How to make sense of travel agent websites?

Voyager2002

I am just baffled: the Co-op (a brand I used to trust) has a travel agency called travelcare, and their website offers a number of attractive late deals. So I found that if you click on one that you like (eg a week in Turky at 69 pounds per adult) you end up with a price that is well over double that amount -- including a hefty surcharge for late booking! (Presumably they knew about that when they advertised it as a last-minute bargain!) Even worse is Thomsonfly -- a flight, advertised for a specific date and time at 79 pounds including taxes, mysteriously morphs into a price of 104 pounds PLUS tax plus fuel surcharge, late booking fee, with a total a tad under 200 pounds.

So my two questions: how can they get away with advertising prices that bear no relationship to what they end up charging; and has anyone found a way to make use of these websites to find a flight or holiday at a price they are willing to pay?

barron_2

Hi
Us indies pull our hair out as well,we do a search on our systems and they are nett,we dont know exact cost untill full costing is done.
We do not recieve comm from the lowcosts,(Thomsonfly etc),when we book a lowcost ,accom etc you are then covered by ATOL.
A lot of people would have found this handy recently,with the cancellation of Easyjet flights.
In some /most cases a charge is added for this,to cover admin etc.
An investigation by the OFT is ongoing to stop the tour op's from advertising low prices and then adding the add ons.
Who instigated the investigation ?
Us travel agents !!
Happy Hols