Online travel con – be warned

A new online travel con, is around known as “bait and switch”. It involves fraudulently taking a holiday booking at a cheap price, tying you in with terms and conditions, and later calling you back to pay for extras..

Those extras include things that you thought were included, such as Luggage or extra flight charges and or accommodation extras. In most instances this has added hundreds of pounds to the original cost of your holiday.

If you have been offered this sort of deal, do not accept the higher price and inform your credit card company for an immediate refund or charge back, do also inform trading standards..

This deplorable tactic involves displaying prices that consumers have little or no chance of booking, taking an “order” for that price and then later contacting you with a higher price..

They make up a story about the flights or accomodation going up and asking you TO pay the extra price increases, then they will add on booking fees and ticket-on-departure charges.

We prefer to not offer prices we can’t fulfil, nor add all sorts to the prices at a later stage in booking, such as luggage for example – who in their right mind is not going to take luggage on holiday..

Agents such as ourselves Cheaperholidays and travel republic which say they display only available prices, are calling for stricter regulation to stop the practice.

“It is becoming obvious there are agents who work this grubby sales tactic known as ‘bait and switch’.

“This involves deliberately holding out a much lower price, taking the booking ‘order’ and then going in for the kill over the phone.”

We at Cheaperholidays have “live availability”, meaning customers can book at the price they see. However some online agents were posting misleading prices and hiding behind the constant movement in pricing.

“We offer price comparisons with competitors and some are advertising at a rate lower than net, so they can’t actually be selling at this price.

“It is difficult because part of you thinks you should follow suit to be able to compete.