The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Sarah Marshal
Travellers are being warned to take seemingly bargain flight prices advertised by some online travel agents with a pinch of salt, with research by Which? revealing that their deals can be over £100 more expensive than booking directly with airlines due to ‘eyewatering’ rates for extras such as luggage and seat selection.
The watchdog carried out 28 spot price checks, comparing the amount travellers would pay on popular routes when booking directly with an airline and with online travel agents (OTAs) eDreams, Gotogate, Kiwi and Opodo.
In all cases, it was cheaper to book directly with the airline if adding on extras such as hold luggage or making a seat selection, despite the headline prices offered by OTAs often being marginally cheaper.
Which? says: ‘Worryingly, travellers are often unaware of the premium they may be paying with OTAs.’
When the watchdog carried out a survey in October of last year to understand consumers’ experiences with online booking sites, 60 per cent of those who’d used a third-party booking site to book a flight in the past two years said they were unaware that these sites could charge more for luggage than airlines do, Which? reveals.
Which? has found that certain online travel agents are charging travellers hundreds of pounds for flight extras such as luggage and seat selection, making paying the airline the cheaper choice
In one example, Which? was quoted £556 by OTA eDreams for a return flight from London Gatwick to Orlando, flying with British Airways. This was the cheapest price on offer for the route, just £2 less than if a traveller booked with British Airways directly.
Once Which? added hold luggage and chose a seat, the price quoted by eDreams shot up by £258, to £814. The same flight booked directly with BA, with the same extras, would have been £712 – a saving of £102, Which? reveals.
Similarly, a Ryanair flight from London Stansted to Athens was priced at £104 via Opodo, £3 cheaper than with Ryanair.
Once researchers added one 20kg hold suitcase, one 10kg cabin bag with priority boarding, and chose a seat, the price quoted by Opodo more than doubled, coming in at a grand total of £261.
Booking with Ryanair and making the same selections, Which? was quoted £195 – £66 less.
The watchdog notes that Ryanair has repeatedly complained about OTAs selling its flights, saying that without a commercial agreement in place, such sales are in breach of the terms of its website. In 2021, it tried to stop passengers who had been issued boarding passes by Kiwi.com from boarding, citing that to ‘comply with public health, security and safety regulations’, passengers should check themselves in personally rather than via an agent.
Today, it charges OTA customers 35 cents (31 pence) to check in online and verify their identity, or asks that they arrive at the airport early to complete verification.
In terms of stopping OTAs from selling its seats in the first place, Which? notes that Ryanair has had mixed success – last year the Paris Court of Appeal upheld a judgement to prevent the French arm of Lastminute.com selling the airline’s flights in France, but other courts have not always found in favour of the airline, often on the basis that removing the right of third parties to sell flights would be anti-competitive.
