FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 10, 2000
Contact: Jeff Nelligan
Telephone: 202-366-6312
OIG 1-00
Transportation Department’s Inspector General
To Review Airline Overbooking, Access to Lowest Fares
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (OIG) today announced that, in addition to its review of airlines’ implementation of their Airline Customer Service Commitments, OIG will also be reviewing airlines’ practices of overbooking flights and providing consumers access to lowest airfares.
To facilitate this review, the OIG is collecting data from consumers related to their experiences with flight overbooking and access to lowest fares. Electronic forms to collect this information will be available today on the OIG web site: http://www.oig.dot.gov A hard copy can be obtained by fax or mail by calling 1-800-884-9190, or from the Washington, D.C., area, (202) 366-2373. For other airline-related issues such as canceled or delayed flights, on-time baggage delivery, and ticket refunds, comments should be directed to the Department’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division at: http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer
The Department’s Office of Inspector General has been given specific legal authority for fiscal year 2000 under the Transportation Appropriations Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-69) to review consumer access to information on airline ticket prices and airline practices of overbooking flights.
The OIG is directed "to report on the extent to which actual and potential barriers exist to consumer access to comparative price and service information from independent sources on the purchase of air transportation."
The OIG is also reviewing the airlines' implementation of their Airline Customer Service Commitments, which took effect Dec. 15. Each air carrier that provides scheduled passenger air transportation and that is a member of the Air Transport Association has developed individual Customer Service Plans. The plans address issues such as canceled or delayed flights, on-time baggage delivery, and ticket refunds. The OIG has been asked to evaluate these plans and the extent to which each air carrier has met all of its commitments under its plan. An interim report to the Congress is due June 15, 2000 and a final report due by Dec. 31, 2000.
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