Tigerair Australia has gone public with a stern warning to travellers thinking of buying its flights via Spain-based online travel agency
eDreams.
The carrier says the OTA has been notified on numerous occasions that its passengers have experienced issues with discrepancies over fees and pricing on the site, not least because it is not an official affiliate for the airline.
Tigerair Australia commercial director Carly Brear says:
"eDreams is not an agent of Tigerair Australia and we have absolutely no affiliation with the company.
"We have attempted on numerous occasions through various channels, including legal, to demand that they cease 'screen scraping' fares from our website. To date we have had no resolution.
"eDreams has also not actually agreed to our conditions of carriage and other terms and conditions, which only results in customer confusion and disappointment later if there are claims."
Tiger's warning this week coincides with criticism from Ryanair deputy CEO and chief operating officer Michael Cawley, who highlighted the behaviour by eDreams to 200 senior airline executives at the CAPA Summit in Holland.
Ryanair has had a long-running spat with various OTAs and metasearch engines around Europe which it accuses of screen-scraping fares and availability.
Tnooz searched for flights from Melbourne (AUS) to Perth (AUS) for December 10 on eDreams website. Tigerair is still listed.
Difference between baggage selection in eDreams and Tigerair for the same search parameters.
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eDreams[/caption]
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Tigerair Australia[/caption]
The above mentioned flight can be booked for AUD $139 in eDreams (without any ancillary purchase).
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eDreams[/caption]
However, in Tigerair Australia, without purchasing any ancillary products like early boarding, insurance, and baggage, the same flight costs AUD $158.45. There is almost a difference of AUD $20 when compared to eDreams.
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Tigerair Australia[/caption]
There are at least two potential fee wrinkles we picked up on eDreams.
1. Baggage fee
eDreams allows only one baggage check-in to be purchased at a price of AUD $21.49. There is no mention of the weight of baggage.
However, in Tigerair Australia, a 15kg check-in baggage costs AUD $20. And, it allows to check-in up to 40kgs at a cost of AUD $54.
Brear says:
"eDreams charge fees that we do not charge (or receive from them). They also charge for certain services in the booking process for which they cannot actually pass through to us, meaning they keep the fees and the customer does not get the service."For example, notifying customers that they have baggage allowances, that we presume they have paid eDreams for, but which have not been purchased from Tigerair."
2. Service fee
In the passenger details page in eDreams, the service fee was mentioned as "Not included", when mouseovered on it the popup displayed:
"Airlines have extra fees depending on the particular airline, selected payment method, luggage and other preferences. This is why we cannot state the total price at the beginning of the booking process."While the total price of the airline is still unknown, eDreams cannot calculate the correct service fee, either. In any case, eDreams applies a service fee between AUD $8 and AUD £30 per person and route. The final price of your booking will be shown and detailed before you enter your payment details."
However, when moved on to the Payment page in eDreams, the service fee is shown as AUD $0.00 (zero).
Vanessa Regan, head of communications at Tigerair Australia, says it will not disclose how much (if any) loss of revenue the carrier is experiencing as a result of the eDreams issue.
She explains that it will honour any tickets sold, but reiterates that eDreams is not an affiliate partner and requests that it "cease selling our product as they are not providing the true Tigerair Australia experience for our customers".
eDreams has yet to respond to requests to comment.