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EDreams help

I used sky scanner to book flights recently and they sent me over to EDreams. Haven’t flown in a while so I guess i was a bit of a noob. On their site they said “add check in bags to your flight or you will be charged more by the airline”. 

So I was doing a multi city flight London>Athens>Malta>London and the check in bag cost was £45 on the first flight and £40 on the other 2. After booking with them the airliner contacted me to transfer ownership of the tickets, after I completed this I noticed that the airline charges £25 first flight and £20 on the other 2. 

On the EDreams breakdown it clearly shows the breakdown as ticket price, then a service charge of £30~ and £125 baggage. When I contacted them they just tried gaslighting me saying they never charged that much for the bags and the extra costs was because of service charges. I explained I have screenshots of everything clearly. They continued the gaslighting by saying I just didn’t understand and that there will send an invoice that clearly shows the breakdown invoice did not even show the bags, just a total cost of tickets that didn’t add up to either the bags+tickets or just tickets alone. When I highlighted this they said “can you prove we charged you £125 on your bank statement?” I asked how could I show the £125 if I paid everything together and you know that. I said I have screen shots of the whole purchase process showing they charged me that much for bags and they said they would not work with that. 

I have all the evidence laid out on screenshots as well as the fake information from their live chat. I feel like I’ve been scammed by this company and my rights surely must have been abused in this scenario. 

The question regarding my long story: where can I go to hold this third party booking company accountable? Will I be able to get my £60~(the over charge amount) refunded if I fight this? Or do I have to accept I have been tricked by an untouchable loophole?

Comments

  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,282 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    If you've chosen to buy flights through a third party agent then they're entitled to charge a different figure from what you'd pay the airline directly.
  • eskbanker said:
    If you've chosen to buy flights through a third party agent then they're entitled to charge a different figure from what you'd pay the airline directly.
    I think it basically comes down to this. You have received what you asked for and paid for at the price you agreed. You could have paid a lesser baggage charge booking direct but I presume the ticket would have been more expensive hence why you booked with eDreams in the first place? 

    Appreciate that you feel misled but did you check that the price quoted by the airline is the price to add a bag to an existing booking as sometimes they charge more after the fact. 
  • Caz3121
    Caz3121 Posts: 15,732 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I don't believe skyscanner 'sent' you to edreams...they would have just been one of the search results that you could have chosen from
    It is usual for third parties to charge service fees...they tend to entice you in with a fare maybe a few £ less than going direct to the airline on the base fare but more often than not, if you are adding extras, it will end up costing you more. I suspect if you go through the terms and conditions the info on service fees should be there.
    When booking direct with the airline you will also find they will have options for different fares and sometimes a more expensive fare that includes baggage can cost you less than the cheapest fare and adding baggage on after.
    Also worth checking if you chose a 'Prime' fare with a free 30 day Prime trial...need to cancel that to avoid being charged the £60 annual fee 30 days after booking unless you chose the "non-discounted fare"
  • eskbanker said:
    If you've chosen to buy flights through a third party agent then they're entitled to charge a different figure from what you'd pay the airline directly.
    I think it basically comes down to this. You have received what you asked for and paid for at the price you agreed. You could have paid a lesser baggage charge booking direct but I presume the ticket would have been more expensive hence why you booked with eDreams in the first place? 

    Appreciate that you feel misled but did you check that the price quoted by the airline is the price to add a bag to an existing booking as sometimes they charge more after the fact. 
    Last time I flew I just used skyscanner i just used it to compare flights. I picked EDreams from the list but the prices were a few £ different. Yeh in hindsight I’ve learned I could have paid half in baggage, but they advertised it would cost me more with the airliner so I went with it, pretty much thinking bag prices should be pretty standard booking in advance. I wasn’t chasing super cheap, just went for the first thing. Only thing that was more expensive was if I went to a different airport. I guess it sounds that misleading information and hidden fees there is nothing you can do about it. In future definitely just going directly to the airline company. Thought I would have rights like FCA or consumer rights but for flights
  • Caz3121 said:
    I don't believe skyscanner 'sent' you to edreams...they would have just been one of the search results that you could have chosen from
    It is usual for third parties to charge service fees...they tend to entice you in with a fare maybe a few £ less than going direct to the airline on the base fare but more often than not, if you are adding extras, it will end up costing you more. I suspect if you go through the terms and conditions the info on service fees should be there.
    When booking direct with the airline you will also find they will have options for different fares and sometimes a more expensive fare that includes baggage can cost you less than the cheapest fare and adding baggage on after.
    Also worth checking if you chose a 'Prime' fare with a free 30 day Prime trial...need to cancel that to avoid being charged the £60 annual fee 30 days after booking unless you chose the "non-discounted fare"
    When I say “sent” I mean I was redirected. Like I said they didn’t say service charge. If they were showing it as a service charge I could have made my purchasing decisions wiser, but they sold it as check in bags. Why would I pay for prime when I just got ripped off by the company? Everything would have been cheaper if I went direct to the airline. Lesson learned I guess
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,282 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Gary1mg said:
    Yeh in hindsight I’ve learned I could have paid half in baggage, but they advertised it would cost me more with the airliner so I went with it
    Depending on exactly how it was worded, was it possible that they were asserting that paying on the day would be more expensive than prebooking, rather than actually claiming that prebooking with Edreams would be cheaper than prebooking with the airline?  The former would be truthful....

    Gary1mg said:
    Thought I would have rights like FCA or consumer rights but for flights
    You'll have generic consumer rights, but when purchasing from a Spanish company then you'd need to establish exactly what they entail in that jurisdiction.  However, it's really just a case of 'caveat emptor' when using such companies, and if you read through other threads on here you'll see that bucket shops punting cheap flights are rarely held in high regard....
  • Caz3121
    Caz3121 Posts: 15,732 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 22 September 2023 at 4:18PM
    Gary1mg said:

    Why would I pay for prime when I just got ripped off by the company? 
    Some people end up signing up for Prime without realising. By default the fare advertised in large font is a "Prime fare" that comes with free 30 day trial, the "non-discounted fare" in in smaller text and not obvious.
    1,000s of people only discover they have selected the Prime fare when the annual fee comes out of their account after the 30 day trial expires.
    If you ignored the Prime fare and selected the higher priced non-discounted fare all will be well. If you clicked 'Select' next to the main price then you may well have signed up without realising.
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 35,363 Forumite
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    eskbanker said:
    Gary1mg said:
    Yeh in hindsight I’ve learned I could have paid half in baggage, but they advertised it would cost me more with the airliner so I went with it
    Depending on exactly how it was worded, was it possible that they were asserting that paying on the day would be more expensive than prebooking, rather than actually claiming that prebooking with Edreams would be cheaper than prebooking with the airline?  The former would be truthful....
    That's how I read it.
    eskbanker said:

    Gary1mg said:
    Thought I would have rights like FCA or consumer rights but for flights
    You'll have generic consumer rights, but when purchasing from a Spanish company then you'd need to establish exactly what they entail in that jurisdiction.  However, it's really just a case of 'caveat emptor' when using such companies, and if you read through other threads on here you'll see that bucket shops punting cheap flights are rarely held in high regard....

    eDreams are notorious on Tripadvisor with hundreds of threads with thousands of posts.
  • Indout96
    Indout96 Posts: 2,371 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I am guessing the price they quoted to add bags to the flights were if you turned up at the airport with them and paid at that point, that is the most expensive option so is the one they will use to make themselves seem cheaper. 
    Totally Debt Free & Mortgage Free Semi retired and happy
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