It looks like bad news for Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and Frontier Airlines, as each one was fined recently for failing to abide by passenger rights rules.
Together, the three airlines are paying $850,000 to the U.S. Department of Transportation in order to avoid lawsuits from allegations after the DOT investigated filed audits. These fines are being issued for delaying refunds, keeping poor records, bumping passengers without explanations, and failing to provide wheelchairs to disabled fliers in a timely manner.
The worst of the three airline fines is Frontier’s at $400,000, which it agreed to pay because of its failure to ask for volunteers to give up their seats before denying seats to other fliers. Frontier also failed to inform these passengers that they had a right to be compensated for this inconvenience.
According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, a DOT investigation also found “a high percentage of instances in which Frontier acknowledged that the carrier failed to provide adequate and timely wheelchair assistance to passengers with disabilities,” according to their report.
American Airlines faces a lesser fine of $250,000 for failing to refund passengers for purchased tickets in a timely manner and Delta faces the smallest fine of $200,000 for violating the reporting of lost or mishandled luggage.
All three airlines have stated that they have updated their policies to comply with DOT rules and if these updated policies vow to fix the issues at hand, travelers could see a much smoother airline experience in the future.