Travel Republic Flight Bookings

brogsy

Has anyone had any dealings with travelrepublic.co.uk? I have just had a problem as described below in my email to them. Seems their practice is to lock you into a deal by booking your hotel and then automatically emailing to say the flight price has gone up. This practice and followed by poor service resulted in me paying another £207.75 for my flights and having to book them myself to make sure we actually got the flights, also to protect against further price increases. Any feedback appreciated as I can see this complaint running to ABTA.

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Further to my previous note above, here are the details of my complaint. On 31st July I booked a hotel and flight package at a total cost of £1854.05. After the booking I received an automated message to say that the flight price had gone up by £170.25. Since this was an automated message and £170.25 appears to be the taxation amount, you appear to be operating a system whereby you take bookings based on the net flight amount and after charging for the hotel, automatically send your customers an email telling them the flight cost has gone up, leaving them no alternative but to agree to the higher amount. It gets worse. When I reluctantly confirmed because I had no choice (within 30 minutes of your automated email on 31st July) that you may book the flights for me at the higher price, you failed to respond in a timely manner and I had to phone on 1st August to ask what was going on. I found that the flights had still not been booked. Your operative told me that your bookings department were very busy but would book the flights as soon as possible. This morning 2nd August I recieved an email saying my enquiry would be dealt with within 2 working days, clearly an unacceptable timescale in the circumstances. I therefore booked flights myself with Ryanair at a cost of £948.30, an increase of another £37.30. So I have paid £2061.80 for a package you offered me at £1854.05, an increase of £207.75. I require a refund from you of £207.75 within the next 7 days. If I do not have a refund of £207.75 within that time I will register a complaint with ABTA.

Pollycat

Quick! Quick! Quick!

Edit your post to take out your personal details. :eek:

leylandsunaddict

Travel Republic don't operate either live availability or live prices. Firstly you didn't book a package at a total cost of £1854.05. They offered you a flight at one price, and the accommodation at another, with the proviso that until you had a confirmation from them the elements hadn't been confirmed.

Flight prices fluctuate all the time, and there should be no big surprise when a flight comes back at a different price to that shown on their website.

Why didn't you just cancel the flight you had booked with them when they came back with the higher price, and then book direct with an airline? If the flights still haven't been booked just ask for your money back now.

brogsy

I have edited my post for the comfort of Pollycat! Those details are publicly available on the internet in various places so I am not careful about them.

Thanks for the informatin leylandsunaddict. The reason I didn't cancel the flight with them immediately is that I took the view that I booked a hotel and flight package with them and didn't wish to use my time doing something I thought I had contracted them to do. They offered to book it at the higher price and I felt I had no option. But two days later they still hadn't booked the flight for me so I had to do it myself to protect against further price increases. I have not come across this 'price up' process before. I would expect to see something a bit clearer during the booking process if the flight price is not confirmed in this age of live flight prices on airline websites. It concerns me that their automated system (email sent to me within seconds of the payment being made online and outside of their office opening hours of 8-8) can alert me that the flight price has gone up but yet they are not displaying live flight price at the point of booking which would be an easy screen scrape from Ryanair web. Smacks of sharp practice to me.

Pollycat

brogsy wrote: »

I have edited my post for the comfort of Pollycat! Those details are publicly available on the internet in various places so I am not careful about them.

Not for my comfort at all! :cool:

I just thought I was doing you a favour, you ungrateful git.
I'm obviously much more careful with my personal details than you are.

It would serve you right if you got inundated with spam texts and emails.

Caz3121

Always better booking direct with Ryanair
see point 2
http://www.ryanair.com/en/terms-of-use

richardw

What do the terms and conditions that you may have agreed to say about rising no frills airline prices ?

Caz3121

Airline bookings with specific airlines listed in Appendix 1 The service we provide for you in respect of a booking directly with the specific airlines listed in Appendix 1 is a different service to that we provide for the sale of other airline tickets. These special terms apply to that service
In these cases we will search the relevant airline database, and then, if you choose to buy, will purchase the flight seats on your behalf directly from the airline.

Ryanair is in Appendix 1 so it does say you are not booking them - it is like queueing a request. I would expect in many cases the cost when they "search the database...eg look on the Ryanair website" will be different to what they show on their own website

brogsy

thanks for the info, I have now received a small refund from TravelRepublic but no explanation as yet so not sure what the refund represents, I think probs a goodwill gesture.

brogsy

[FONT=&quot]Here is the explanation, just arrived by email. There are plenty of other sites showing the live/correct Ryanair flight prices so would like to know what is really going on here but will probs not find the time to follow it up. Will just remember in future to check more carefully whether I am booking a package with flights or not. Thanks for the useful comments.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your recent correspondence.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Firstly, I would like to apologise for any upset or inconvenience caused in regards to your flight arrangements[/FONT][FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]When making a booking online on our website, we do advise that your reservation request is not confirmed until a confirmation email has been sent. As we do work from a live system, the current price and availability that is supplied by the provider, is displayed. The price and availability however can change at any time, and it therefore is possible that either can change between the time that the booking is requested, and the time that the booking ‘runs’ in the provider’s booking system.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Unfortunately, this is the situation that occurred on this occasion, and the flight provider did increase the price of the flight requested.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]On the rare occasion that this situation does occur, we will offer you the choice of paying the additional to secure the reservation, or to receive a refund of the sum paid.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I can see that you did request to pay the additional sum required however the delay in actioning this lead to your cancellation of the flight booking.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I do apologise for the dissatisfaction felt on this occasion. Customer service is extremely important to Travel Republic and if there is an occasion when our service does not meet our customers’ expectations, it is important that we are made aware of this. I am particularly grateful for the time and trouble you have taken to make us aware of your experience. Your comments will be made available to the business areas that caused you to raise your concerns as they will help minimise the chances of similar incidents arising in the future.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Unfortunately on this occasion Travel Republic will be unable to refund you the amount requested. As stated previously the price and availability can change at any time, and it therefore is possible that either can change between the time that the booking is requested, and the time that the booking ‘runs’ in the provider’s booking system. As a gesture of goodwill however I have issued a 5% discount voucher for a future accommodation booking made through Travel Republic. [/FONT]

leylandsunaddict

Ryanair flights should never be booked via a third party as Ryanair forbid the sale of their flights that way, and reserve the right to cancel bookings that are.
Any third party that advertise Ryanair flights are screenscraping, so their price is only correct at that point in time. It could still change before they actually make the booking on Ryanairs website.

Whenever you use a third party, especially the OTAs, make sure you read the conditions before accepting them.