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Surcharges and Taxes, The Hidden Cost of Travel
Surcharges and taxes, the hidden cost of travel, is a reality for most travellers these days.
You know the feeling. You chooser that £2 flight to Hong Kong, then by the time you’ve spent half your life going through the booking interrogation, including where you were awarded your 50 yards breast-stroke certificate, the final price is suddenly £595. Clever pricing has seemingly created extras for every conceivable service that an airline might have once offered as part of its package, especially the budget boys.
Now, okay, they use the argument that they are giving the customer what they want, the very cheapest, no frills service. Yet increasingly, some of these frills seem an integral part of the service. Charging extra for having luggage that goes into the hold, charging extra for checking in, or charging extra for being over 30 (only joking), seems verging on the outrageous.
And so outraged were our parliamentarians, that at the end of the year, new rules will be in place forcing airlines to come clean on what the price quoted includes. Europe has ruled that passengers must be able to see, plainly and clearly, all the extras that they will be expected to pay. This applies whether you are reading a newspaper advertisement, an online site, or a brochure.
But its not only airlines of course.
Most holidays, or packages that have been pre-booked, can be liable to surcharges. Tour operators can quite legitimately add 10% to their prices, after having taken your original money; this right is enshrined in European law. But there are a couple of important things for you to remember. It can be no more than a 10% increase and the operator must make the extra charge no later than 30 days before your departure.
They also must have applied to the Association of British Travel Agents (“ABTA”), for permission and already this year, some 20 operators already have applied for the right to impose surcharges and taxes.
Reasons are usually the weak pound against the euro, or higher fuel costs, making the holiday more expensive for the operator to put together. Okay, they might have a point, but passing the grief along to their customers should be handled diplomatically at least.
Of course, some diligent checking is needed to check whether your operator has done such a thing, but it might be worth contacting ABTA to see who’s applied and therefore, who might be thinking about it.
If your operator hasn’t followed those rules, and your operator’s surcharges are more than 10%, then you can cancel the holiday and request a refund.
Surcharges and taxes, the hidden cost of travel, is hard to avoid, but at least your flight costs will soon be more transparent and your holiday is protected from anything above a 10% increase. Perhaps the best thing is to impose your own 10% surcharge on your holiday and if the fateful letter arrives, give it up to your operator, but if it doesn’t, you’ve got more spending money.
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