EasyJet price increased DURING booking process

golddustmedia

I've just come off the phone with EasyJet as I wanted to query something which just feels wrong to me.

This morning we searched for flights for a family holiday and were shown a screen price of £658 for 7 persons (4 adults + 3 children). All happy with that we proceeded with the booking via the EasyJet website.

The booking process requires us to enter the passenger names, bank card details etc which took a few minutes to type in.

When we reached the payment page the website then told us that the price of the tickets had increased... :eek::mad::(

How can that be fair? We agreed to buy them at the first price.

Anyway, no real option on that one as the two buttons are 'Cancel' or 'Proceed'. So at that point the website declares that there was a problem processing the card and chucks us to an error page advising us to check to see if the payment was processed or not (it wasn't).

So we have to start all over again. This time the ticket prices start off higher than the first price (no surprise) but what makes me so angry is that the website AGAIN increased the price on the payment page and our final bill has increased the ticket prices (excluding baggage) by £181!!!

How on earth can this be in anyway reasonable? Even the customer service staff I spoke with agreed it wasn't morally fair.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

How can it be right to offer a customer a price, they agree to purchase and then the seller increase the price a few minutes later during the purchase process???

Easyjets formal reply is "we use a live booking process".

phatbear

imagine this you are standing looking at something in a shop which is a reasonable price and your considering buying it however prior to picking it up off of the shelf i walk past notice the bargain say "excuse me" and pick it up and go and pay for the item so am i wrong for buying it or is the shop wrong for selling it to me as you were considering buying it?

of course neither of us are wrong bottom line is you have not agreed to purchase an item until you have submitted your card details so if someone, whilst you are entering your details/making a cup of tea/watching eastenders gets in before you its fair game.

PeacefulWaters

I wonder if you'd split your booking and booked 4 seats and then 3 seats if the first 4 would have remained at the original cost per seat.

golddustmedia

phatbear wrote: »

imagine this you are standing looking at something in a shop which is a reasonable price and your considering buying it however prior to picking it up off of the shelf i walk past notice the bargain say "excuse me" and pick it up and go and pay for the item so am i wrong for buying it or is the shop wrong for selling it to me as you were considering buying it?

of course neither of us are wrong bottom line is you have not agreed to purchase an item until you have submitted your card details so if someone, whilst you are entering your details/making a cup of tea/watching eastenders gets in before you its fair game.

Except in likening my experience to a retail shop transaction I would be stood queuing at the till with the item in my hand already. In other words I wasn't as you suggest "considering" the purchase, I was actually purchasing it.

As per my original post, we had already added the flights to the basket and we actively going through the purchase process when the price was increased mid transaction.

Westin

Not wishing to rub salt into the wound but possibly by waiting 10-15 minutes after the first transaction failed you might have found the price didn't jump up again for a second time.

That first (failed) transaction may have "held" the seats from that fare bucket pushing your second enquiry transaction into a higher fare bucket. The data for that first enquiry being cached for a short period of time. If the transaction is not completed the held seats are released back and the price may have settled back to the same price as the failed check out on that first transaction.

As PeacefulWaters also points out, for a larger group it can often pay to split the reservation so that you are taking the maximum number of seats at the lower fare and the balance in the next fare bucket up. If you start with a higher number in the enquiry it will take all seats at that higher fare from the start.

e.g. 4 x £85 + 3 x £99 rather than 7 x £99.

Not much you can do except know for the next time.

Still a deal at £119 pp perhaps?

danielthomark

golddustmedia wrote: »

Except in likening my experience to a retail shop transaction I would be stood queuing at the till with the item in my hand already

Unfortunately the website doesn't know you are actually going to purchase the item until you have bought it. You could stand in a queue in Tescos and decide either to put something back, or if the queue was too long, drop all the items and walk out.

PeacefulWaters

golddustmedia wrote: »

Except in likening my experience to a retail shop transaction I would be stood queuing at the till with the item in my hand already. In other words I wasn't as you suggest "considering" the purchase, I was actually purchasing it.

As per my original post, we had already added the flights to the basket and we actively going through the purchase process when the price was increased mid transaction.

When I put the fruit and veg into my Tesco trolley it tends to take another half hour for me to reach the checkout.

The blighters have the temerity to serve other customers at the till during that time.

Alienna

Are you definitely sure it was the price of the ticket that had increased? I know from experience of booking with another low cost airline, that the 'tickets' are one price, but then you get through the booking process, and the price has risen due to taxes etc. (And then the seats, baggage...) In total, what appeared to be a £25 ticket turned into nearly £200 - that included baggage. It sucks, but I've learnt that's the way these budget airlines do this. :mad:

golddustmedia

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

When I put the fruit and veg into my Tesco trolley it tends to take another half hour for me to reach the checkout.

The blighters have the temerity to serve other customers at the till during that time.

But when you reach the till, Tesco doesn't tell you that the cucumber you picked up at 49p is now going to cost you £1 do they?

I've no objection to other customers being served, my objection is that after proceeding all the way to the final purchase page of the website Easyjet changed the price of the item I was purchasing WHILE i was purchasing it. Is that so hard to understand?

golddustmedia

Alienna wrote: »

Are you definitely sure it was the price of the ticket that had increased? I know from experience of booking with another low cost airline, that the 'tickets' are one price, but then you get through the booking process, and the price has risen due to taxes etc. (And then the seats, baggage...) In total, what appeared to be a £25 ticket turned into nearly £200 - that included baggage. It sucks, but I've learnt that's the way these budget airlines do this. :mad:

Yes, I'm certain. I've excluded baggage and other costs from my figures above. Even confirming it on the phone with customer services the actual price difference of £181 is purely the price fluctuation of the ticket over the 15 minute booking period.

tomtontom

golddustmedia wrote: »

But when you reach the till, Tesco doesn't tell you that the cucumber you picked up at 49p is now going to cost you £1 do they?

I've no objection to other customers being served, my objection is that after proceeding all the way to the final purchase page of the website Easyjet changed the price of the item I was purchasing WHILE i was purchasing it. Is that so hard to understand?

I had this happen to me last week. When I picked up the item (Tropical Solero ) it was on offer, by the time I got to the till the offer had finished. Prices have to change at some point, there's no guarantee that will not be during the time the goods are in your basket.

I chose not to purchase BTW - we are all free to make that choice before acceptance occurs.