Pay close attention to your next online reservation before clicking on the “book” button. You might be buying more than an airline ticket or hotel room. That’s what happened to reader Jody Collins when she recently bought tickets from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to New York on the Spirit Airlines Web site.
“Although I am usually very good about reading everything thoroughly, I was not expecting what occurred,” she said. ” The price given was very reasonable, and as is usually the case with airline fares, there were several entries above the total for taxes and fees. Thinking they were the usual 9/11 fees, taxes, etc., I didn’t pay attention.”
She should have. It turns out the pre-checked boxes also meant she had bought travel insurance at $12 a pop and a membership in a $9-a-month fare club.
“I immediately canceled both,” she said. “The travel insurance was refunded to us by the insurer. However, Spirit’s Web site says the $9 is nonrefundable.”
I asked Spirit to if the insurance and fare club purchase were, indeed, “opt-out” — in other words, that the site assumed customers wanted them. An airline spokeswoman, Natasha Babulal, sent me a note back: “Regarding the $9 fare club, a customer will need to opt out when they make a booking.” (No word on whether the insurance is opt-out.)
“I feel this is very deceptive and counts on purchasers doing what we did — just looking at the bottom line price and ignoring what are usually ads and promotions for other vendors that populate most Web sites these days,” said Collins. “I wonder how many people did not intend to purchase these ’services’ and, because most people don’t pay close attention even to their credit card statements, have purchased these items unintentionally, don’t know they have them, and will never use them.”
I sent Babulal a note back to see if she could ask the people at Spirit who are in charge of the Web site whether they were aware that “opt-out” options are frowned upon by customers and by the industry and whether the airline had any plans to change the way it handles sign-ups for insurance and its fare club. I haven’t heard anything back yet, but will update this post when I do.
If nothing else, Collins’ story serves as a cautionary tale for people booking their summer vacations online. Uncheck ALL boxes before clicking on the “buy” button. Read the fine print carefully. I know for a fact that Spirit isn’t the only travel site that engages in these questionable practices.
In other words, look out for opt-out traps.
Update: Apparently someone at Spirit is also concerned about the opt-out problem. I received a note from Collins on May 15, 2007: “We just heard back from Spirit today that they will be refunding our $9. They claim the refund was delayed ‘due to some technical issues.’”
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see below – Chris – cancel this comment. thanks
Hey -there is a bright side to them letting you cancel the opt-outs – they did not charge you the $100 change fee!!! hahahaha