DOT fines Brazil's GOL airline largest penalty for violating airline consumer rules

By BA Staff

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined the Brazilian airline GOL $250,000 for violating a number of DOT’s rules protecting the rights of air travellers. This is the largest penalty assessed for violations of the rules adopted in April 2011.

The airline was ordered to cease and desist from further violations of the Department’s airline consumer rules.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said:

“We adopted these rules to ensure that passengers are treated with respect when they buy a ticket or board a plane. We will not tolerate disregard of our rules and will take enforcement action when necessary to protect travelers.”

The Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office found that GOL’s U.S. website, for a period of time after it was launched in November 2012, failed to include a variety of information and features required by DOT air travel consumer protection rules. The website did not include a contingency plan for handling lengthy tarmac delays or a link from the homepage to a list of fees for baggage and other optional services.

GOL also violated DOT’s full-fare advertising requirement by failing to include taxes and fees in fares displayed on the website in response to consumer searches. The full fare, including taxes and fees, was available only after the consumer selected a specific itinerary.

The airline also failed to post its contract of carriage in an easily accessible form on its website. A consumer had to begin the process of searching for an itinerary before being able to gain access to the contract information. This made it hard to easily compare GOL’s contract with those of other airlines, and made obtaining the contract difficult for passengers who wanted to review the information online before booking a flight by telephone or with a ticket agent.

Can we look to something similar in India? Share your thoughts via a comment.

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Ryanair enhances consumer security on Ryanair.com

Earlier today, European ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC) Ryanair launched a new customer verification system on the Ryanair.com website. Find the details below. 

20th August 2013

Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC), today (20 Aug) launched a new consumer verification security system on the Ryanair.com website, which offers increased security when booking Ryanair’s lowest fares on Ryanair.com.

Delivered through CardinalCommerce’s Centinel® technology platform, the new system has been introduced across all Ryanair markets and provides consumers with enhanced fraud protection during the payment process, delivering increased security for all Ryanair passengers.

Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:

“Ryanair is continually striving to improve the customer experience of our 81.5m passengers and we have introduced a new consumer verification system on our Ryanair.com website, which will further improve the security of Ryanair.com for our 81.5m passengers – and make booking our ultra-low cost flights even more secure.”

CardinalCommerce’s Alasdair Rambaud said:

“We’re delighted Ryanair recognises the ongoing value of deploying Verified by Visa and MasterCard® SecureCode®, and chose Cardinal because of our years of experience, understanding and knowledge as pioneers of consumer authentication. We look forward to working with Ryanair and providing their consumers with an even better booking experience.”

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After MySkyStatus, Cloudstream, Virtual Pilot, Lufthansa commences inflight broadband Internet

Lufthansa FlyNet service now available on board Introductory offer: Free surfing until the end of January 2011

German carrier Lufthansa which operated the world's first scheduled flight with broadband Internet access on January 15, 2003, and operated on board net access till the end of 2006, is re-introducing FlyNet its on-board Internet access service.

FlyNet, is currently available on the Frankfurt-New York and Frankfurt-Detroit routes, and will be rolled out on the carrier's complete intercontinental fleet by end 2011.

The system hardware is eXConnect from Panasonic in partnership with AeroMobile and Deutsche Telekom which operates in the US under the T-Mobile brand.

Flynet gives passengers with a WLAN-enabled laptop or smartphone unlimited online access at high bandwidths. In the spring of 2011, the system will support GSM and GPTS mobile phone data standards enabling use of mobile phones to send and receive SMS text messages and transfer data with smart phones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry. It is not clear whether Android will be supported, but it appears that it will.

Apple iPad on FlyNet

FlyNet will mimic a wireless hotspot for WiFi enabled devices and a mobile network connection with a GSM/GPRS-enabled device. The one hour pricing at 10.95 euros does not appear very competitive but the 24 hour flat rate of 19.95 euros does. A good feature of this service is that passengers can continue to access the internet for the duration of the 24 hour package on all connecting Lufthansa inter-continental flights equipped with Flynet or in Lufthansa lounges.

Lufthansa has been making aggressive strides in the online-onboard-digital-Web 2.0 space and offering passengers a variety of innovative services. The best part about the carrier's approach it that it is not limiting these initiatives to only its passengers but instead making it available to passengers on virtually any airline, and using the opportunity for brand building.

In addition to its very popular and award winning MySkyStatus Web 2.0 service which automatically sends altitude, location, departure and arrival updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter pages, the carrier has another great service called Cloudstream.

CloudStream is a tool that allows you to browse through a number of content categories and creates a “digital carry-on” for passengers to pack with their chosen content. It is essentially the first digital media platform that takes advantage of travelers’ time in air. Once you’ve complied and downloaded your content, you can save it to your pen drive, and read it on-board or at your leisure and even share it with friends. You can find supporters of Bangalore Aviation Shashank Nigam and Mary Kirby (the Runway Girl) in the "Featured" section of Cloudstream.

Another great past time is the Lufthansa Virtual Pilot game which builds upon the famous Traveler IQ Challenge game on Facebook.

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Wi-Fi access at Bengaluru International Airport

Passengers departing from Bengaluru International Airport can enjoy wireless internet access.

Inside the terminal, using your GSM cell phone, send an SMS "WIFI BIAL" to 56677 and you will receive the wi-fi password on your cellphone. The speed is quite decent.

Alternately in the departure hall, fire up your laptop, switch on your wi-fi, open your browser and follow the on-screen instructions.

There is an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page at the airport website.

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