Air travelers at Reagan, BWI and Dulles, rejoice: If airlines take a fee for your luggage, and lose your bag, you get your money back.
That’s just one of the new rules the Department of Transportation announced Wednesday in an effort to protect airline passengers.
In addition to refunding your baggage fee if your bag is lost, airlines will have to pay flyers more if they are bumped from a flight. Currently, passengers are paid up to $400 or $800 depending on how long a passenger is delayed before catching a makeup flight. Those limits will be raised to $650 and $1,330.
And the new DOT rules will expand the tarmac-delay rule to prevent passengers from being stranded on international flights for longer than four hours. In the interest of full disclosure, DOT said airlines will also have to include fees and taxes in their advertised prices.
DOT said airlines must treat passengers fairly.
"It's just common sense that if an airline loses your bag or you get bumped from a flight because it was oversold, you should be reimbursed," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.
The new rules are scheduled to take effect in late August.
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For more details on the new DOT rules, click here.
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