My friend recently booked flights to Benidorm. The flight was operated by Jet2 but she booked the whole package via Travel Republic. My friend was given a price at the time of booking but was later notified by TR that the flight price had increased.

I would assume that if you use a booking agent then the price of a flight can increase by the time they get round to doing the actual booking.

There were 4 of us going on the same holiday and I booked my, and my friends flights separately via Jet2 website, then our accommodation with TR. We paid a cheaper flight fare than our other friends due to them using an agent.

I don't think OTB were to blame in this instance as flight prices can fluctuate due to demand.

Would you not agree though that there are questions to be answered with regard to this? Why give any prices at all if they are fluctuating? I knew the prices fluctuated as I'd been watching them closely for about a fortnight. That's why when this particular flight price dropped so low I based my entire holiday around it on the strength of the price given to me by on the beach. If they can then charge whatever they like for the flight after that then what would be the point of displaying a price in the first instance? The cynic in me would suggest that it is just to get the buyer to commit. Similarly what if the price fluctuated in the other direction? Would I have received a phone call offering me a discount? If anybody has ever been contacted with the offer a discount due to the price going down then please feel free to post here also.

As per this post:

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=1389867#p1389867

it looks like OTB covered all eventualities in their Ts and Cs. Personally knowing this, I would not book with them and if I did, I would be bound by these Ts and Cs.

Perhaps a lesson learnt not to use them in the future and stick to the operators whos price displayed is the price you pay (but having said that if the price changes by more than x% they can increase too!).

That's the holiday industry for you!

Mark

Ha! Tell me about it!!?

Although from their terms and conditions:

"By clicking to book and entering your personal and payment details on our website, you are making us an offer to purchase the product on your behalf. At this point we immediately re-contact the Principal."

Surely if it was immediate then the price wouldn't have fluctuated at all?

It appears that OTB do use a Live system and by their own terms and conditions immediately contact the flight operator. So how can there be any discrepancy in price?!?

Hi,

I know it is frustrating but i would say that there are many many agents websites that operate in the same way, the price displayed is always classed as an "invite to treat" and many times when doing reservation for my clients, even when they are on the phone, the system has kicked me out and i have had to start again when you realise that the price has just gone up by £10-£15 per person.

I'm not sure what kind of system OTB operate but it would seem to me that they have a database that is updated at certain times of the day and sometimes they may have just updated but the price could still be wrong and the reason i say this is for example, to scan easyjet flights could take a few hours to do and some agents only recieve their information from 3rd party suppliers once or twice a day so information could be quite a few hours old.

There are systems that some agents have which is XML based meaning that at the time of your search it will give you a live price and you are able to book it at that live price immediately, this is slowly becomming the way within agents websites but alot of us still rely on the old system !!!

One thing i would pursue is why it took them so long to do your booking in the first place!!!
From reading your other posts, they had taken payment before they called you, i would imagine that they had forgot to include something or that there was a prcing error somewhere meaning that by doing your booking, they would be making a loss.
I think you need to clear this bit up to be honest as to why would they take payment for something that isn't correct !!!

Whilst I can understand your dissatisfaction the cynical part of me says be as wary of the TV company as an OTB booking.

The media are not known to tell the "full story" rather focus on the negatives and making the truth fit "their version" of the truth. Ask yourself are you more concerned on getting your revenge or and so aligning yourself with a media story which is more to do with furthering someone's career, or simply getting at the truth?

OTB would seem to have done everything in accordance with their T&Cs even if they would appear to be slanted in their favour rather than the customers.

fwh

There were 4 of us going on the same holiday and I booked my, and my friends flights separately via Jet2 website, then our accommodation with TR. We paid a cheaper flight fare than our other friends due to them using an agent.

This can work both ways - I've just booked Jet2 flights to Tenerfie via Travel Republic because this was working out cheaper than booking direct on the Jet" website. I received confirmation of the booking request within minutes followed shortly after by email confirmation of the booking itself. keeping my fingers crossed though that there are no last minute changes!

SM

This can happen SMa. Budget airlines sometimes do reduce the price as well. I would never have thought so until I once checked a flight with Globespan that we'd booked previously and it was showing as cheaper. I suppose it depends on how busy the flight is

ok, I'm just wondering after reading about all these flight price increases, is there actually somewhere where we can view the same flights OTB are viewing and book direct?
If OTB say the price has gone up, where are they getting this price from? At least we might have a live flight price then!

It would depend which airline OTB were using. You could always ask 'Which airline is that with' / 'Flight price' then do you're own check on the airline's website. Then if it's cheaper book your own flight and just use OTB for accommodation (or someone else)

OTB regularly advertise Easyjet flights and as is the case with booking direct with EJ the prices increase the more flights you book.

I saw EJ flights advertised with OTB and decided to book with them in January for 24 flights, once I'd booked I received a phone call from OTB admin to advise that as they booked the flights the prices went up (in line with EJ website) I still stuck with the booking though as I was getting cashback from one of the sites by using OTB.

My gripe with them though is the extortionate amount they charge on admin fees for things such as a name change etc. It's considerably more than the actual flight website and also the airlines charge OTB an increased price for luggage charges, which they obviously pass on.

Perhaps this is why Ryanair don't allow flight consolidators to be able to book their flights through them ?