Does a travel agent have to inform you of any fees they charge before taking your money?

DullGreyGuy

eskbanker said:

isntthisfun said:

Yes of course I understand that the agent makes money - no one works for free!  My question really is whether they have to disclose this and would appear from comments that the answer is no.  

Indeed - off the top of my head I can't think of any businesses with a legal or regulatory obligation to disclose their profit margin on a given customer transaction, but even if there are any, travel agents aren't required to do so....

Those selling insurance have to advise their commission rate... obviously this is different to profit margin... but they are in a small minority of industries where this is required. Obviously for the majority you have no idea what companies are paying their suppliers and even in insurance it can be more complex as arrangements can be a basic commission percentage plus then a profit share depending on the profitability of the business 

So no, people in the travel industry don't have to say what they are getting for making the sale.

isntthisfun

thanks for your responses, even if they are rather passive aggressive....
When you book a ticket for the theatre online the booking fee is clearly stated, so thats at least one!

isntthisfun

When you buy a theatre ticket online the booking fee is clearly stated, so that's one!

Indout96

isntthisfun said:

When you buy a theatre ticket online the booking fee is clearly stated, so that's one!

Not a great example.
I find ticket for show, I pay via card, I print out my own ticket and they still charge a fee even though they did nothing (sorry one of my big bugbears in life)

Pollycat

isntthisfun said:

Ok so the whole story is a bit longer and more boring and exposes me as a total sucker.
I had indeed shopped around but was finding that flights were getting sold out as I was booking them so I was running a bit scared.

So at the time you shopped around, why didn't you see the best deal was direct with the airline?

Posters are not being passive/aggressive, just voicing honest opinions.

TELLIT01

The travel agent provided a price for the ticket and the OP accepted that price.  Whether or not they claimed it was the cheapest price available anywhere is really immaterial as that's impossible to prove.

The advice given time and again, not just on MSE but on many travel sites, is to purchase direct from the airline wherever possible.

eskbanker

eskbanker said:

isntthisfun said:

Yes of course I understand that the agent makes money - no one works for free!  My question really is whether they have to disclose this and would appear from comments that the answer is no.  

Indeed - off the top of my head I can't think of any businesses with a legal or regulatory obligation to disclose their profit margin on a given customer transaction, but even if there are any, travel agents aren't required to do so....

isntthisfun said:

When you book a ticket for the theatre online the booking fee is clearly stated, so thats at least one!

I still don't believe that there's actually a legal or regulatory obligation as such for ticket sellers to show a breakdown of the charged price, although it does seem to have become the norm in that particular sector - happy to be corrected if anyone knows of any such obligation for price transparency....

Wonka_2

isntthisfun said:

thanks for your responses, even if they are rather passive aggressive....
When you book a ticket for the theatre online the booking fee is clearly stated, so thats at least one!

Try booking said ticket through any of the plethora of resellers and see just how transparent that industry is - or maybe some Harry Styles/Taylor Swift tickets via Ticketmaster 🤣🤣