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US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

(www.travelandtourworld.com)
663 points duxup | 3 comments | 24 Sep 25 12:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.684s | source
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panick21_ ◴[24 Sep 25 13:19 UTC] No.45359919[source]▶
Ironically in Europe we have some decent regulation for airlines, but the public train operating companies refuse to do the same for trains. We need to have some of those same protection and transparency requirements for train companies as well.

But the governments of the big operating companies have vetoed this so far. Sometimes deregulation actually makes it easier to implement regulation.

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lxgr ◴[24 Sep 25 14:27 UTC] No.45360931[source]▶
> the public train operating companies refuse to do the same for trains. We need to have some of those same protection and transparency requirements for train companies as well.

Huh? We do!

There are very similar EU regulations for train travel: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-right...

On a completely unrelated note, I recently noticed that Deutsche Bahn seems to have some of their train schedules staggered by 58 minutes instead of one hour – which means that the 25% refund for a delayed arrival due to a missed connection that didn't wait will usually not kick in :)

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1. panick21_ ◴[24 Sep 25 16:04 UTC] No.45362267[source]▶
I didn't say there was no regulation what so ever. But there were multiple efforts of increasing it that was blocked. And what I specifically noted that the rights are weaker then for airlines.

If your airline is delayed and you miss a connection, you will get a hotel for the night. In a train, you can get that.

Airlines are forced to compete on price and have to publicly list prices and make that accessible to 3rd parties. Train companies do everything in their power to silo as much as they can to force costumers into booking threw their app.

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2. lxgr ◴[24 Sep 25 20:25 UTC] No.45365541[source]▶
> Airlines are forced to compete on price and have to publicly list prices

Which regulation requires airlines to do so? I was under the impression that airlines mainly make their inventory available via GDSes for historical reasons (for decades before direct online booking, airlines would sell most of their tickets through travel agents, which needed unified interfaces).

There are some low-cost airlines that don't embrace GDSes and force you to use their app as well (I've been bitten by that once when booking through a "non-cooperative OTA/reseller and not being able to access my boarding pass), and conversely, I think some train connections are selling tickets to travel agencies these days.

> If your airline is delayed and you miss a connection, you will get a hotel for the night. In a train, you can get that.

Sure? EU regulation 2021/782, article 20 would disagree: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A...

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3. panick21_ ◴[25 Sep 25 08:57 UTC] No.45370684[source]▶
I'm not sure, I got it from a railway person that travels a lot in Europe.

My understanding is that currently, this regulation might work within one provider but not on handover. If you book in DB app, and you miss the handover to TGV it doesn't work.

But maybe its the case that the regulations say that it should and it simply doesn't.