Taxes and Fees included to Airline Tickets - New Rule

Taxes and fees will soon be added in the price of an airline ticket on all advertising sites. It's a new rule rolling out next month. The Transportation Department is now requiring airlines to include those fees in all advertising as of Jan. 26th 2011.

Local travel agencies say this new rule will help bring consistency to consumers. Agents say sometimes when they quote a price, customers think there might be something cheaper out there when really what they saw excluded hidden fees. They say this is particularly true when booking international flights where fees can be more complicated. 

Some airlines want to overturn the rule because they say it violates commercial free speech rights. Next month there will also be a ban on price increases after a ticket has been purchased and a 24-hour window to hold or cancel a reservation without penalty.

New rules for Pilots - FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has announced some new changes to the way pilots are able to work in the commercial industry. The new rules will place requirements for shorter shifts and longer rest periods on the pilots. The changes are an attempt to reduce the tiredness of a pilot that could potentially lead to an accident. USA Today reports that the changes come after a crash of a Colgan Air flight in 2009 killed 50 people.

The new rules will force a flight duty time of 9 to 14 hours. The new rules also count up the time the pilot spends heading to a flight, known as deadheading, as part of the workday. Flight time limits will be eight or nine hours. The length of the day depends on the time of day and the number of flights the pilots has flown.

The minimum downtime after a flight is now set at 10 hours and the pilot must be given at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The pilots must also have at least 30 hours of consecutive rest during each week, which is 25% more than current standards allow for.

Pilots and the FAA may be happy over the new changes, but in a time when airlines aren’t doing well, the carriers won't like the bill. The new rules are expected to cost the airlines almost $300 million over the next decade according to the FAA.