DOT Fines Travelzoo $50,000

Online ticket agent Travelzoo has been fined $50,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for failing to properly disclose to consumers when flights were being operated under a code-sharing arrangement. The DOT ordered the company to cease and desist from future violations.

“Passengers deserve to know which airline will be operating their flight before they purchase their tickets,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We will continue to take enforcement action against airlines and ticket agents when they fail to comply with our code sharing disclosure rules."

An investigation by the DOT revealed that Travelzoo failed to properly disclose on its website, www.fly.com, the existence of code-sharing arrangements when advertising code-share flights operated on behalf of a major air carrier by a regional air carrier.

Travelzoo, the DOT said, did not display the corporate names of the carriers operating the flights or any other names under which those flights were sold to the public on its flight itinerary pages. As a result, consumers were unable to learn, at an early stage of the booking process, the identity of the airline that would actually operate the aircraft on which they would be flying.