The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Consumer Travel Alliance (CTA) have written a joint letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Commerce Committee, the House Transportation Committee and the Senate and House Aviation Subcommittee Chairmen urging them to mandate that airlines release all fee information at the same time that they release airfare information.

Airlines have been reluctant to release their fee information at the same time as their airfare information to central reservation systems that serve most of the travel agents and online travel agents. This makes it difficult for both brick-and-mortar and online travel agents to provide the total cost of air transportation including baggage, seat reservations, food etc.

Should the airlines release their baggage and other fee details, central reservations systems would be able to present the costs of these fees upfront in the ticket buying process. These fees are expected to total more than $55 billion in 2010.

For instance, a passenger could request a price comparison for a family trip from Washington D.C. to Denver, Colo. with three people and four checked bags. The computer reservation systems would then be able to compare the total cost of travel rather than only the airfare portion that is currently displayed. This would allow consumers to get a good comparison of the total prices across airlines such as JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran, Frontier, Midwest, United, American, Delta, US Airways and Continental that all have different fee structures.

In their letter the Senate and House committees responsible for aviation, the consumer organizations asked specifically that fee information be provided by the airlines at the same time that airfare information is provided.

Here is the text of the letter sent this morning:

We write to support full and timely disclosure to consumers about fees and taxes for services ancillary to air travel. That would be accomplished in language proposed to amend an amendment by Senators Menendez, Schumer and others, incorporated into the FAA Reauthorization bill recently approved by the Senate. The proposed language would ensure that airlines, as well as their ticket agents, will be able to provide complete information to consumers, as required by the amendment.

Both the Consumer Federation of America and the Consumer Travel Alliance strongly supported the Menendez amendment when it was proposed and prior to its inclusion in the manager’s amendment to the FAA Reauthorization bill.

The change that our organizations are supporting follows:

Delete the period at the end of (b)(d)(1)(B) and insert a semicolon followed by “and.” Then, insert a new (b)(d)(1)(C):

(C) In the case of an air carrier or foreign air carrier, shall transmit complete information on all taxes and fees, as described in paragraph (2), at the same time and in the same manner it transmits fare information to all ticket agents, computer reservation systems and airline tariff publishing agencies used or participated in by that air carrier or foreign air carrier.

The obvious intent of the original Menendez amendment was to provide consumers clear overall airline transportation costs. The current wording mandates that a “ticket agent” as well as the air carrier notify passengers of such fees. Therefore, requiring airlines to transmit to agents and to the intermediaries on which agents rely all fee information as promptly and in the same manner that the airlines post new fares is both a logical and necessary adjunct to the current terms in the bill. The proposed language will allow ticket agents to comply with the letter of the proposed law and allow consumers to have access to the fastest growing segment of the cost of airline travel (the ancillary fees) as well as the basic airfare.

Using complete and timely information on fees and taxes provided by the air carriers and their ticket agents will allow consumers to make informed decisions and avoid unpleasant surprises when they purchase air travel. The language change we support is crucial to ensuring that consumers get this information.