No Thanksgiving for the Department of Transportation

Air travelers had reason to celebrate in July 2016 when Congress approved consumer-friendly changes, including a provision to make it cheaper and easier for parents to be seated next to their young children. 

That change alone, after a bipartisan push that started in 2012, would make flying less of a hassle for families during this jammed Thanksgiving week and the coming Christmas holidays.

Last year’s law also would require airlines to refund baggage fees — which can run $25 or more for each checked bag —- when the bag is substantially delayed.

Too bad those measures have never taken effect. You can thank the U.S. Department of Transportation for that.

DOT:We’re working to improve flying experience

Sixteen months after Congress acted, the agency has finished a review of airline policies that was due in July, but it hasn’t finished determining the next steps toward issuing new “family seating” policies, and it missed the deadline to issue “final regulations” on baggage fee refunds.

Passengers shouldn’t have to pay a fee, and airlines should not profit from baggage charges, when their service fails. Nor should adults be separated from children 13 and younger or be forced to pay extra for a seat next to them. 

Just ask Frank Strong of Atlanta. In April 2015, Strong arrived at Raleigh-Durham International with his 4-year-old daughter, whose age Delta asked for when he made their reservations online. At the ticket counter, he was told the child was seated 11 rows away. Though the agent said the gate agent might be able to help, Strong wasn’t taking any chances. He ponied up $88 to sit next to his little girl. When he boarded, he found plenty of seats open. 

Delta says it “does everything possible to work with families so they can sit together on our flights, regardless of fare class.”

Passenger advocates at FlyersRights.org, the Family Travel Association and Travelers United say they still get complaints about various airlines from upset parents.

When the 2016 measure passed, the industry trade group Airlines for America sniffed that “provisions designed to re-regulate airline pricing and services are bad for airline customers, employees, the communities we serve and our overall U.S. economy.” We’ll bet travelers wouldn’t agree.  

It’s bad enough that airlines battle just about every pro-passenger change lawmakers seek, and that the industry usually wins. It’s worse when the delay is the fault of the government. 

The Obama administration's Department of Transportation could have pushed this through last year. Instead, it extended a deadline for the industry to comment on the baggage proposal, pushing it off to the next administration.

Now the agency says that the one-year deadline for a new regulation was an “aggressive” time frame, and that other agencies would agree. This is probably true — which is precisely the problem. Outside of government work, most people would see a year to finish a task as a luxury.

When Congress enacts a law, deadlines aren’t suggestions; they are mandates.

It's time for the Transportation Department to remember that its primary duty is to passengers, not the airline industry. 

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