A report has found that a certain number of holiday websites are advertising bargain flight deals, which suddenly become more expensive when you actually try to book. A newspaper investigated cheap flights and discovered that they used several tricks to boost prices by as much as 30%. This means that some of the five million people who use online travel agents each year could be paying excessive amounts.
Money Mail carried out the study and used Opodo and eDreams for its searches. They found that in some cases, the price changed when you simply clicked through from the beginning of the search. The investigation also found that some companies use card tricks (no, not that kind) so that the cheapest deals were only available to you if you used a pre-paid card, such as Visa Entropay. To use any other cards, there was an additional fee which increased the price by almost £50 in extreme cases. For one search, the debit card fee added 30% to the total flight price.
Some online travel agents are also setting up websites which use colour and branding to look like an official airline website, for example ‘ryanair.edreams.com’. According to the Mail, the regulator of the aviation industry is investigating the sales tactics.
A spokesperson for eDreams said that they aim to provide websites which offer consumers the ‘widest possible flight choice’, adding that they take concerns ‘very seriously’. The company said that they would be willing to cooperate with any investigation.
A separate investigation by the Sun newspaper found that a flight from Gatwick to Malaga was advertised at £65 on one of the websites. However, by the end of the booking process it had increased to £89.95. Lots of travel websites such as TripAdvisor are full of warnings about such tricks.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to avoid the tricks. Generally speaking, the best way to get a cheap airline fare is to book directly with the airline themselves.
To book a holiday with Opodo, call the Opodo contact number.
