Have you verified Nico’s claims? There’s A LOT of bad press floating around the internet about eDreams – and it’s possible I may yet become another victim of the old Bait and Switch.

I’m based in the UK and they are based in Spain – they’ve already charged my credit card for their “fees” (~£20), but they appear to be holding the flight reservation ransom for a higher price. What are the chances I’ll get the fees back?

I am the New Media Marketing Manager of eDreams, a leading European online travel company with 10 years of experience serving millions of customers. I am quite concerned by your article in which you describe eDreams in an unfortunate and incorrect manner. We have reviewed internally the incident you mention and the reality is far from what you describe.

The customer in question tried to book a flight and during the reservation process included a special request asking for “kosher food and a window seat”. As was clearly explained, immediately, in our follow-up email to her, eDreams would not charge her for the ticket until we were able to confirm that everything she requested was available exactly at the price she saw on our website.

Because of her special request, we were unable to process the booking automatically as we generally do. Once we were able to confirm her additional requirements, the original price was no longer valid due to airline conditions, not eDreams. This was extremely unfortunate as we vastly prefer, and pride ourselves on our ability to offer customers the lowest flight prices. But, as was explained in the follow-up email she had received, if there is a delay in our ability to confirm a request, prices can expire; in which case we will follow up with the customer and obtain their consent before charging anything that is different to what they had agreed.

With the original price expired, our customer service team then offered the client the next best price available (€592) but instead she preferred to cancel the reservation, which of course was done with no charges applied. Just to be clear, had there been no special request none of this would have happened and the booking would have been confirmed within minutes at the original €337 price.

Our call center agents are readily available to help all clients with their queries, via phone or email. eDreams has nearly 10 million customers who trust in our service, and our main goal is to always offer the best service with the best prices. For this reason, I would really appreciate if in the future you could confirm with a company the full details and veracity of the information you’ve written prior to publication.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kindest regards.

Nico Bour
nico@edreams.com

Companies exist for the purpose of providing a product or service to the CONSUMER. The consumer does not exist to provide for the business, as much as many CEOs would like to believe. With technology these days every travel site in the world should be able to know within seconds that a certain company has changed it’s prices or availability. I read a story in the WSJ some 10 years ago that said 6 modern computers of today (10 years ago) had more computing power than the entire Russian nuclear missile defense system as built. in 10 years we’ve come even further and there really is no excuse for businesses these days to hide behind some technology excuse.

Always go on-line within 24-48 hours to check your credit card statement.

If your browser freezes up call the agency and see if it went through before trying again. Take down the name of the operator/customer service rep. It’ll save you heartburn later.

One of the reasons I book my flights exclusively with AA.com is because I know their policies and I have experienced those policies to be in comformity with business ethics including fares decreasing after I’ve placed a ticket on hold. And, when I purchase a ticket, it is crystal clear how much the final price will be. I would note that Chris has yet to right a column about someone purchasing a ticket from AA.com and having issues.

But…given people don’t care about the details except results, also oh well…we’ll all deal with it somehow…

The burden of proof shouldn’t be on the victim but on the company that engages in these practices.

Generally speaking, isn’t it the burden of the one making the claim to demonstrate it? Generally speaking, anyway.

What you subsequently commented, though, is what I was about to add to what Chris wrote. Namely, don’t expect the price to stay that way until it’s booked on the spot, and (knock on wood) no sorry-there-was-a-problem-and-we-need-to-charge-more email within 24 hours after.

It’s sad that some cases like that happen, especially with either certain travel agencies and/or airlines that intend to do that. Of course, it ain’t easy to figure that out, so we’re pretty much left to fend for ourselves.

As you said, $600 is expensive. But as you added, $600 might be also be a reasonable price considering the costs involved.

From what I’ve gathered from some airline folks, they’re quite aware of that. GIven they can’t always afford to lower those prices, next best thing was to give lower fares with more restrictions.

If it’s any consolation, your price frustration is shared by various travel agents (including me) experiencing the same thing when trying to book for their customers. I guess we just hardly hear them speak up on it as we might be seen as trying to bite the hand that tries to feed them.

I can also understand the sentiment behind Mr. Bainbridge’s comment of being grateful affordable fares exist, given it’s indeed subjective. I partially agree with it, actually, but I also guess the more politically correct word might be “lower”.

Ah well, words, words.

Alex Bainbridge’s comment that “[p]eople should…be grateful that affordable flights exist” is ridiculous. A potential customer makes a decision to purchase a product based on the price. The price of a flight is the price of the flight. The customer decides if he or she considers the flight worth the money. The company decides on the price based on their costs. An airline doesn’t say, “Oh well, we are only going to charge $300 for a transatlantic flight because we want it to be affordable. We don’t care that we will lose money every time we fly.” The airline calculates its costs and decides on pricing based on what it takes to cover those costs—and ideally make a profit. Personally, I consider the purchase of a $600 transatlantic airline ticket expensive because it is a large purchase for me. Who is the airline to tell me it is “affordable”? Now, I might think $600 is a reasonable price based on fuel costs, equipment costs, et cetera, but it is still an expensive purchase—in fact it is usually the biggest ticket item of my vacation. If airline tickets cost more, fewer people would fly. If fewer people fly and the airlines make a profit, then that seems like a reasonable strategy for an airline. But if an airline can’t make a profit because fewer people fly, then airlines need to change their prices. “Affordability” is a nice marketing term, but its meaning depends on the individual. My response: “Get real, Mr. Bainbridge, and make the necessary changes to provide accurate pricing at time of purchase!”

I call the CO help desk, and the person on the phone informs me that my purchase won’t go through because the flights were full. (She later mentions that CO and DL are about to break their codeshare agreement, so the availability information is all messed up.) I get ready to get upset, but then she offers me a “real” CO itinerary that is slightly better than the DL setup for the same fare; I take it. (No booking fee, I also end up with seats normally reserved for “elite” flyers for pre-book, which is good, because otherwise all four flights are showing ZERO seats avail. for assignment.)

The thing I am most pleased about is that this particular set of convenient flights is going for about $250 more if I tried to book it myself; only that DL codeshare was showing up at the cheap fare. I am glad CO didn’t just try to raise the price on me since the flights they were advertising were full (or not working.)

SirWired