In
addition, United had posted on their website site its
refund policy. Which stated United pledged that for
purchases made with a credit card, it would submit the
refund requests to the credit card issuer within seven
business days of receiving a complete request for
refund, and for purchases made with cash, check, or
other forms of payment, it would issue the refund within
20 business days of receipt of the completed refund
request.
Federal regulations requires air carriers to report
monthly with the Department on a domestic system basis
the total number of passengers enplaned systemwide, and
the total number of mishandled baggage reports filed
with the carrier. It also requires air carriers to
submit a report to the Aviation Consumer Protection
Division on any incidents involving the loss, injury, or
death of an animal during air transportation within 15
days of the end of the month during which the incident
occurred.
In
addition carriers are required to file quarterly reports
with the Department’s Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS) listing, inter alia, the number of
passengers denied boarding involuntarily and the number
of passengers who volunteered to give up their seats.
These numbers are then published and made available to
the public in the Department’s monthly Air Travel
Consumer Report (ATCR), which ranks carriers according
to their rate of mishandled baggage and their rate of
involuntarily denied boarding’s.
ATCR data is used by the public when choosing among
transportation options and by carriers as a basis
for advertising materials regarding the quality of
their service compared to other carriers. When
airlines are aware the information they submit is
not accurate or fail to submit, then their business
practices is deemed unfair and deceptive and its and
unfair method of competition.
|