriers compensate travelers the greater of $400 or half of their airfare for travelers involuntarily denied boarding and arriving at their destination within two hours of their scheduled arrival time [and] the greater of $800 or half of their airfare for travelers involuntarily denied boarding and arriving at their destination more than two hours after their scheduled arrival time.”

NBTA’s Connors commented, “While DOT’s current efforts may provide short term solutions to problems of air traffic congestion, the Administration and Congress should quickly to address the long-term issues by finishing work on FAA funding and reform.”

In addition, NBTA requested that DOT initiate a rule-making or other mechanism to require federal agencies to refund government taxes and fees charged on tickets that are not actually utilized.

Theodore Koumelis - Wednesday, January 23, 2008
2 recommendation(s) , 107 print(s), 597 views, 0 comment(s)
Recommend Print Comment

Bookmark with:

Delicious Delicious Digg Digg Reddit reddit Facebook Facebook Stumbleupon StumbleUpon
Related_articles
Red_dot
NBTA applauds U.S. House for Passage of FAST Redress Act
Theodore Koumelis - Thursday, June 19, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA: Colorado and Florida rightly put aside car rental tax plans
Theodore Koumelis - Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA: US-Visit exit plan would create undue stress on US economy
Theodore Koumelis - Friday, May 02, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA calls Visa Waiver expansion a 'Victory'
Theodore Koumelis - Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA encourages rapid expansion of 'Global Entry'
Theodore Koumelis - Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA urges action to maintain confidence in air travel system Baloon
Theodore Koumelis - Friday, April 11, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA rejects airport congestion pricing proposal as hidden tax
Theodore Koumelis - Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Red_dot
Business travel to continue growing despite US economic slow-down
Theodore Koumelis - Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Red_dot
NBTA Foundation launches new corporate partnership initiative
Theodore Koumelis - Friday, March 14, 2008
Interview
Featured_events
Article
Article_by_ittfa
Job_offerings
Poll
How do you expect luxury travel to perform in times of economic downturn?.

Providers of luxury travel products are going to witness shorter stays by their customers and an increase in seasonality.

People are going to become more value conscious and will opt for those luxury offers that represent a convincing value-for-money proposition. Providers of overpriced services are those to feel the pinch.

Both people paying for their personal trips and firms paying for their top executives' business trips will cut back on travel expenses, thus affecting all luxury travel providers.

It is going to be business as usual. Those people opting for high-end travel products are not going to be affected by the looming crisis.

Stats All Polls