Baggage Fee Fairness Act of 2011

Baggage Fee Fairness Act of 2011 - Requires air carriers to refund passenger baggage fees within 30 days after the arrival of any passenger flight in which a piece of baggage is lost, delayed, or damaged.

Makes it an unfair or deceptive practice for a domestic air carrier, foreign air carrier, or ticket agent to sell a ticket for air transportation but fail, before sale of the ticket, to: (1) ask the ticket purchaser if he or she has one or more pieces of baggage to check, and (2) inform him or her of the cost of checking each piece of baggage.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 712 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 712

   To require air carriers to refund passenger baggage fees if such 
  baggage is lost, delayed, or damaged, and require air carriers and 
   ticket agents to include the actual cost of checked baggage when 
                          quoting an airfare.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 15, 2011

Mr. Capuano (for himself, Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Cohen, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. 
 Jackson of Illinois, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Moore, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Norton, 
 Ms. Richardson, Mr. Sablan, Mr. Shuler, and Mr. Costello) introduced 
      the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                   Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require air carriers to refund passenger baggage fees if such 
  baggage is lost, delayed, or damaged, and require air carriers and 
   ticket agents to include the actual cost of checked baggage when 
                          quoting an airfare.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Baggage Fee Fairness Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. BAGGAGE FEE REFUNDS.

    Not later than 30 days after arrival of a passenger flight in which 
a piece of baggage is lost, delayed, or damaged, the air carrier for 
such flight shall refund to a passenger any baggage fee collected. For 
purposes of this section, the term ``delayed'' means baggage that is 
not on the conveyor belt or held by the air carrier for retrieval by 
the passenger one hour after arrival of the flight at such passenger's 
final destination.

SEC. 3. NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS REGARDING THE SALE OF AIRLINE 
              TICKETS.

    Section 41712 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
    ``(d) Notice of Fees.--It shall be an unfair or deceptive practice 
under subsection (a) for an air carrier, foreign air carrier, or ticket 
agent to sell a ticket for air transportation, including sale on the 
Internet or over the phone, to fail, before the sale of the ticket, to 
ask a potential ticket purchaser if such purchaser has one or more 
pieces of baggage to check and to inform the potential purchaser of the 
cost of checking each piece of baggage. In the case of a sale of such a 
ticket on the Internet, the seller may provide an opportunity for a 
purchaser to indicate the number of bags when selecting other flight 
and airport information.''.
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