US Airways, Inc.

Order 2008-2-35
OST-2008-0031 - Consent Orders

Issued and Served February 28, 2008

Consent Order

This consent order concerns the display of inaccurate and misleading information on the US Airways website regarding fares for infants traveling on a parent’s lap. The inaccurate display of fare information constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice and unfair method of competition in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712 and violates the full-fare advertising requirements of 14 CFR 399.84. This order directs the carrier to cease and desist from similar conduct in the future and assesses a compromise civil penalty of $100,000 under 49 U.S.C. § 46301.

During a period beginning in mid-2006, soon after the merger of US Airways and America West, consumers attempting to book reservations for lap infants on international flights understood from the carrier’s website that infants could travel at no charge. When consumers who had booked reservations on the USAirways website arrived at the terminal, however, the carrier’s ticket agents informed passengers that there were in fact charges for lap infants that typically included ten percent of the adult fare, taxes and surcharges and that the display of a “zero charge” on the web fare calculator was erroneous.

US Airways advises that it became aware in the fall of 2006 of the erroneous display of international lap infant fares and sought to modify the site to provide an accurate fare calculator, but, according to the carrier, in view of other website priorities, the modification will not be fully installed until later this year. Initially, the concern on the part of the carrier was to provide a unified website, combining features of both the America West and the US Airways sites, but difficulties in integrating the two systems led to errors such as the one involving lap infant fares. In the interim, the carrier inserted a mandatory screen alerting consumers to the fact that additional charges applied to the transport of infants, including taxes and a fee of approximately 10 percent of the fare of the accompanying adult. The notice, however, did not advise consumers that the full fuel surcharge, equal to that charged adult passengers, applied to lap infants, nor was it clear whether a fee applied to the issuance of a paper ticket required of lap infants. A second interim fix was put in place in early 2007 which gave the fare of the adult passenger, then noted that the infant fare was “to be determined,” in addition to the mandatory page noted above. Later, the carrier states that it stopped accepting international reservations on its website for lap infants and their accompanying adults. The current page instructs consumers to make such reservations by contacting the carrier’s telephone reservations network.

By: Rosalind Knapp

http://www.usairways.com/