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Home » American Airlines » DOT Fines American Airlines for Deceiving Passengers
American Airlines

DOT Fines American Airlines for Deceiving Passengers

Matthew Klint Posted onFebruary 28, 2011 3 Comments

Back in August I stopped by an American Airlines’ ticket counter at SNA to book a ticket for a client using a voucher. Unbeknownst to him (and me), I found that AA levies a $30 fee to book at airport ticket counters.

That’s all fine and dandy for tickets that can easily be booked online, but the only way to book a ticket with a voucher is either at an airport or by telephone. The telephone fee is waived when booking with vouchers, but that requires hold time and mailing in the paper vouchers to an AA ticketing center (so tack on insurance as well). No similar exception was permitted, until late last year, for airport ticketing. Other airlines, including United Airlines, have never charged booking fees for tickets booked with vouchers.

These are the type of fees I have problems with. While I do not like fees for baggage and food, at least those are optional. But if you have only two options to book, both of which require incidental expenditures, don’t tell me I have a $300 voucher when it is really worth $270. And if you are going to pull that stunt, you better make it crystal clear. AA never bothered to tell passengers receiving vouchers, mostly from getting bumped off oversold flights, that there were hidden fees attached.

Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation fined AA $90,000 for this underhanded practice. Sort of. AA has agreed to pay $45K and the DOT will cancel the other half of the fine if AA abandons their trickery for one year.

Let this be a lesson to other airlines: don’t get too greedy with your fees. I support the DOT’s fine.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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3 Comments

  1. AS Reply
    March 1, 2011 at 12:35 am

    The tone of this article is offensive and highly inappropriate. Deceiving, stunt, trickery…

    With this type of article and the tone of your TSA stories, your anger is corrupting the quality of this blog.

  2. Matthew Reply
    March 1, 2011 at 6:17 am

    @AS: Thanks for your comments. While I disagree with your analysis, I appreciate your input.

  3. David Reply
    March 1, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    So they’re getting fined $45K for this basically…that’s the equivalent of 1500 passengers’ $30 fee. I agree that they should be fined, but I have to imagine that they “saved” a lot more than $45,000 worth of money by imposing this fee. If DOT’s going to fine an airline, shouldn’t they actually make it a punishment? $45,000 is nothing to AA.

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