Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation has “failed” to respond to thousands of consumer complaints about American airlines and was “unable or unwilling” to hold the industry accountable. Holiday season air travel disaster As a result, thousands of flights have been canceled and passengers stranded.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R, CA), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), AG of 38 states, territories, and the District of Columbia, said the DOT “allows airlines to abuse consumers and leaves them without effective redress.” It said it would leave a “monitoring void”.
The letter that resurfaced this week read: Left Wing Outlet The Leverasked Congress to separate the authority to investigate customer complaints about airlines from the Department of Transportation and give it to “an agency focused more primarily on consumer protection,” suggesting the Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission. .
A week after the letter was sent, Buttigieg appeared on a late-night television show, promising that all travelers would be safe by Christmas. following the series of summer chaos.
Former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana told CBS ‘The Late Late Show’ host James Corden on Sept.“We are pushing airlines to provide better service.”
A third letter from 34 Attorneys General was sent directly to Buttigieg on December 16, stating that “large fines for unavoidable cancellations and extended delays, regardless of weather or otherwise. was requested to impose
The letter comes days after Southwest Airlines admitted last month that it was “delayed” in modernizing many of its operations. started canceling thousands of flights.
Airlines have scrapped more than 13,000 flights since December 22, according to tracking service FlightAware, meaning more than 1 million travelers are believed to have canceled flights.
“The DOT issued the largest fines in Consumer Protection Agency history this year, helping hundreds of thousands of people recover hundreds of millions of dollars,” an agency spokesperson told the Post on Thursday. In addition, Buttigieg said in August that he would offer more, such as covering the costs of rebooking and guaranteeing meals and hotels for passengers whose flights that were under the airline’s control were canceled or delayed. pressured airlines to do so. Before his recommendation, none of the 10 major U.S. airlines guaranteed meals or hotels and offered free rebooking if delays or cancellations were under the airline’s control. He was only one company.
“However, after Secretary Buttigieg called on airlines to improve their services and created an airline customer service dashboard that made their commitments transparent and highly accessible to the public, the cancellations were due to airline issues. 9 airlines now offer meal and hotel guarantees in the event of a flight or delay 10 guarantee free rebooking Department says there is no evidence airlines failed to meet their legal obligations In some cases, we will hold Southwest Airlines accountable, including pursuing fines against the airline.”
Buttigieg himself blamed Southwest for the cancellation on Tuesday and promised to hold the airline accountable.
“Southwestern passengers are experiencing unacceptable disruption and customer service conditions.” he said on Twitter. “I have made it clear to their management that our division holds Southwest accountable for getting things right between customers and employees.”
The secretary made a fresh swipe at the airline on Thursday, tweeting that it would hold Southwest accountable for its “unacceptable performance.” He asked his followers to tell his department if Southwest failed to reimburse travel expenses.
with post wire
