Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio Spotlight: Airline Fee Transparency Debate [ 18:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

BB: If you don’t have to pay to find that information then what’s wrong? At least, then you got to see what was going to the airlines and what was going to the government. Now you won’t be able to. That seems a bit sneaky to me. If you open up a newspaper and you see a car ad, if you see an ad for a Toyota Camry for $19,999, do you think you’re going to get it for that much?

Taxes and airline fares are not the same thing. When you put them together in one price, it obscures to the consumer what they’re actually paying for. When consumers realize that 50 percent or sometimes 80 percent of their fare is government tax, don’t you think they’d want to know that?

PG: I’m totally in favor of that. I just don’t like that the initial fare I see is so far divorced from the final price. Take the $9 fare to Florida, weren’t you guys fined by the DOT for that?

BB: No we weren’t fined for that, they fined us because they felt the font wasn’t large enough for some things. But the point is, we believe in more disclosure, not less. You are fully aware Peter that consumers have been paying a 7.5 percent federal excise tax on domestic tickets for a long time. Two years ago, we tried to break that out on our website and the DOT told us they’d fine us if we kept doing it.

KM: Peter, can I respond to some of this? Regarding Senator Boxer’s concerns, Ben is being disingenuous and misleading again. Senator Boxer is not taking issue with Spirit not liking the full disclosure rule. Senator Boxer and the Business Travel Coalition are upset because Spirit Airlines lied to the costumers and the flying public by saying the taxes are hidden. Airlines are free to break out the fees and the taxes, so long as the total cost is the more prominent of the two displays and that is designed to prevent consumers from being misled.

BB: Kevin, I would ask you to design a website that helps consumers find the lowest fare within the 30 day period that can have all that information and actually look reasonable. Why not point to the lowest fare day and then after you pick the day, show you all the taxes and the total price?

PG: Actually, there is one: Kayak. I use their website all the time. I put in the day and they tell me the price of airfare and the taxes in the same box.

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