New Social Media Tool to Combat Airline Hidden Fares
With the social media battle between airlines and consumer groups heating up, Flyrights.com has launched a new tool to combat airline hidden fares that have plagued consumers over the past few months.
Flyrights.com has launched a new consumer feedback feature for airline passengers to report their experiences with hidden fares airlines charge to fly on their planes.
"The best airlines in the world know that if they want to stay on top, they need to make sure consumers are happy with their service," says Flyrights.com CEO, David Kim. "The worst airlines in the world believe the opposite."
Kim maintains that the whole issue of hidden fares is rooted in greed: "Airlines are greedy, and this is an example of how much these greedy companies will go to take your money away from you."
The new tool was developed as a result of the ongoing social media battle between Airlines to help passengers find the best and worst airlines around the world. The new tool is a great way to find hidden fees on other travel sites.
The social media giant has been in the news recently for its decision to ban all Airlines from their new travel site. The move comes after major Airlines such as American, United, and Delta started pulling out of their new travel site due to concerns about hidden fees on other travel sites.
The move comes after a recent study showed that many Airlines have been able to hide fees on their websites by hiding them under "hidden" links in their search results. This has caused many travelers to miss out on deals because they are not aware of hidden fees on other travel sites.
According to the study, there are more than 40 different ways that airlines have been able to hide fees on their websites and even more ways that they can hide them under "hidden" links in their search results.
This is not the first time that Airlines has been caught hiding fees on their websites or even hiding them under "hidden" links in their search results. In June of 2018, American Airlines was caught hiding a fee for an extra bag and then using it as an excuse
A new social media tool is being used by airlines to combat the hidden fees of their competitors. Yapta, a travel website, posted this week that it has launched a new tool for Facebook users.
The application allows customers to search for the total price of an airline ticket and then post the price to Facebook for their friends to see. The Yapta app can also be linked with Twitter so that users can tweet about their findings as well.
"The idea behind this is we want travelers to take ownership of the information they find on our site and share it with their networks," said Tom Romary, CEO of Yapta, in a statement. "The more people spread the word about how much they save using Yapta's tools, the more other travelers will be able to benefit."
Yapta's Facebook app comes at a time when airlines are combating each other's hidden fees on social media sites. Last month, Southwest Airlines started posting some of Delta Airline's hidden fees on Twitter under the guise of a parody account called "BagsFlyFree." The joke was eventually discovered by Delta who responded on Twitter saying it had taken legal action against Southwest Airlines for trademark infringement on its famous slogan "bags fly free."
The latest social media tool to take on the airline industry is a new website that claims to reveal the "hidden" fees airlines charge customers. The site, called AirFareWatchDog.com, is a consumer advocacy site that provides fare alerts and other tips for travelers. It's been around since 2003, but recently launched a new service that allows users to compare airfares and find out if there are cheaper options for their itineraries.
The idea behind the site is simple: you enter your travel plans and the site will tell you how much it would cost to fly with different airlines on different days of the week. It's designed to help travelers who want to avoid paying airline penalties or fees they're not aware of, such as baggage fees, change fees or fuel surcharges.
But some airlines aren't happy about the new service and are fighting back by using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to warn customers about the site's existence. American Airlines tweeted: "Airfare Watchdog: Avoid this one-stop shop for hidden costs." It has also posted a warning on its Facebook page about the AirFare WatchDog website.
In response, AirFareWatchDog founder George Hobica used his Twitter account to respond to American Airlines' tweet with
We recently wrote about how Air New Zealand is using social media to have a little fun with their competitors. Now, the airline has launched another tool that turns up the heat when it comes to fighting against hidden fares and misleading advertising.
Last year, Air NZ challenged its global airline industry peers to be more transparent and open in the way they present pricing information. A recent survey of consumers indicated that more than 70 percent believe airlines should be more upfront in their pricing.
As a result, Air NZ announced in May it will no longer promote airfares to customers that include taxes and charges as base fares and instead only display the full cost of travel, including all compulsory taxes and surcharges. The airline also called for all airlines to adopt the same policy and for travel agents to follow suit.
On Tuesday, a group of Senators sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) calling for an end to airlines' hidden fees and deceptive advertising practices. Airlines for America (A4A), the industry's main trade organization, in turn responded by saying that the charges are "transparent" and part of Congress' original vision for an open-market system.
The increasingly harsh rhetoric has been spurred on by a series of new studies and reports that have accused airlines of misleading customers with opaque fares, confusing contracts and misinformation about flight delays.
In January, researchers at IdeaWorksCompany found that 25 out of 30 airlines it reviewed made it difficult to find their baggage fee policies online. Another study released this week by travel site Skyscanner found that one in five flights don't arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time and one in ten are late by more than 30 minutes.
With all this news coming out, it can be hard for consumers to know who they can trust when booking flights. To help customers make sense of airline fees, Airfarewatchdog recently launched its Hidden Fares tool, which allows users to compare fees from different airlines side-by-side on an interactive
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced today that it is seeking public comment on new proposals to make airline prices more transparent, including a requirement that airlines include all mandatory taxes and fees in advertised fares, and use common terminology when advertising the price of airfares.
The rulemaking follows up on DOT's previous actions to ensure that consumers can compare the total cost of airline trips, rather than being misled by advertised fares that don't include taxes and fees or are otherwise misleading about the true cost of a flight.
Airlines' current practice of advertising fares that exclude mandatory taxes and fees leads to the potential for unfair and deceptive pricing practices, and results in an uneven playing field among airlines. In addition, there are inconsistent practices among airlines with respect to how they choose to advertise their fares. The proposals are designed to protect consumers by providing them with clear and accurate information at the time they shop for airfares so they can make informed purchasing decisions.