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Wyden Successfully Includes
Key Airline Passenger Provision in Intelligence Reform Bill
Senator’s amendment would preserve
law allowing passengers holding tickets on bankrupt airlines to
trade in tickets on other air carriers
October 1, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Airline
passengers holding tickets on bankrupt airlines would continue
to be able to trade in those tickets flights on other airlines,
thanks to an amendment cosponsored by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
and included today in the pending National Intelligence Reform
Act of 2004. The amendment, offered by Wyden and U.S. Senator
Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), would provide a one-year extension of the
consumer protection provision, which was first enacted in the
fall of 2001 and is due to expire next month.
“I am pleased that the
Senate has included this common-sense measure that will continue
to protect American airline passengers from an airline’s
decision to shut down,” said Wyden. “When an airline
goes belly-up, thousands of consumers could lose their tickets,
and this provision provides them some protection from what would
otherwise be sunk costs through no fault of their own.”
Under the amendment, airline
passengers holding a ticket on an airline that ceases operations
due to financial insolvency would be able to use their tickets
on another airline offering flights on the same routes on a space-available
basis. The Department of Transportation has ruled that under this
trade-in policy, the second airline may charge no more than a
$25 administration fee to process the ticket change.
Wyden has long been the Senate’s
leading advocate for airline passenger rights. Legislation that
he sponsored in previous Congresses included measures to require
airlines to provide passengers at the airport with accurate and
timely flight status information, and to tell consumers when a
flight they are about to book is chronically delayed or canceled.
The intelligence reform legislation
to which the amendment was attached is likely to be voted on by
the full Senate next week.
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