There is a new regulation coming into effect, “Don’t mislead passengers.” Let’s call it the “truth in advertising” rule. Understandably, the airlines are incensed. Spirit Airlines is leading the charge. How dare the government mandate that they tell the truth. After decades of being allowed to mislead the public and bury taxes and fees in the fine print, being forced to be honest doesn’t come easily.
Amazingly, now that airlines are being forced to “reveal” all taxes and fees in their advertised airfares, Spirit Airlines is claiming the government is requiring them to “hide” taxes from the flying public.
Balderdash! It is exactly the opposite. Now, the government is mandating that the airlines disclose all taxes and fees rather than hiding them in tiny type at the bottom of a newspaper or magazine page or in links from their website prices.
Spirit Airlines’ most recent campaign claiming that the government is forcing them to “hide” taxes is a sorry twisting of the truth. In a move that would make George Orwell blush, Spirit has launched a website claiming that by including taxes and fees in advertised costs they are hiding the fees. The very premise of the Website is misleading and another attempt to mislead their customers.
On their “keepmyfareslow.org” website Spirit claims,
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest fare rules, Spirit must now HIDE the government’s taxes and fees in your fares.
Absolutely false! The DOT rules only say that Spirit Airlines must include their mandatory taxes and fees in their advertised fares. Spirit Airlines must be upfront and honest. They can disclose a breakout of taxes and fees anytime they want.
Spirit Airlines, in a burst of transparency, can create a separate Web page with prominent links to taxes. They can plaster taxes and fees all over their home page. Spirit can tell their customers how much they have spent on taxes and fees in a separate line on every ticket itinerary. Their claims that the government is forcing them to hide taxes is a flat out, unadulterated twisted look at reality.
Evidently, Spirit Airlines hasn’t been reading their mail from DOT. The department specifically stated:
the Department decided to include a provision permitting a seller of air transportation to break-out these charges while still displaying the total price to be paid by the consumer. A separate statement of these taxes and fees, however, must not be false or misleading, must be provided on a per-passenger basis and must accurately reflect the cost of the charge to the carrier, and may not be displayed prominently. The purpose of the rule is to ensure consumers are not misled regarding the total cost of the purchase.
“Prominent” under this rule means that the break-out of per-person charges cannot be in a more prominent place on a web page or in a print advertisement than the advertised total fare.
The Consumer Travel Alliance that worked together with and encouraged DOT to mandate truth in advertising notes that there is nothing in the new regulations that prevents Spirit Airlines from publishing a complete breakout of their advertised price. Just as oil companies often post taxes and fees at the pump, airlines are free to list taxes and fees any time they want.
Only an airline like Spirit that thrives on obscure ancillary fees that are not included in their ads or their booking process to make a buck could conjure up such a misleading, “the government is making me hide your taxes” campaign.
Spirit is an airline that, with a straight face, offers ridiculously low “airfares” only to pump them up with fee after fee after fee. Even after the ticket purchase, Spirit finds ways to squeeze in a few more fees. This is an airline whose marketing depends on using low advertised fares that cannot be purchased (because Spirit is hiding the taxes and fees) to pump up their fee income.
Spirit is an airline that prides itself on charging $45 for carry-on bags, $10 for purchasing a ticket on the Web, $5 for printing a boarding pass at an airport, $95 for an “administrative fee,” $16.99 for a “usage fee,” $10 for a “package booking fee,” up to $95 for checking a bag and $50 for privilege of reserving a seat in advance. Some of these fees I cannot decipher and there are more.
It is such a shame when a business model based on deception is forced to be more transparent and honest. If honest and full disclosure damages Spirit Airlines’ bottom line, so be it.
