Three major portions of the April 25, 2011 Department of Transportation (DOT) final rule are coming into effect today. These will deal with listing of ancillary fees, overbooking compensation and the extension of tarmac-delay rules to smaller airports and international flights.

Of the rules coming into effect today, the disclosure of all ancillary fees is the most important to most consumers. Tomorrow, we will take a closer look at overbooking rules and the tarmac-delay rules and their effects.

The airlines are now required to have a link to all of their ancillary fees from their homepage.

In the summary of the regulation DOT noted that the new rule — Requires U.S. and foreign air carriers to disclose all fees for optional services to consumers through a prominent link on their homepage.

The exact wording of the DOT rule released last April is:

The Department has decided to require U.S. and foreign carriers to have one, central webpage on their website, linked from the carrier’s homepage, which lists all ancillary fees. The reason for this requirement is that Department considers it too difficult currently for consumers to effectively comparison shop and determine the total cost for travel, including ancillary fees for optional services. Not all carriers provide information regarding charges for various services, such as seat assignments, extra leg room, priority boarding, telephone reservations, and seat upgrades in a centralized location so that it is easily accessible for the consumer to review prior to purchase. The Department considers it to be unfair and deceptive to charge an ancillary fee to a consumer, when that consumer had no simple, practical, and reasonable way of knowing about the fee prior to purchasing the ticket. Having a single listing of all of the ancillary fees that a carrier charges for optional services allows the consumer access to greater information without unduly burdening the carrier or stifling the carrier’s need to compete on such services.

Each of the legacy carriers has done their best to hide this information, even while, perhaps, obeying the letter of the law. This will come down to a question like, “What is prominent?”

This kind of airline action is distasteful. Why can’t the airlines simply add a link that says something like, “Baggage fees and other ancillary fees.” Not one of the four largest legacy carriers has such a link. Every legacy carrier obfuscates the link and downplays it.

Hiding this link under “news” when the prices are a continuation of old policies is misleading and doesn’t serve the purpose of disclosure that DOT was attempting to enact. Putting links in one of the smallest online typefaces possible doesn’t make airlines look upfront, honest and looking out for their passengers, which they continually claim.

Airline actions like this beg the government to enter with a heavier hand, more prescriptive regulations and belie the airlines’ claims of transparency and that “market forces” will take care of the issue.

American Airlines list “Optional Charges” on the very last line of type on their home page in tiny type. That “Optional Charges” links to their page of baggage fees and ancillary fees. If this is “prominent” we need a new definition — perhaps one of the smallest links on the home page. I honestly do not know how this link could be less emphasized unless it was eliminated completely.

Continental Airlines (not yet fully integrated with United Airlines) does put the link at the top of their web page. However, it titled: Changed bag rules and optional services.

Delta Air Lines has a small print link at the bottom of their home page saying, “baggage and service fees.” From that link travelers will land on a page with Delta’s fee structure. Fees are listed in ranges.

United Airlines lists their ancillary fees as part of their “United news and deals.” Click on the “Changed bag rules and optional services” link and it takes passengers to their page with all ancillary fees.

US Airways has listed their fees as part of their “news and updates” section on the home page. It links to one main ancillary fee page with lots of expandable menus and ranges of fees that are less than helpful.

Significantly, the airlines fought against other provisions and managed to get them delayed until January 2012. The rules that are being delayed are:

• notice of specific baggage fee information on ticket itineraries
• notification of passengers about delays and cancellations in 30 minute intervals
• full pricing including all non-optional taxes and fees
• 24-hour grace period for airline ticket purchases at least a week from take-off
• prohibition of fare increases once tickets are purchased