An article in the Sunday Times has claimed that while many airlines and travel agents advertise prices inclusive of all the extra airport and airlines fees, not all of them do.
“Why do travel agents punt deceptive ticket prices when none of the so-called ‘taxes’ are negotiable?” writes Megan Power in the article ‘Advertised price is a flight of fancy’ in the December 1 issue of the newspaper.
“A typical way to con consumers on the price is for airlines to advertise in bold only the basic fare. The real cost of the ticket is buried in tiny print, despite being a significant portion of the costs, usually adding thousands to the advertised price.”
Group solutions optimisation manager of Sure Travel in South Africa, Abigail Pires, agrees it is an issue, saying that despite advertising standards there are still agencies and consortium groups that advertise prices without taxes included.
“This is obviously a practise to lure clients in with a lower price than what other agents are advertising. The client is in for the shock when the taxes are added on the final quote. This creates a very bad impression of the entire travel trade in the public eye, which isn’t good for any of us,” she says.
In the Sunday Times article, Megan names Thai Airways and Thompsons Holidays as being guilty of this.
PR and media manager of Cullinan Outbound Tourism, John Ridler, says the operator is surprised by the assertions in the Sunday Times. He says that in all of Thompsons Holidays' adverts the taxes are clearly visible and they have not received any complaints with regards to this. “Thompsons is currently taking the matter up with the Sunday Times,” he adds.
Thai Airways did not respond to eTNW’s request for comment.
Asata has clear advertising guidelines in place for these issues, put together with the Advertising Standards Authority in 2006, says industry affairs specialist, Karen Strydom.
Guidelines for the travel industry say that all advertising must state the fully inclusive price of the package or the total cost of the ticket, including base cost of the air ticket, VAT, fuel levies, airport taxes, aviation and security taxes, government-imposed taxes, travel agent service fees, any other cost that the consumer is required to bear in order to purchase the product advertised and any port taxes or forced gratuities in the case of cruise inclusive packages. “Where it is impracticable to include such costs, the consumer’s liability to pay such costs must be stated prominently and in a font size of not less than half that of the purchase price,” she says.
She adds that there have been no travel industry complaints addressed to the Advertising Standards committee with regard to advertising of travel-related products and prices thereof.
