Cruises

This blog has highlighted its fair share of travel consumer issues and in the background I have helped a lot of consumers resolve their complaints with companies. I receive 30-50 emails a week from consumers asking for advice and that’s from a one-man run blog that reaches out to only 2,000 people daily.

Big issues that need resolving

There are some huge issues like the complexity of holiday protection and increase in air passenger duty and I wonder if these types of issues could be fought with more weight behind, if the industry and consumers came together.

Creation of an authority group on travel

What about a group made up of a mixture of consumers, industry people from tour ops, independent agents, travel media, and PR etc? Am I being realistic here? I do wonder if my head is in the clouds, when I get ideas like this hit me.

Would the government and travel associations sit down with such a group and discuss issues.

So much confusion in travel

There is so much confusion about what is a package and DIY holiday nowadays, especially when travel agents are selling both. I know by the emails that I receive that booking a holiday is no longer as simplistic as it used to be.

Your thoughts appreciated

I am not suggesting that the group discusses every single issue that consumers have; I also know a lot of the issues are down to government changes. I read a lot of news feeds that tell me that companies want to simplify protection and abolish air passenger duty, but how serious are they, or is just PR talk.

So, I thought I would open this up to consumers and the industry folk to discuss.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

UK travel industry needs a travel consumer group

As a solo traveller myself I get very annoyed, very quickly, when a fellow solo traveller has to pay a single person supplement and then is put into a single room, it’s should be stopped. I am sure they think because we are travelling alone we will put up with the lowest standard of accommodation.

Single room, but charged single supplement

When I travelled on my own for the first time on a package holiday to Benidorm, the same happened to me. I paid a single person supplement and then was thrown in a hotel room that you could not swing a cat in, not that I suggest you do that.

Why do tour operators think that they can get away with this? They also don’t like to call it a single person supplement anymore, it’s under occupancy. It’s the same, and like that makes it fair. I understand charging this if you are in a room for two people, but not in a single room.

Share your experiences

I was only 19 when it happened to me, and if it happened again I would demand that I was put into a standard sized room. Have you paid a single person supplement and then found yourself in a single room? Please share your solo traveller experiences in the comments.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Charged under occupancy but put into single room

The ‘ask Mr Rants’ feature has been incredibly popular and in the last couple of months I have published a number of travel consumer guides based on the number of emails that I receive from consumers. I wanted to share a few of those guides with you so you can bookmark for future use.

Here are five of the popular guides published.

» Driving abroad advice and car hire tips
» How to protect your holiday
» How to make a travel complaint
» Travel tips for solo travellers
» Skiing holiday tips and ski safety advice

You can rate each guide so I know which ones have to be improved, and of course please leave any suggestions for other consumer’s guides that you would like me to feature. My frequently asked travel questions page includes solutions to a lot of the questions that I receive.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Bookmark my travel consumer guides

Today I decided I would get my act together and start to research the prices for my flight to New York in June, so I fired up the browser and started to use a number of comparison sites including Kayak, Travel Supermarket and newcomer Zugu to see what my options are.

No unique flight comparison site

What I realised as I was using these sites is that all of them use the same partners and the experience of searching for a flight is the same. Prices were different, some differences were extreme, and so it felt like I needed a comparison site to compare the comparison sites.

Book direct with the airline

This got me wondering if we have too many flight comparison sites and are consumers just best to go to the airline that they know flies from their preferred airport. I suspect most consumers start off with a search on Google and then they may come across tons of comparison sites.

Another growing problem is that the low cost airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet do not want their prices to be compared on these sites. You only have to look at insurance company Direct Line that is using the fact that they aren’t on comparison sites as a unique selling point.

As one consumer said to me today, many of the comparison sites are just baffling.

Need to take into consideration airline extras

Another thought is that these sites aren’t really comparing the exact price of a flight because they do not take into consideration the additional extras like payment and check-in fee’s that airlines now charge consumers, and for me, a site that includes this information, will get my search every time.

Your opinion on flight comparison websites

I would love to read your opinion on comparison sites, do you use them, and are they useful to you when searching for the best priced flight. Do you think that there are now too many of them or do you just stick to using one particular comparison site or book direct with the airline?

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Thoughts on flight comparison and how useful for consumers

The airlines are having a laugh at our expense. Last week I booked a flight from Leeds & Bradford airport to Paris and was charged by the airline, Jet2, a rip off free of £2.00 to check-in online. My other alternative was to pay £6.00 to check-in at the airport.

Travel light to reduce airline charges

I always travel light with just my hand luggage, but if I had decided to take one suitcase the check-in fee increased to £6.00 online and £12.00 at the airport. How can any airline justify charging passengers for check-in, it’s not like you have any alternative.

Online check-in fees are a rip off

Yes, I can understand them charging for those that want to check-in at the airport, £6.00 or £12.00 is very expensive though but why charge me to use my electricity and my internet connection to check-in online, especially when I am not checking in any bags. It’s a rip off.

Comparison with other low cost airlines

Ryanair charge £5 each way, per person to check-in online. BMI baby do not charge you if you check-in online, no matter how many bags you are taking but, if you check-in at the airport you are charged a whopping £39.98 for one bag.

EasyJet do not appear to charge for check-in and I have to say the booking experience is much more pleasant on this site than any of the others I have mentioned in this post. I just wish they flew from my local airport in Leeds.

Your opinion on check-in fees

What is annoying is that these fee’s are not included as part of their advertised rates. What is your opinion on check-in fees? Are the low cost airlines just getting greedy and are there any other airline fees which drive you nuts.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Low cost airline check-in fees are a rip off

Over the weekend online travel agency, Expedia received some rather negative attention by one of the writers on high profile technology site, TechCrunch. To cut a long story short, the hotel he had booked had not received his reservation from Expedia and was fully booked up.

Check with the hotel after booking

It isn’t the first time that I have heard about this type of issue and it’s the reason why when I book a hotel on a third party website, I leave it 72 hours and then contact the hotel to make sure that they have received my reservation.

I would hate to arrive in an unknown destination to have to search around for an alternative hotel.

No trust in hotel and travel agency systems

One of the writer’s criticisms is that Expedia sent the reservation by fax, which is crazy considering it’s the 2010 and it’s time hotels caught up with technology. As consumers we have to check the booking, but I do not put a great deal of trust on systems used by hotels or travel agencies.

Keep calm, don’t get abusive

Another point that I want to make is that shouting and being abusive to the person at the other end of the telephone isn’t going to get your complaint dealt with any quicker. Keep calm, state the facts and make sure that the company deal with your complaint to your satisfaction.

I know that piece of advice seems laughable when I have a ranting man on the phone in my branding.

Companies need to monitor their brands

A number of high profile complaints have been brought to people’s attention using social media recently and I think this does prove that travel companies need to wake up and monitor their brand online. No longer can they hide behind their corporate desks and hope that it all goes away.

What I wouldn’t want to see though is these high profile complaints getting more attention than complaints from the general public. No matter who the rant is from, it should receive the same level of attention. I wrote a post on the best way to deal with a travel complaint so have a read for more tips.

Share your lost hotel booking experiences

So, have you come across a similar problem where the hotel hasn’t received your reservation through a third party and did it get resolved to your satisfaction? Have a read of the post in question on TechCrunch and let me know, would you have handled the complaint differently.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Time for hotels to catch up with booking technology

The second episode of the Travel Rants Podcast is now available. Podcasting is a whole new platform for me to get to grips with, but I am enjoying expressing my views on consumer issues in audio, it’s a change from writing a blog post. I hope you enjoy it too and please do leave feedback.

Travel consumer issues discussed

» Nasty holiday selling tricks
» How the iPad doesn’t change how we travel
» The debate on obese passengers and flying continues
» Great Britain isn’t all that great when it comes to the weather

You can now subscribe to the podcast from the iTunes library, and please let me know what you think of the podcast, what you would like me to feature in future episodes. More importantly tell me if you agree or disagree with any of the topics that I raised in the podcast.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Holiday selling tricks and the debate on obese passengers

I have been writing about travel consumer issues for five years in April and I enjoy sharing my opinions on the travel industry from a consumer’s perspective. I understand that not everyone is going to agree with what I have to say, but then discussions are created and readers can share their opinion.

Useful learning / content inspiration resources

I read a number of travel industry sites and newsletters, like Travel Weekly, TTG and Travelmole; this helps me understand how the industry works. I have noticed recently that a lot of the content is either copied press releases or quotes with a small amount of text.

They rarely add their opinion and this means that the newsletters and online content is duplicated.

More opinion on travel industry issues

I want to know what they think about the issues that are affecting the travel industry. I want to read about their opinions on how the travel industry can be improved. My guess at why they do not have an opinion is because they do not want to upset advertisers at a difficult time for publishers.

It’s the travel industry media that has the authority and resources to get behind issues like holiday protection. Blogs like Travel Rants, written by one-man, carry very little weight. I realise their readership is the industry, but surely that does not stop them from having an opinion on the travel news and issues.

Open up comments for readers

I would like to see more articles about tackling the issues that affects the industry. I would also like to see more openness; both the TTG and Travelmole expect you to login to leave a comment, which is not very sociable. Both sites would receive more interaction with their readers if they opened up commenting.

These are my thoughts on travel industry media; please add your thoughts and opinions in the comments.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Travel media needs to look beyond news and give opinion

The nasty weather in the UK through Christmas and the New Year meant many travellers plans were disrupted, with flights delayed or cancelled. There’s not a great deal you can do about the weather but I wish our airports and public transport in general could cope with the bad weather; it is winter after all.

Airline tricks and unhelpful customer support

As you can imagine my inbox was full of stories from consumers, many asking if they were entitled to compensation for being delayed or their flight cancelled. To be honest I was shocked at the types of tricks that the airlines used and how unhelpful some of them were.

I read stories of passengers being delayed for 18 hours, without any assistance from the airline. I shouldn’t write this because it’s going to happen to me now, but I have never been delayed for more than 30 minutes. I’ve put that down to good luck more than anything else.

I remember dreading my flight home from Hobart via Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, hoping that all my connections were on time.

Airlines avoiding their responsibilities

At the moment I am writing a guide about passenger’s entitlements to compensation and assistance when a flight has been delayed or cancelled so I won’t go into the detail here, other than to say that the airlines flying into the EU should be aware of their responsibilities through EC Regulation No 261/2004.

So, what was your worst flight delay and did the airline assist or compensate you?

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This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Share your worst airline flight delays

Most of us have been guilty of rushing to the airport to catch our flight, or worst still, arrived at the wrong airport. I remember reading a story about a group of Newcastle football fans who had arrived in the city where the team was playing a day early, and were flying home the day of the game.

I am always giving out travel advice, yet, sometimes, I fall foul of my own stupid travel mistakes.

Checked into the wrong hotel

This incident happened last year. I decided to take a long weekend trip to Venice, and all was going well. I found the street where my hotel was located, checked-in, unpacked, had a shower. Then, I looked at the notepad on the bedside table and noticed that it was the wrong hotel!

What was annoying is that I had given the receptionist the print-out and the name of the hotel was clear to see, yet they checked me in. My stupid mistake I know. I explained my situation and that it was the wrong hotel. I couldn’t get out there quick enough. The hotel I had booked was four doors up the street.

Ten mile walk back to the apartment

A few years back I went on holiday to the Greek island of Crete. My brother was relaxing on the beach, so I decided to take the local bus to a village that I heard had a great market, the name I can’t remember. I jumped off the bus, wandered around for a few hours and had a bite to eat.

In the evening I set off to find out that the last bus had left for Bali, the village we were staying at. I had no mobile phone, and I think I left my common sense back home too. Ten miles later, sweaty, sunburnt and stressed I arrived back at the apartment, while my brother sat in a local bar relaxing.

Missed the flight to Berlin

In 2008 I was going to the PhoCusWright @ ITB conference in Berlin. The night before I hadn’t slept too well, and well, slept in an hour longer than I should have. I dashed to the station to catch the train to Liverpool; the train was delayed at Manchester so I missed check-in by 25 minutes.

So, what mistakes or situations have you found yourself in while travelling?

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This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Consumer Blog.

Time to share my travel mistakes