EKPOIZO Reports Overpriced Airline Tickets
Consumer organization EKPOIZO recently discovered that advertized airline tickets have serious price variations, some which reached up to 63 percent between the advertized on-line cost and the actual charge.
EKPOIZO conducted a research involving ten airlines that advertised cheap fares on their websites for various destinations: Adria (Slovenia), Aegean (Greece), Aer Lingus (Ireland), Air Baltic (Latvia), Air Berlin (Germany), Alitalia (Italy), Clickair (Spain), Lauda (Austria), Olympic (Greece) and SAS (Denmark).
The on-line offers involved flights from Greece to various destinations with departures from 1 August to 31 October 2008. The research showed that out of the 10 companies, only one charged a fare lower than the advertised price (but did charge for baggage); four airlines charged the exact amount of the advertised price; and five charged a price of 18 to 63 percent above the advertized price.
On 8 July, Greek Parliament passed a motion for new EU regulations that forces airlines to announce the total cost of a ticket within advertisements and on-line reservations.