When something goes wrong in air travel, consumers often need to reach an appropriate resolution with airline staff. But the standard methods are not always sufficient — sometimes ordinary customer relations staff are intransigent or just unresponsive, and a credit card chargeback is a poor fit for disputes that can be surprisingly complex.
In today’s post, I present a dispute resolution channel most consumers do not know about: formal complaints before the US Department of Transportation. The process lives up to the “formal” label, requiring documents formatted in a particular way, submitted through both web upload and email (neither particularly intuitive), with all proceedings posted for public review. But this approach typically goes straight to airline attorneys, and the on-the-record public proceeding helps assure high-quality discussion. In today’s piece, I explore known dispute resolution methods, then give interested consumers a guide to the DOT Formal Complaint process.
My guidance: