Misleading Advertising

[robbiecia]

Shopping around for ticket prices to europe, i just want to know the price that i will have to pay.

Why, oh why do local travel agents only seem to advertise the price before taxes and other fees.

If you see a flight to somewhere for say, 30k, upon further enquiries this can become anywhere between 35-45k.

Why are these taxes and fees so high???????

Where else will you pay taxes of 50% or more???????

Wouldn't you just love to see a final price straight away???????

Oh learned ones, please enlighten me.

[coventry]

Why, oh why do local travel agents only seem to advertise the price before taxes and other fees.

I believe that law was changed recently and the price you pay is inclusive. Or is that just the UK? Edited May 10, 2009 by coventry

[londonthai]

it was, and still is, everywhere in the world, that prices are quoted before tax and fuel surcharges. Even when you are booking directly with an airline, first usually you are shown a bare fare and than the rest.

maybe instead of booking through thai travel agents, you should check the european ones, as well as the airlines. Sometimes booking directly with the airline is cheaper than agent by a few k baht

[noahvail]

it was, and still is, everywhere in the world, that prices are quoted before tax and fuel surcharges. Even when you are booking directly with an airline, first usually you are shown a bare fare and than the rest.

maybe instead of booking through thai travel agents, you should check the european ones, as well as the airlines. Sometimes booking directly with the airline is cheaper than agent by a few k baht

2 years ago NZ made it law to advertise the 'complete' price - taxes and fees included. It evens out the playing field.

[hansnl]

it was, and still is, everywhere in the world, that prices are quoted before tax and fuel surcharges. Even when you are booking directly with an airline, first usually you are shown a bare fare and than the rest.

maybe instead of booking through thai travel agents, you should check the european ones, as well as the airlines. Sometimes booking directly with the airline is cheaper than agent by a few k baht

2 years ago NZ made it law to advertise the 'complete' price - taxes and fees included. It evens out the playing field.

In a lot of countries, including all of Europe, advertised prices should be including ALL surcharges, or the total price payable excluding the handling fee of the agent where you book/buy your ticket.

That means exactly what it means, the airline only is obliged to advertise the all-in price in the country where the ad is appearing in and where this law is applicable.

Taxes are so high, because Governments and Airports charge so much.

The fuel surcharge will go up when oil prices go up, and will not go down for various valid and invalid reasons when the oil prices go down.

Booking through the internet a long before the travel date will make the ticket cheaper.

Agents, understandably, most of the time will try to book you through an airline that gives the highest provision to them.

And your wish to get the lowest price will sometimes, or most of the time, clash with the agents needs.

Also, sometimes booking through an agent in another country (your home country?) is possible and can make your tickets very much cheaper.

I was quoted for a return ticket from Bangkok to Dusseldorf of € 710, including by the airline itself from the office in Bangkok.

The total price I paid to an agent in Holland for the same ticket on the same days was €541.

Being an E-ticket, there was no problem in obtaining the ticket.

Most of the time sending the tickets to you by mail might prove a worry.

The journey went without any trouble at all.

Shop around!

There is a growing group of airlines that do not pay provision to agents any more, because of the growth of the internet and direct bookings being made by the customers, which means you will have to pay the provision to the agent by yourself, and that can be anything between 3% and 8%.

And that is also the reason why E-tickets booked by yourself can be cheaper.

[PattayaParent]

What also anoys me is that with each different airline the amount of taxes is completely different too.

[robbiecia]

What also anoys me is that with each different airline the amount of taxes is completely different too.

And an excellent point PattayaParent!!!!!!!!

I saw that too

Some airlines add 15k to a 30k ticket

Some add 10K

And others as low as 3k

Just been looking at some european websites.....................So good to see the final price straight up

Have you ever spoken to a local travel agent?....................always the same song and dance

Me: Hello, How much is your advertised flight to London for 25K

Agent: Err, hold on

Agent: Silence why they jump around on the keyboard

Agent: More mumbling when they see something they don't understand

Me: Er, hello are you still there?

Agent: Ok, that flight is really 97K with taxes and surcharges

Me: Ok thank you for your time

[bazmlb]

There are many variances to fares and why a lot of advertisements do not include taxes.

First and foremost there is not one single airline that offers the same taxes to the same destinations, for example if you look at Emirates who fly Sydney Bangkok Sydney there special fare is AUD599 there taxes are only around AUD125.00 a total of AUD724.00 including all taxes.

Thai offer a fare of AUD449.00 so there fare is cheaper however there taxes are AUD320.00 so overall there fare is AUD769.00 making it dearer than Emirates.

So as you could imagine there is no way an agent can advertise each and every destination including taxes as this would take forever to produce.

yes granted to specific destinations this could be done however when the dollar value changes each and every week the taxes also slightly change, so yes agents could advertise including taxes however guaranteed 99% of the time when the client finally calls to book chances are the taxes have changed even by a few dollars.

And when this happens airlines do not budge on price so if they include taxes in their ads and someone books a week later and the taxes change by 10dollars the airline will say the agent has to pay it, so to cover this a lot of extra would have to be added to cover such circumstances and the client would not get the best fare.

Taxes vary due to every country has different taxes for different reasons, there are passenger service charges, there are fuel surcharges one of the biggest taxes on a ticket, there are baggage charges at some airports there are various Government charges etc..eg look at London it has one of the highest airport taxes in the world so when customers inquire about Europe they should ask not to route through London to make the taxes cheaper.

All these taxes are imposed by airlines and governments Not Agents.

[syd barrett]

Prices quoted without taxes are useless.

Are Middle East airlines cheaper because of low/no taxes?

Am I correct in suggesting that the cheapest flights will ALWAYS be found online at the airline's website? I think so.

The best thing I ever did was start booking flights online. It's cheaper, you get more airmiles for doing so, you can choose your seat and then check-in online and print your boarding pass (very useful if no checked-in baggage).

There is still one thing I don't understand though, where airlines could increase profits. Many cheap flights are non-refundable and non-date-changable. So if things go wrong and you know for sure that you will NOT be flying, then the airline has lost the chance to re-sell your seat.

If non-refundable and non-changeable tickets became 10% refund or even 5% refund then surely this would be beneficial to all (passenger & airline).

[londonthai]

for whatever reasons, prices are often quoted without taxes (even in europe, contrary to the regulations, vide discounted travel agent westeasttravel in London and many airline websites).

they catch your attention with a low price and after filling up of multiple booking pages on the website or phoning a travel agent on a premium line you are too tired to start looking somewhere else for a better fare.

there is never one single airline/agent for the best fare - each time you are looking for a flight you should search wide, the longer you search the bigger chances you will safe money.

just bookmark good websites as you serf along - I have some 20 of them and check all of them when booking. Takes time, but saves money, sometimes a few hundred £