[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 118 (Monday, September 13, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10751-S10752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CUSTOMER SERVICE PROTECTIONS FOR AIRLINE TRAVELERS

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President and colleagues, for many months now the 
Nation's airlines have been doing their utmost to prevent the Congress 
from enacting meaningful customer service protections for airline 
travelers. The airline industry lobbyists have fanned out across the 
Nation's capital telling our colleagues that meaningful protections for 
consumers--such as the right to timely and accurate information--are 
going to increase the costs for airline passengers, reduce service, and 
to hear them tell it, it is practically going to bring about the end of 
Western civilization as we know it.
  As part of their campaign to prevent the enactment of enforceable 
legislation to protect the consumer, the airline industry has made a 
host of voluntary pledges to improve passenger service.
  Today, I am releasing two reports, one done by the General Accounting 
Office and the other done by the Congressional Research Service, that 
show the voluntary pledges made by the airline industry are worth 
little more than the paper on which they are written.
  Let me be specific.
  After evaluating the airline industry's proposals, it is clear the 
airline industry provides passengers rights in three categories:
  First, rights that they already have; second, rights that the airline 
industry is reluctant to write into the legalese that constitute the 
contract between the airline and the customer; and finally, their 
rights that are ignored altogether.
  For example, among the several rights airlines refuse to provide is 
disclosure about overbooking on flights. If you call an airline this 
afternoon and ask about a particular flight and it is overbooked, the 
airline is not required to tell you that before they take your 
money. When I and other advocates for the consumer have asked them to 
provide just this information--we are not calling for a constitutional 
right to a fluffy pillow on an airline flight but just the information 
about overbooking--the airline industry simply won't follow through. 
The fact is, the industry's voluntary pledges are gobbledygook.

  To determine if there was any substance to them at all, I asked the 
General Accounting Office and the Congressional Research Service to 
compare the voluntary pledges made by the industry to the hidden but 
actually binding contractual rights the airline passengers have that 
are written into what are called contracts of carriage. The General 
Accounting Office found that of the 16 pledges the airline industry has 
made to consumers, only 4 are actually provided in the contracts of 
carriage. Three of them are mandated already by Federal regulation, and 
most of them are left out altogether, including informing the customers 
of the lowest fare, informing customers about delays, cancellations and 
diversions, returning checked bags within 24 hours, providing credit 
card refunds within 7 days, informing the passenger about restrictions 
on frequent flier rules, and assigning customer service representatives 
to handle complaints and other problems.
  Moreover, the airlines are not exactly tripping over themselves to 
rewrite these contracts of carriage, the actual contract that protects 
the consumer. When General Accounting Office officials contacted the 
airlines to inquire about actually putting teeth into pledge language, 
the officials at 10 of the major airlines said they were ``considering 
revisions'' to their contracts of carriage to reflect at least some of 
the customer service plans. Even more importantly, if the passenger 
wants to know what their actual contractual rights are to these key 
services, the airlines have made it very difficult for the consumer to 
find out. The Congressional Research Service points out:

       Frontline airline staff seems uncertain as to just what 
     contracts of carriage are.

  The Service found:

       Even if the consumer knows that they have a right to the 
     information, they must accurately identify the relevant 
     provisions of the contract of carriage or take home the 
     address or phone number, if available, of the airline's 
     consumer affairs department, send for it, and then wait for 
     the contract of carriage to arrive in the mail.

  As the Congressional Research Service puts it, with their usual 
diplomacy and understatement:

       The airlines do not appear to go out of their way to 
     provide easy access to these contracts of carriage.

  I hope my colleagues will read the actual specifics included in the 
airlines so-called ``customer first'' pledge. What they will see is a 
lot of high sounding rhetoric about improving service to the 
passengers, but the harsh reality is, it is business as usual.
  Last year, there were an unprecedented number of complaints about 
airline service. Based on the figures I have just obtained for the 
first 6 months of this year, there has been another huge increase, in 
fact a doubling, in the number of consumer complaints about passenger 
service. It is easy to see why, when you examine how hedged and guarded 
the airline industry is with respect to actually giving consumers 
meaningful and timely information that will help them make their 
choices about travel.

  For example, let us look briefly at the pledge to offer the lowest 
fare available on airline flights. What this means is if a consumer 
uses the telephone to call an airline and asks about a specific flight 
on a specific date in a specific class, the airline will tell them the 
lowest fare, as they are already required to do. But not only will they 
not provide you relevant information about lower fares on other flights 
on the same airline, they won't even tell you about lower fares that 
are probably available on their web page. The reason why is simple: 
They have got you when they have you on the telephone, and they will 
sell you the ticket when it is an opportunity to sell it and they can 
make money on it. But when it is a chance to help the consumer and the 
consumer can get a break by knowing about other fares available on the 
web page, there is no disclosure
  The purchase of an airline ticket today in America is like virtually 
no other consumer choice. Unlike movie theaters that sell tickets to a 
movie or a sporting goods store that sells soccer balls, the airline 
industry provides no real assurance that you will be able to use their 
product as intended. Movie theaters can't cancel shows because they 
don't have enough people for a show, but airlines cancel flights when 
they don't have enough passengers. The sporting goods store can't lure 
you in with a pledge to give you that soccer ball at an attractive 
price and then give you a less desirable product at a greater cost 
after you get there. But the airline industry can do both of those 
things. They can make arbitrary cancellations. They can lure you in for 
a product and, after they have you, not make it available. The fact is, 
the airline industry is insisting they ought to be outside the basic 
laws that protect consumers in every other economic field from coast to 
coast.
  I conclude by saying that over the next few weeks the Congress is 
going to have the chance to right the wrongs spelled out by the 
Congressional Research Service and the General Accounting Office 
studies that I release today. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis to make sure airline passengers across 
this country get a fair shake.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and thank my colleague from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend from Oregon, I have 
appreciated his presentation. It reminds me of the work he has done 
since he has been in Congress. We served together in the

[[Page S10752]]

House of Representatives, and the Senator from Oregon was known in the 
House as being someone who dealt with substance. The same tradition 
that he established in the House, is being carried over to the Senate, 
as indicated by his remarks dealing with airline travel.

                          ____________________