See Also: (SteveWatson) – Court Orders TSA To Explain Why It Continues To Defy The Law – Read More Here

(HigginsBlog) – A Federal Circuit court rules airlines must abide by Uncle Sam’s order to make TSA molestation fees obvious on their website.

Last week my wife and I purchased an airline ticket from Spirit Airlines (who have some ridiculously cheap prices by the way).

Much to my surprise they actually display a breakdown of the ticket costs including the price, the fuel surcharge and the Uncle Sam’s TSA molestation fee (labeled on the site as the “‘Government’s Cut”).

Spirit Airlines Shows Cost Of Uncle Sam’s TSA Molestation Fee

I was a little shocked that the site actually showed how much the TSA molestation fee actually is.

I was even a little more shocked that such a large portion of the ticket price was being used to pay TSA molesters to grope passengers and force them to be irradiated with by cancer-causing full body scanners.

I mean this is a police state that we live in right? How can an airline get away with this, I thought after the ticket purchase was complete.

Then less than a week later I saw the headline flash on Bloomberg’s ticker confirming that we are in fact a police state and that such behavior simply isn’t allowed in an Orwellian control grid.

Uncle Sam was just as shocked as I was that Spirit was blaring the price of the TSA’s molestation fee over the bullhorn and prominent informing the public about the absurd molestation fee’s.

There it was on the Bloomberg’s  ticker a headline announcing that  Uncle Sam had declared it illegal and ordered Spirit to change their website.

Spirit had been actually ordered to do so sometime ago but has been fighting the order in court.

As CNN reports:

Last week, Spirit publicly lashed out against another part of the DOT regulation that required them to include taxes and fees when advertising the price of a ticket. “Warning. New government regulations require us to HIDE taxes in your fares” reads a statement at the top of the airline’s website. “This is not consumer friendly or in your best interest. It’s wrong and you shouldn’t stand for it.”

Spirit hasn’t been ordered to HIDE the molestation fee altogether (YET), but Uncle Sam has ordered them to stop making it so blatantly obvious.

Spirit Airlines Ordered to Amend Fare Advertising

WASHINGTON (CN) - A divided D.C. Circuit ordered Spirit Airlines to stop advertising “the government’s cut”– taxes and fees on air travel — more prominently than its base airfare, while also rejected Spirit’s challenge to a DOT rule establishing new guidelines for when a passenger can cancel or change a booking.

[...]

Specifically, the airline objected to three of the rules’ provisions: the requirement that the most prominent figure displayed in advertisements and on websites be the total price including taxes, allowing passengers to cancel their ticket purchases within 24 hours without a penalty, and a prohibition on raising baggage and other fees after tickets are purchased.

[...]“Contrary to the airlines’ repeated suggestions, nothing in the Airfare Advertising Rule requires airlines to hide the taxes — or, as Spirit’s website puts it, the ‘Government’s Cut,’” Tatel wrote. “It just requires that the total, final price be the most prominently listed figure, relying on the reasonable theory that this prevents airlines from confusing consumers about the total cost of their travel.”

[...]

Source: Courthouse News

So what give’s? Why is the government forcing a private company to tone down how it tells you how much the government is making you pay to have someone molest you?

As Spirit noted in the beginning of the year, by making the cost molestation less obvious Uncle Sam can jack the price they charge you for your groping with less of a public outcry.

Spirit Airlines Says Posting Full Airfares Is Government’s Way Of Hiding Taxes

In recent years, the Dept. of Transportation has been cracking down on airlines, especially discount carriers, for advertising airfares that don’t actually represent what consumers will end up paying. With the latest round of rule changes having just kicked in, low-budget airline Spirit is fighting back, telling its customers that this is all about the government trying to hide higher taxes in airfares.

In an e-mail sent out to customers (see screengrab at bottom of story), Spirit writes:

New government regulations require us to HIDE taxes in your fares.This is not consumer-friendly or in your best interest. It’s wrong and you shouldn’t stand for it.

Starting January 24, 2012, fares are distorted.

Why?
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest fare rules, Spirit must now HIDE the government’s taxes and fees in your fares.

If the government can hide taxes in your airfares, then they can carry out their hidden agenda and quietly increase their taxes. (Yes, such talks are already underway.)

And if they can do it to the airline industry, what’s next?
As the transparency leader and most consumer-friendly airline, Spirit DOES NOT support this new USDOT mandate. We believe the better form of transparency is to break out costs so customers know exactly what they’re buying.

[...]

Source: The Consumerist

Perhaps what makes even less sense is why are these molestation charges being waged on a percentage based?

We all know that airlines jack up their prices during certain times and certain days depending on anticipated demand.

So If you happened to need to travel on a day your ticket is going to cost $400 or $500 you might being paying over $100 dollars per family member to have your genitals groped?

Yet if you get an off-peak ticket the same molestation fee may be only $5 to $10 dollars?

This makes absolutely no sense.

I get the airlines price gouging, I mean they are a business after all.

But Uncle Sam engaging in the same price gouging to molest you? Now that just can’t be tolerated.

Source: Higgins Blog

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