Vara's Kassa: Be careful with foreign booking sites!
You can book a trip or holiday to Thailand in the Netherlands, but it is also possible at a foreign website. Sometimes that is even cheaper or is there a catch?
We used to book our airline tickets at the travel agency, nowadays we do it online. Vara's Kassa investigated 23 domestic and foreign booking sites. Do you still pay booking fees everywhere, do you really need all those insurances and is the discount you get a real discount?
What has been investigated?
You can book a flight ticket on the internet directly with the airline, via a broker (booking sites) or via a price comparator that compares the booking sites. Those comparison sites also send you to foreign booking sites for the lowest rate and you don't notice that quickly, because almost all of those sites are in Dutch. Kassa investigated fourteen Dutch (with an office in the Netherlands) and nine foreign booking sites. They looked at booking costs, how you can pay, whether payment costs will be added and what is ticked.
Foreign booking sites
Comparison sites such as Kayak, Momondo and Skyscanner can refer you to a foreign booking site for the lowest price. Kassa has examined the following foreign sites: Mytrip, Supersaver, Tripsta, Bravofly, Vlucht24, Travel2be, Travelgenio, Airtickets and Tripair.
Booking fees
Six of the nine websites do not mention booking costs. Bravofly charges € 12,50 per person per route 'agency and payment fees'. Tripsta asks € 9,99 booking costs, but these are already included in the offer price.
Checked something?
Eight out of nine websites have something checked for you. Annoying, because consumers should be able to choose whether they want something or how they want to pay. The main thing that is checked are newsletters and certain service packages that you do not want.
Establishment
Tripair and Airtickets are owned by the same company and are based in Greece. You can call a phone number with an English country code, but this appears to be a Skype number. Mytrip and Tripsta are also located in Greece. Travel2be and Travelgenio are also owned by the same company. They are based in Spain. Supersaver has its office in Finland, Bravofly in Switzerland and Vlucht24 in Germany. All but one site is in Dutch, only Airtickets is in English.
pay for free?
You can pay for free at every site, but unfortunately not every option is usable for us Dutch people. For example, you can pay with Maestro for free at Bravofly, but paying online with your Maestro card is only for Belgian consumers, MasterCard said. Supersaver is the only provider where you can pay with iDEAL. Airtickets is the only one that accepts Paypal as a free payment option. Tripair accepts payments with MasterCard Debit, but that card is much less popular than the MasterCard credit card. Travel2be and Travelgenio appear to be creative with calculations. You will be lured there with a lower rate. The offer price is increased by € 5,50. You will then receive a maximum discount of € 5,50 if you can pay with Diners Club or Maestro. However, Diners Club credit cards are no longer issued in the Netherlands. At Mytrip and Tripsta you can pay for free with your MasterCard or Visa.
Flight24
Flight24 is a website that you better avoid. Here you pay payment costs one time, the other time you don't. This depends on the airline. So you have to open a window with every flight to see if you have to pay payment costs of up to € 10. Flight24 says that you can pay for free with Visa Electron, but that card has never been issued in the Netherlands. As a result, you are obliged to pay with your MasterCard, Visa or American Express. You pay € 19,99 to € 29,99 per route, but also per person and Flight24 does not tell you that. It is completely unclear when you pay € 19,99 and when you pay € 29,99. Kassa also came across combinations. They called Flight24, but unfortunately we only got a German customer service on the phone who could not speak Dutch.
Passport data
Tripsta and Bravofly immediately ask for your passport details when booking. These booking sites do not need this information at all. You don't have to fill in your passport details until check-in.
Domestic booking sites
Kassa also looked at the following fourteen Dutch (with an office in the Netherlands) booking sites: ATP, Schipholtickets, Vliegfabriek, Tix, Vliegtickets, Vliegtarieven, Expedia, Ebookers, Vliegwinkel, Cheaptickets, Budgetair, Kilroy, Gate1 and World Ticket Center.
Advertising Code Travel Offers
Booking sites that sell their flights on the Dutch market must comply with the Advertising Code for Travel Offers. This states, among other things, that fixed unavoidable costs that the consumer cannot ignore must be included in the offer price. The Advertising Code for Travel Offers also states that options for which you have to pay, such as insurance, may not be checked by default.
Booking fees
According to the Advertising Code for Travel Offers, booking costs fall under variable unavoidable costs. Therefore, they do not have to be included in the offer price. However, it must be clearly stated with the price how much booking costs will be added. For airline tickets, this is usually an amount for one person and a slightly higher amount for two or more travelers. As far as Kassa is concerned, booking costs change from variable to fixed as soon as you indicate how many people you are traveling with and then these can easily be incorporated into the offer price.
Ebookers, Expedia and Kilroy don't mention booking fees. The offer price is also the final price. The remaining booking sites charge between €15 and €39 booking fees. ATP is creative with names, because ATP charges € 5 reservation costs, but says that this is different from: booking costs / administration costs / service fees / customer service charges / hidden costs / extra costs / high file costs.
At Gate1 you will pay less and less (from € 27,50 to € 25 to € 20) in booking costs as you progress through the booking process. At Vliegfabriek, booking costs are only added after choosing the flight and have not been clearly stated before. Vliegfabriek has indicated that it will adjust this so that it becomes clearer for consumers.
Checked something?
Four of the fourteen booking sites ticked something. Tix and Ebookers have checked that you will receive a subscription to a newsletter. Annoying again! Schipholtickets and Vliegfabriek have selected iDEAL as their default payment method.
pay for free?
Yes, everywhere you can pay for free with iDEAL. Only at Expedia you cannot pay for airline tickets with iDEAL. You pay there for free with your credit card. Strange, because at Ebookers you can pay with iDEAL and that is from the same company as Expedia.
Expensive 0900 numbers
Four of the fourteen booking sites offer a local number that you can call with questions. With the rest you spend a lot of money on an expensive 0900 number. Usually it is better to Google the answer to your question.
'4 seats still available'
Flight tickets, Schiphol tickets, Tix shout phrases like '4 seats still available' and '2 seats still available for this rate'. This is misleading, because there may still be tickets on other booking sites or with the airline itself.
Reverse opt-in
Checkout sees a reverse opt-in for Airline tickets, Airfares and World Ticket Center. So you will receive a newsletter with offers as standard, but if you do not want it, you must tick the box proactively. Annoying!
Airline ticket insurance/airline ticket guarantee
Flight insurance or flight ticket guarantee seems to be a truly Dutch invention, because none of the foreign booking sites we examined offer it. In England there would also be booking sites that offer this. You pay between € 4 (Vliegfabriek) and € 21 (Kilroy) for this. For that you are protected against bankruptcy of the airline up to an amount of € 1500 - € 2000. Handy you might think, but really complete nonsense if you fly with large companies such as KLM, Lufthansa, United, Qantas, Singapore Airlines or Emirates. They don't suddenly go bankrupt. Companies that did go bankrupt are Sabena, Malev and Spanair. If you fly with a vague airline to the Philippines, Nepal or somewhere in Africa, it is better to cover yourself for that risk.
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How can I only have to fill in my passport details at check-in, if I 'self check in' with my passport?
Dear French Amsterdam,
When booking online, it is pointed out that you must enter a name exactly as it appears in the passport. (with any given names)
When checking in online or in person at the airport, it is only compared whether it really concerns the person stated on the ticket.
Foreign. I always only have to give my first name and passport number. Otherwise someone with the same name and date of birth would also be able to check in at a check-in pole, right?
Sorry, I hope the editors do not judge this as chatting, but if I book with Opodo, Elumbus, or Expedia, for example, I will only be asked for the family name, and the first names exactly as they are stated in the passport.
Before checking in I have my booking code, or an E-ticket number with which I can check in, as a check I have my passport, and any credit card with which I booked.
Only I have this booking code, or E-ticket number, which has also been transferred to my name, so that someone else, even if he has the same name, can never check in without this code.
I once booked a flight with Expedia from Singapore to Bangkok vv and paid with the Visa card, indeed seemed free at checkout, but afterwards I saw on the overview at Visa that the costs for paying with the credit card had been charged separately, a bit sneaky, so watch out.
I think another disadvantage of booking with booking sites is that you can't always see the booking class, eg. at Schiphol Tickets, you have a cheap ticket, but you cannot choose, change or cancel, it turns out later. With Schiphol Tickets you get a 15 euro discount on your next flight, the booking costs are then only a tenner.
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Hallo,
As a Belgian I booked a trip to Thailand on 16/5/2015 at Budgetair.nl and had to pay 39,95 euros for my payment with a credit card (master card)…..is a shame
Good luck with Tb
I do not understand the point of these booking sites, have never found a cheaper ticket than with the companies themselves, so I always book directly with them. Never any hidden costs at the end of the ride.
Had a conflict with EVA once, bought 1 tickets Amsterdam – Bangkok in Euros, later the statement from Visa stated a conversion from dollars to Euros, was € 2 more expensive pp Reported this to Visa, tickets were emailed as proof and was rap credited. Never had any other problems. Lesson learned, don't throw away your tickets until you've received your card statement. Ron.
Ron,
don't you have to explain to me how you know where you can book the cheapest…?
Because today it's KLM and tomorrow it's EVA. Unless you assume that EVA is always the cheapest, which I can disprove in no time.
And I book either through D-travel or through Ebookers, and also never hidden costs.
I'm not assuming anything, just take a look at the list KLM, EVA, China and then strike. It's usually China. I do not search any further because I only want to fly directly. Ron.