Traveler rights violations cost airlines $850K

Frontier, Delta, American fined

The U.S. Department of Transportation means business when it comes to holding airlines accountable for violating passenger rights.

Three U.S. carriers — Frontier, American and Delta — have been fined a combined $850,000 for infractions of the federal agency’s airline consumer protections rules, the agency announced.

In South Florida, all three carriers maintain a yearround and/or seasonal presence at the three international airports in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach.

Frontier, the low cost Denver-based carrier that just announced a service expansion in Miami, was slapped with the largest fine of $400,000 for violating overbooking and disability rules.

The DOT said the carrier failed to ask volunteers to relinquish confirmed seats before involuntarily denying passengers from boarding flights. It also failed to provide the affected bumped passengers the required written notice outlining their rights, and failed to properly compensate them in a timely manner.

The DOT said its findings resulted from on-site inspections of Frontier’s bumping procedures in September 2016. During an earlier compliance inspection at its Denver headquarters, enforcement officers reviewed about 200 complaints filed against the carrier in 2015 and 2014.

Additionally, Frontier was fined because it failed to provide disabled passengers with adequate wheelchair assistance when they boarded or exited aircraft. It did not sufficiently respond to complaints filed by affected passengers, the Department said in its consent orders.

The majority of the disability violations occurred at

JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF FILE PHOTO Delta was fined $200,000 for filing inaccurate baggage reports, the DOT said.