Daytrip ripoff -Beware of booking on Stenaline's website

mistarurdd

I travel two or three times a year to the Republic of Ireland. I am due to travel tomorrow. I remembered seeing on their website that the daytrip price was £24.
When i went to book the tickets on Friday as day returns to Dun Laoghaire they had risen to in excess of £40 each!
I assumed that this was because i was booking closer to the departure date (I checked for day trip price for a fortnight's time and that was £40 as well) so i booked tickets for two adults and a child as a total cost of £132.
I visited their site tonight to check that the sailing was going to leave and discover that there is a daytrip button/option. This even if i booked tonight for the same sailings, same people etc would cost me £60 i.e. availability and booking early have nothing to do with it. No discount codes were needed, and the terms are the same i.e. both are economy day return tickets on the same sailings for the same people on the same ship.
The urls are here
http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/day-trips/dun-laoghaire/ (cheap one)
http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/routes/holyhead-dun-laoghaire/

Is this legal/permissible under UK/EU Distance Selling legislation? i.e. is it worth my while discussing this with the Ferry operator. I just feel charging in excess of 100% more for exactly the same service is a bit of a ripoff

pennylane99

says from £24

are you driving?...the £24 fare is for foot passengers

mistarurdd

yup, we are foot passengers.

richardw

mistarurdd wrote: »

Is this legal/permissible under UK/EU Distance Selling legislation?

they don't apply to transport

briona

Oh yawn! Not another "rip off" thread. :rolleyes:

As pennylane has pointed out, it says "prices from £24" which you can take to mean some seats are £24, others are higher. You'll find the same thing with buses and trains. And the chunnel. And let's not forget airfares – you could find yourself sitting on a flight beside someone who had paid 1p (plus taxes) for the same flight you paid £40 (plus taxes) for. It's called supply and demand!

As for the fares in a fortnight's time, that coincides with half term (I think) so it's quite conceivable that the fares will be higher than the £24 advertised.

mistarurdd

@ Briona! If you had taken the time to read the post or check the links. You would have seen that the tickets were available for £24. I am able to read and would not have posted another "yawn" thread without checking my facts first.

No, Supply and demand and airline tickets, really! I even stated in the original post that i would understand if this differential was because as the site states "booking well in advance can save a lot of money on fares". The price had not changed for these sailings from the Friday through till the Sunday evening (both fares). There was - apparently - availability of both, this is one of the world's largest super-ferrys noy an Airbus 320. Maybe this would be the case in the Summer Holidays. Not on a trip in the second week in October.

So for emphasis (if you had even bothered to get this far). The tickets were available for £24. I could have bought the same ticket for the same service for the same sailings, for the same date for £60 or £132 depending on whether i selected the normal booking method (which the site leads you toward) or the day trip link.

Gavioli_UK

I always get a web price and the a telephone price from the ferry companies.

P & O price is regularly a little less on a telephone booking (which is only valid for the duration of the call), and I have been offered deals on meals not on the website.

Hopefully Stena's call centre would have pointed you to the best deal for a day trip.

withabix

The two tickets have different Terms & Conditions.

There has been NO Rip Off here. Stena didn't force you to buy the expensive tickets - you did it all by yourself.

You made a mistake and chose to book flexible, cancellable, refundable tickets which also allow you to take luggage.

The £24 tickets are not flexible, non-refundable and you are not allowed luggage.

This is no different to booking flights, train tickets, etc etc etc etc

mistarurdd

Thank you Withabix and Gavioli.
I shall proceed to take a lot of needlesss luggage with me to get some value out of this then!

meema

Hi Mistarurdd,
Thanks for you post..it's good to know that a genuine query will result in !!!!!y replies, it will certainly make me think twice about posting questions. Anyway, I'm travelling to Ireland soon & will watch out for the day trip fare!

meema

I can't believe this site edits the word !!!!!.