Entropay + Opodo or eDreams

eshroom

It almost seems too good to be true...

I have made a couple of bookings on Opodo and eDreams in the last couple of days covering Ryanair, Easyjet and BA. I have signed up with Entropay and used an Entropay card each time as payment and avoided their heavy fees.

The final price paid was considerably lower than the lowest quoted aggregator and even the airline themselves. The most bizarre bit is that the airlines send through their own separate booking confirmations showing the price Opodo and eDreams have paid for the flights, and in both cases it was less!

Where is the business sense? Or am I missing something obvious?

Example - Flight from London to Copenhagen on Ryanair. Price paid to Opodo: £7.38

Price paid by Opodo to Ryanair (according to confirmation coming direct from Ryanair): £19.98

(For reference the price without Entropay was £63.50!!!)

budgetflyer

Very interesting
If thats the case then it is a worthwhile loophole, using edreams/opodo to book Ryanair/Easyjet flights, if they are selling them at an initial loss to hook customers in.

I doubt I would risk any serious amount of money with them for long haul flights as their reputation is truly horrific, however it may be worth a punt for a hundred quid or so for Ryanair or Easyjet.
Click thru via TOPCASHBACK for £9.45 (at the moment) too

Ryanair are in fact taking action against Google and Edreams as the paid advert for "Ryanair" search results at the top of the Google page is deliberately designed to fool visitors into thinking they are visiting the official Ryanair site when it is actually Edreams.

Nice to get one over them though if this loophole works :beer::j

There are also fees for loading an Entropay card - up to- 4.95% if loading via bank card. Loading via Bank Transfer is however FREE
If you have any remaining balance, you can however dump it on to an Amazon gift card emailed to your self.

FEES
Open an EntroPay Account Free
Create an EntroPay Virtual Visa Card Free
Load an EntroPay card from a personal credit or debit card 4.95%
Receive money from a merchant onto an EntroPay card 1.95%
Transfer between EntroPay Cards $0.20 / £0.10 / €0.15
Foreign exchange fee on relevant purchases 2%
Spend using an EntroPay card Free
Return money to a personal credit or debit card $ 6 / £ 3 / € 4.50
Destroy an EntroPay Virtual Visa Free

eshroom

Agree with all the above, great to get on over on them, I have also suffered in the past - booked a same day flight that didn't confirm, they rebooked me and told me it didn't confirm so I rebooked a third time direct with the airline, turned up and was told I had two bookings.

Spent hours on hold and countless talks with supervisors before I got my money back.

Just one thing to note, topping up Entropay by bank transfer is not free, it in fact costs 3.95%.

(Even bigger saving, London-Oslo return, lots of dates, 98p)

jpsartre

eshroom wrote: »

Where is the business sense? Or am I missing something obvious?

Here's my guess: It enables them to get at the top of price searches even though 99% of people won't be able to get the price due to not having the right payment method. Since a bunch of people will just make the booking anyway, that's worth the loss they make on the people who are actually able to pay with Entropay.

eshroom

That was my guess, but the aggregators seem to include their service fees (or at least some of them).

I think you're right in saying that most people won't book using Entropay and they make up the loss through the rest.

budgetflyer

It's a pity. Now I know about this, I wish this thread would disappear as once too many people do this, they will close the loophole.

There may also be an arbitrage opportunity with the likes of the £1 rtn fare to OSLO if they do pay out the £9.45 Topcashback

callum9999

It's not a new thing. I'm pretty sure its even been on here before when the usual suspects came out calling everyone morons for using dodgy sites like eDreams!

budgetflyer

I think as long as you know the risks, are willing to take a calculated punt, then its worth a go.
Fortune favours the brave etc etc
Im not sure I would risk my life savings on a special trip to OZ though.

eshroom

FWIW I am still using this method to save 25%-50% on short-haul flights. I've flown a few flights on Ryanair, BA and Aegean and all have gone without a hitch.

What is strange, and I don't know if this happens with non-entropay bookings too - I always get an e-ticket number issued by the airline (i.e. as if I booked directly through the airline, and entitling me to all the benefits of having booked direct rather than through an agent), I am therefore also able to see exactly how much more eDreams paid for the ticket than I did!

callum9999

eshroom wrote: »

FWIW I am still using this method to save 25%-50% on short-haul flights. I've flown a few flights on Ryanair, BA and Aegean and all have gone without a hitch.

What is strange, and I don't know if this happens with non-entropay bookings too - I always get an e-ticket number issued by the airline (i.e. as if I booked directly through the airline, and entitling me to all the benefits of having booked direct rather than through an agent), I am therefore also able to see exactly how much more eDreams paid for the ticket than I did!

It's nothing to do with Entropay. Any travel agent will give you the booking code with any payment method, and it doesn't give you the same benefits of booking direct - you're still likely to have to deal with the travel agent for any changes etc.

How are people using it so much though? Both eDreams and Opodo have blocked me using Entropay any more than once every 3 months or so - they even know when I make a new virtual card somehow?