Comments on: Travel consumers complain at holiday surcharges

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:10:55 +0000

I have booked a honeymoon with BVI holidays and after paying my deposit around the middle of last year. 11 days before the balance is due I am told I have to pay an extra £660 because of the change in the exchange rate. The total cost of our honeymoon when I booked was less than £2500. Is this fair?

By: Currency 101 - Hedging vs surcharges for travel products (Musings on travel ecommerce)

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:39:15 +0000

[...] know that surcharges are seen as very unpopular – Travel Rants recently wrote about surcharges from the consumer perspective – and listed the 15 UK companies that the UK trade organisation ABTA have so far permitted to add [...]

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By: Lee Harrison( Owner Select World Travel)

Lee Harrison( Owner Select World Travel) — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:53:06 +0000

Q.I did not mention that any companies charging over 10% would mean that consumers would be able to cancel their holiday – but would they get their money back if the holiday is not within the cancellation period?
A. If the Surcharge at any time rose above the 10%, then yes clients are entitled to cancel with full refund.

Darren’s statement “Consumers aren’t going to cancel a holiday if ti means that they do not get a refund, so saying that they can cancel the holiday is not very helpful at all.”

A. See original post and answer above.

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By: Penny Bateman

Penny Bateman — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:51:11 +0000

Surcharges are unfair – fact. But is it really a fact?
Look at it another way – you book a hire car with one of the 15 abta companies in November 2007, for a holiday in May 2008. Let’s say the cost of the car is £100 and they invoke the full 10% surcharge – you end up paying £110.
Book the same car on line, in Euros in November for payment when you arrive in May, the cost is 143Euros and you calculated that cost to be £100 (the exchange rate was 1,4355 in Nov). When you actually come to pay for the car in May the charge on your credit card will be around £118 – I have just checked a credit card statement where I got an exchange rate of 1,2245.
So, even paying a surcharge, you are better off paying the Tour Operator in Sterling.
And, no, at Aspects of Spain we are not currently charging any surcharges. And yes, we have in the past given our clients the benefit of good exchange rates, by offering great late deals that would otherwise have been impossible.
There are two sides to every coin….

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By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:13:18 +0000

@ Lee

I did not mention that any companies charging over 10% would mean that consumers would be able to cancel their holiday – but would they get their money back if the holiday is not within the cancellation period?

I guess not, but maybe you could clarify.

I didn’t mention this because I was informed that it’s very unlikely that any company would charge more than 10%, this actually came from ABTA.

Consumers aren’t going to cancel a holiday if ti means that they do not get a refund, so saying that they can cancel the holiday is not very helpful at all.

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