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Drip-priced charges on travel booking site muddled up total fare

  • 2015.12.15

Nowadays, many consumers have found the habit to search online for flight offers and purchase tickets from travel booking sites.  The Consumer Council examined 8 travel booking sites with the Hong Kong travel agent licence and found that airfares are displayed distinctly different.  Behind the headline rates blurredly listed are taxes and transaction fees, while some even include pre-selected provisions. Certain websites only display the handling fee after purchasers have inputted their credit card details.  It is hard for consumers to tell the exact amount of total fare and could easily pay unnecessary charges inadvertently.   

For consumer protection, the Council urges the travel booking sites to improve their practice in displaying airfare immediately.  The total costs inclusive of taxes or other charges should be clearly listed for meaningful comparisons by consumers.  In addition, optional extras should not be pre-checked and unfair terms removed for consumers to purchase in a fair environment. 

Among all 8 travel booking sites surveyed, search results of the airfares were shown consistently in ascending order of their prices.  Labels like “the cheapest” or “the best deal” were marked next to the top listed options in some sites to attract consumers' attention.  Nevertheless, 4 surveyed sites displayed fares in their net value without including fuel surcharge, airport and government duties and other charges.  Consumers have to complete the entire booking process before knowing the exact final price.

Such “drip pricing” approach is not uncommon and could be misleading.  For instance, on one website, top of the search results of airfares from Hong Kong to Toronto was offered at $6,958 and the next offer was $10,155.  The top listed offer looked as if cheaper but actually taxes and surcharges totalling $6,061 were not included.  When airfare, taxes and surcharges all added up, the final fare of this top-listed offer was $13,019.  For the second one on the list, when taxes and surcharges were summed, total fare was found to be in fact cheaper at $12,240.   

Not only should consumers beware of the dripping price, they should also watch out for the pre-selected optional items.  4 of the sites surveyed imposed pre-selected charges in shopping carts, such as travel insurance, pocket Wi-Fi set, travel kit and even ticket guarantee to protect against bankruptcy of the airline.  Consumers have to uncheck every one of these optional extras before making a payment should they found them not needed.  These optional extras are generally non-refundable once paid.

5 of the surveyed indicated fee information as “airfare” and “taxes and surcharges” only without providing breakdown on “taxes and surcharges”.  Consumers are unable to find out the exact amount and breakdown for taxes and the amount for surcharges.  Only 1 site has clearly stated the amount of transaction fee and its calculation.  Another 2 sites would display the transaction fee only after a consumer has inputted credit card information. 

Moreover, 6 of the surveyed have included provisions in terms and conditions to reserve rights to make alterations unilaterally.  That is to say, even when payments all settled and confirmation received,  these booking sites could still change prices or even cancel the transactions at any time.  The Council found such provisions unreasonable and deeply unfavourable to consumers.  These unfair provisions should be removed. 

It should also be displayed prominently for circumstances that the tickets could not be issued due to operational constraints or any other possible reasons.  Consumers can then evaluate the risks before choosing to purchase from the booking site. 

The Council received a complaint case where the complainant was asked  to pay additional fare of over ten thousand dollars before tickets would be officially issued.   The case was eventually settled following the Council’s conciliation and the booking site agreed to refund additional charges.  However, the Council believed that there are many more cases where consumers chose to settle the unexpected add-on charges to avoid affecting the planned travel.  Even when some decided to cancel the travel arrangement, they had to wait for 3 to 6 months before payments were refunded. 

To avoid unpleasant experience when purchasing from the travel booking sites, consumers are advised of the following precautions:

  • Spend time to shop around among sites and compare total fare of the same airline and flight;
  • If the airfare is similar, it is considered to make a booking via airlines’ official website to avoid additional administration fee to travel booking sites because of cancellation or change of date;
  • Connecting flights are usually cheaper than direct flights, but beware of taxes and surcharges the airport would charge and take that into account when comparing fare offers; 
  • Before confirming your payment, read carefully terms and conditions of the travel booking site. Should there be any unfavourable provisions, consider patronizing another site. 

The Consumer Council reserves all its right (including copyright) in respect of CHOICE magazine and Online CHOICE (https://echoice.consumer.org.hk/).