Online air ticket sellers getting fined for lack of disclosure

The U.S. Department of Transportation is cracking down on online air ticket sellers that don't fully disclose which airline is flying your plane.

Just last week, the DOT fined Lowestfare.com $50,000 for failing to say on its website which regional carriers are operating flights on behalf of major airlines.

And that's the third time this year that the department has fined an online ticketing website. Several travel agencies also have been sanctioned for the rule violation.

The fines stem from a provision in a 2010 aviation safety law pushed through Congress by the Families of Continental Flight 3407, which crashed in Clarence Center in February 2009, killing 50 people.

Colgan Air, a regional carrier, operated that flight on behalf of Continental, but members of the families group argued that their loved ones likely didn't know that Continental was not operating that flight.

A Buffalo News study last December showed that seven of 10 major online ticketers and one airline, US Airways, were not in clear compliance with the law.

But a month later, the DOT issued a directive to travel websites and airlines informing them that they must clearly comply with the disclosure provision.

Violators would be fined, the agency said, and that's what's happening now.

"Consumers buying tickets for air travel have the right to know which airline will be operating their flights," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "We will continue to monitor compliance with our code-sharing disclosure rules and take enforcement action when we find violations."

Flythere4less.com became the first website to be sanctioned under the rule when the FAA fined it $40,000 in April. Since then, the agency has issued the following fines for violation of the provision:

*Amadeus, a global ticket distributor, $95,000.

*Apple Vacations and Fareportal, $50,000.

*American Travel Solutions, $45,000.

*AirGorilla, Globester, LBF Travel and Wholesale Travel Center, $30,000 each.

*Automobile Club of New York, $20,000.

The fines came as good news to the Families of Continental Flight 3407.

"It is good to see that our efforts last winter to bring this issue to the attention of DOT have not resulted in a one-time review," said Scott Maurer, whose daughter, Lorin, was killed in the crash.

The latest FAA fine came a week after a Colgan pilot landed at the wrong airport in Louisiana and a day after the agency fined Colgan $1.9 million for failing to give its flight attendants proper safety training.

"Disclosure is critical for consumers to make an informed decision on whose plane they will fly on," Maurer said. "Given everything being exposed about Colgan Air, I'm sure people want to know."

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