Post by Fenlander on Sept 2, 2008 9:14:09 GMT 2
Thomas Cook change flight charges
Tuesday, 02 September 2008 From the Fethiye Times
The budget airlines have been a mixed blessing to us air travellers. On the one hand they have pushed prices down and made flights more affordable to the masses, but on the other they have introduced new levels of sharp practices, hidden costs and must have extras making it difficult to compare the final costs of flights.
The latest development in this ever changing world of flight pricing can be found with Flythomascook, the company that offers year round flights to and from Dalaman airport.
When Fethiye Times recently searched their website to find out the cost of a flight from Dalaman to London we found that all flights are now priced in Euro’s. According to their website all bookings made TO the UK are now charged in Euro’s and not Pounds as they were before.
So what does that mean for ex-pats using the popular all year Dalaman to UK services of Flythomascook? More costs of course.
As bookings must now be paid in Euro’s the company are unable to accept UK cards Solo, Maestro and Switch. This is because these cards are classed as domestic cards and do not allow payments in any other currency but only Sterling. So customers must now use a credit card and incur a charge of £3.50 (Euro 4.50) per passenger per flight payable to Flythomascook.
But that’s not the only charges customers will incur. As people can now only use a credit card to make the purchase there will also be a credit card loading fee and currency conversion charge of around 5% levied by their card provider. There will also be the exchange rate fluctuations of the Euro to the Pound that change by the minute making it difficult to know how much you will ultimately pay.
We at www.fethiyetimes.com have dusted off our calculators to see what the effect of all these charges would be for two people travelling from Dalaman to London in September one-way. The tickets are a pricey Euro 417. We estimate, based on the current exchange rate that a couple would pay an additional £16 in charges - £7 to Flythomascook and £9 to the credit card company if they bought those seats.
So how can you avoid these charges? Well the bad news is you can't avoid all of them.
You can avoid the Euro 4.50 charge per person if you use a Thomas Cook credit card according to the company website but you'll still incur the credit card foreign loading and conversion charges.
If you have a Nationwide or Abbey credit card you can avoid the foreign loading and conversion charges but not the Flythomascook credit card fee.
However, you may be able to reduce some charges if you book one-way tickets out from Dalaman and then book another from the UK to Dalaman as the UK leg would be charged in Pounds.
We decided to check some other airlines to see if they were following Fythomascook's lead and we found the easyJet website also now quotes prices in Euro’s from Dalaman to London. We contacted the company to find out why they were now pricing in Euro’s. easyJet said that they do show prices in Euro’s for flights originating outside the UK because many customers want that, but that the customer has the option to change the currency back to Pounds when they are completing their booking. They can also use a UK debit card to pay reducing their transaction charges.
So next time you book a flight back to the UK make sure you read the small print to find out exactly how much your flight will cost not only for the ticket but also in credit card charges. As we have discovered airlines like to lull you in with a low headline fare only to grab some more money off you later in the booking process.
Tuesday, 02 September 2008 From the Fethiye Times
The budget airlines have been a mixed blessing to us air travellers. On the one hand they have pushed prices down and made flights more affordable to the masses, but on the other they have introduced new levels of sharp practices, hidden costs and must have extras making it difficult to compare the final costs of flights.
The latest development in this ever changing world of flight pricing can be found with Flythomascook, the company that offers year round flights to and from Dalaman airport.
When Fethiye Times recently searched their website to find out the cost of a flight from Dalaman to London we found that all flights are now priced in Euro’s. According to their website all bookings made TO the UK are now charged in Euro’s and not Pounds as they were before.
So what does that mean for ex-pats using the popular all year Dalaman to UK services of Flythomascook? More costs of course.
As bookings must now be paid in Euro’s the company are unable to accept UK cards Solo, Maestro and Switch. This is because these cards are classed as domestic cards and do not allow payments in any other currency but only Sterling. So customers must now use a credit card and incur a charge of £3.50 (Euro 4.50) per passenger per flight payable to Flythomascook.
But that’s not the only charges customers will incur. As people can now only use a credit card to make the purchase there will also be a credit card loading fee and currency conversion charge of around 5% levied by their card provider. There will also be the exchange rate fluctuations of the Euro to the Pound that change by the minute making it difficult to know how much you will ultimately pay.
We at www.fethiyetimes.com have dusted off our calculators to see what the effect of all these charges would be for two people travelling from Dalaman to London in September one-way. The tickets are a pricey Euro 417. We estimate, based on the current exchange rate that a couple would pay an additional £16 in charges - £7 to Flythomascook and £9 to the credit card company if they bought those seats.
So how can you avoid these charges? Well the bad news is you can't avoid all of them.
You can avoid the Euro 4.50 charge per person if you use a Thomas Cook credit card according to the company website but you'll still incur the credit card foreign loading and conversion charges.
If you have a Nationwide or Abbey credit card you can avoid the foreign loading and conversion charges but not the Flythomascook credit card fee.
However, you may be able to reduce some charges if you book one-way tickets out from Dalaman and then book another from the UK to Dalaman as the UK leg would be charged in Pounds.
We decided to check some other airlines to see if they were following Fythomascook's lead and we found the easyJet website also now quotes prices in Euro’s from Dalaman to London. We contacted the company to find out why they were now pricing in Euro’s. easyJet said that they do show prices in Euro’s for flights originating outside the UK because many customers want that, but that the customer has the option to change the currency back to Pounds when they are completing their booking. They can also use a UK debit card to pay reducing their transaction charges.
So next time you book a flight back to the UK make sure you read the small print to find out exactly how much your flight will cost not only for the ticket but also in credit card charges. As we have discovered airlines like to lull you in with a low headline fare only to grab some more money off you later in the booking process.
