DENVER — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is calling on Congress to hold the airline industry more accountable with concern to consumer complaints.
Weiser says his office received more than 600 complaints about Colorado-based Frontier Airlines in 2020 — more than any other airline.
“We know many more didn't get what they paid for. That's wrong. We want to do something about that,” Weiser said.
The Colorado AG is leading a bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general from across the country in calling out the airline industry for failing their customers.
Weiser says their offices are overwhelmed with complaints from outraged travelers over flight credits Frontier offered when customers changed flights as fear over the spread of COVID-19 heightened during the pandemic. Customers either couldn’t redeem the credit when promised or were left on hold for hours.
More recently, the Colorado Attorney General's Office has received many complaints about unreasonable delays and cancellations. Federal law requires airlines to provide refunds when they cancel or significantly change or delay flights
Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation released a report showing air travel service complaints are up 270% above pre-pandemic levels. However, Weiser says USDOT is the problem because the department is responsible for investigating complaints while his office has little power to do so.
Weiser sent a letter to the agency to investigate consumer complaints about Frontier Airlines in 2020, but says USDOT failed to respond.
"Under federal law, it's up to the Department of Transportation to take consumer complaints seriously, to investigate them and to hold companies accountable,” Weiser said. “They have yet to give us an answer as to what they're doing with all the complaints that we forwarded to them."
Weiser and other attorneys general want Congress to give them a bigger role so they can legally hold airlines accountable.
USDOT recently announced it is considering new rules that would require airlines to give consumers refunds for delayed or canceled flights. But Weiser is concerned that even if those rules are implemented, the department hasn’t shown a history of making sure airlines treat consumers fairly.
“If they can't handle this work, then help share the load. We want the ability to do this work as well,” Weiser said.
