- The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill aimed at improving air travel. It will now be submitted to the Senate.
- A number of consumer protection measures have been proposed.
- But the bill does not address the confusing pricing model that causes skip lag.
The House of Representatives on Thursday easily passed a bill that could improve the air travel experience for Americans, but it doesn’t address the issue that sparked the riotous practice of “skipplugging.”
Skipplugging, or “hidden city bookings”, refers to booking a trip that spans multiple destinations, but taking only one leg of the booked itinerary and skipping the other leg. Counterintuitively, it saves passengers money, but airlines hate it. American Airlines recently banned teenagers from entering the country those who practiced.
of law A bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration is under consideration in Congress. After airline delays and cancellations caused travel disruptions this winter, the bill aims to address some of the underlying problems.
Raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 and hire more air traffic controllers to address the pilot shortage. Lawmakers from both parties said the bill would make air travel safer and more efficient.
The version of the bill being considered by the Democratic-majority administration Senate It will require airlines to better communicate with passengers during trip interruptions and streamline refunds and reimbursement procedures, though it’s unclear if some of these consumer protection measures will ultimately pass.
Even so, it doesn’t address what makes skiplag appealing to consumers in the first place: a dynamic pricing model that results in unpredictable airfares that feel opaque to customers.
One of the most frustrating aspects of air travel is not knowing when the best or cheapest time to book a flight is. But for now, it looks like passengers will have to wait until airlines fix their own pricing transparency. Maybe when you get sick of skip lag, you have no other choice.