[Nfbmd] FW: New regulations require for airlines

[Michelle Clark]

This may help our fight! Somehow, money penalties can make a company change
their minds!

 

Michelle

 

 

 

New regulations require airline ticket agents to disclose - and offer -
web-based discount fares to customers unable to use their sites due to a
disability.

WASHINGTON
<http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?form=MSNNDL&q=Washington,%20District%
20of%20Columbia,%20United%20States>  - Disabled travelers should find it
easier to access airline websites under a new set of rules the government
issued on Monday.

Airline website pages that have core travel information and services must be
accessible to the disabled within two years, the Department of
Transportation said, and all pages on airline websites must within three
years be readily available to people with disabilities.

The new regulations also require airline ticket agents to disclose - and
offer - web-based discount fares to customers unable to use their sites due
to a disability. Airlines already are required to provide equivalent service
for consumers who are unable to use inaccessible websites

Airlines and airports will also have to make accessible to the disabled
automated kiosks providing boarding passes and baggage, as they purchase new
equipment. If no kiosks are installed, 25 percent of the kiosks currently at
each airport location must be accessible within 10 years.

Another new rule gives airlines more flexibility in how they transport
manual, folding wheelchairs onboard, making it possible for them to carry up
to two wheelchairs in the cabin, the department said. In addition to being
able to stow a wheelchair in a closet, airlines will also be allowed to
strap a second chair across a row of seats.

Closets also must have signs saying wheelchairs have priority over other
baggage.

Related:
<http://news.msn.com/us/airlines-offer-a-return-to-civility-for-a-fee?ocid=m
snnws> Airlines offer a return to civility ... for a fee

At the same time, the department announced that it has fined US Airways $1.2
million for failing to provide adequate wheelchair access to passengers in
Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C. It's one of the largest penalties of its
kind ever assessed by the agency in a disability case.

Under the department's rules, airlines are required to provide free, prompt
wheelchair assistance, upon request, to passengers with disabilities. The
department said this includes helping passengers to move between gates and
make connections to other flights.

The department said that US Airways' use of a combination of electric carts
and wheelchairs to transport passengers between gates required frequent
transfers and led to long delays. It said that some passengers missed
connections because of the delays, or were left unattended for long periods
of time.

The department examined some 300 complaints that passengers filed with the
US Airways and the government relating to alleged hardship incidents in 2011
and 2012 at Philadelphia International Airport and at Charlotte-Douglas
International Airport. That was only a sample of the total number of
complaints.

This should help our fight!

 

Michelle

US Airways may allocate up to $500,000 of the fine for improvements that go
beyond the DOT's requirements, the department said.

 

 

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