Holidaymakers Booking a Flight through
a UK Website Are Likely To Be
Charged More
Unwitting British travellers could end up forking out more holiday spending money if they book on an airline’s UK website instead of their overseas one.
Research carried out by the Observer newspaper discovered that flights typically cost more and customers are less likely to be offered a special deal.
“With the pound still not particularly strong against the euro or the dollar, British holidaymakers are trying to get their finance for travel to stretch as far as possible,” said Andrew James, spokesperson for Bad Credit Loans 4 You, a UK finance specialist at sourcing holiday credit and bad credit holiday loans.
“It’s astonishing to think that even though you are booking the same flight through the same company and in the same manner, one could actually cost less travel cash than the other.”
Customers who used the UK sites for Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines all noticed a discrepancy in prices.
In an attempt to discover if this was accurate, an Observer journalist tried to book a return trip from London Heathrow to Chicago via United Airlines website.
The roundtrip in mid-April was available for around £436 before taxes on the American-based united.com, but would cost £465 of UK travel money on the unitedairlines.co.uk website.
However, this was not the only difference which was found between the two representative sites.
United.com also indicated a large amount of availability throughout the economy cabin, with additional seats in an ‘economy plus’ section which offered additional legroom for a $99 premium.
Unitedairlines.co.uk showed fewer seats available on the same flight and had no economy plus category.
“Some may feel aggrieved to discover that a cheaper holiday credit option is being offered to others just because they live outside of the UK.”
United admitted 'fares may differ on occasion' between countries, but backed up its service by stating that fares were consistent within the UK.
“We offer the same low fares via UK travel agencies as we offer via unitedairlines.co.uk,” said a spokesperson for the company.
Kate Stinchcombe-Gillies, head of communications at holiday property website Holidaylettings.co.uk, complained when she found a special offer on internal flights in New Zealand was available on the airline's airnewzealand.co.nz website but not on airnewzealand.co.uk.
“My husband's a Kiwi, so instinctively he looked at the New Zealand site and noticed the deal,” said Mrs Stinchcombe-Gillies.
“That site wouldn't take a booking from the UK so we telephoned the airline, explained the problem, and then got the deal via the telephone booking.”
A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand in Auckland said it always tries to offer the lowest fares to passengers, no matter where they depart from or how they book their flights.
Bradley Knight of Vast Construction, a London building company, similarly saved hundreds of pounds on the US version of Virgin Atlantic's website.
He was looking to book a flight from London to Las Vegas, along with internal flights to Florida using virgin-atlantic.com.
“I booked most of it on Virgin,” said Mr Knight. “Had I paid in sterling and booked on Virgin Atlantic's UK website I'd have spent about £1,400.”
“But because I used a US debit card that I kept in business since living in America, I got the whole journey in the premium economy class for £700.”
A spokesperson for Virgin said; “Prices can differ between countries at different ends of a route because market conditions vary and also because of changes in currency values over time.”
The Civil Aviation Authority backed up the price discrepancies but stating that carriers routinely used separate marketing strategies in different countries.
“Britons may be affected more than others because of the almost complete deregulation of air fares in this country, introduced some years ago to create more competition.”
“Not every country has such complete deregulation,” it said.
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~Ends~
Notes for Editor:
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Loans 4 You of London Ltd
Innovation Centre
Monks Brook
PO30 5WB
United Kingdom
Tel: 0800 011 4503
Bad Credit Loans 4 You was formed in order to ensure people with bad credit had access to specialist help in securing the bad credit loans they need, including holiday spending money and holiday loans.
From its UK head office in Monks Brook, Loans 4 You operates across Britain, sourcing bad credit loans for people with bad credit.
Bad Credit Loans 4 You holds a Consumer Credit Licence issued by the Office of Fair Trading.
Bad Credit Loans 4 You is also covered by the Financial Ombudsman.
Bad Credit Loans 4 You is also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for Data Protection.
