As summer holiday planning gets underway, travellers are being cautioned about a surge of “hidden fees”.
While it’s tempting to snap up the lowest price, unsuspecting charges may sneak in at the booking stage, sometimes for the smallest things. Luckily, there are some savvy tips and tricks to help dodge these hidden costs, leaving you with more spending money for your trip.
Trevor Baker, a senior researcher at Which?’s travel department, shed light on some of the top ‘hidden fees’ holidaymakers might encounter when travelling abroad.
On the latest episode of Which’s Get Answers podcast, he explained: “It depends what sort of holiday you’re thinking about. There are two ways to book a holiday; one is to do it yourself and the other is to book a package.”
“And if you’re doing it all yourself, that’s when you basically have to be a walking calculator and spot all the fees that they’re going to try and add to your booking. The classic ones are, with the airlines, so-called low-cost airlines, will charge you extra not just to put a suitcase in the hold but even to take a bag and put it in the overhead locker. They will also try and charge you to sit next to your travel companion.”
Revealed a consumer expert highlighting that budget airlines often have hidden fees. Deceptive practices like these are common with holiday deals through services such as Google Flights, Skyscanner, Ryanair, and Easyjet where the initial cost appears inexpensive but is quickly inflated by hidden charges.
The expert illustrated an instance involving a WizzAir flight that asked travellers for a £45 fee each way to place a suitcase in the overhead locker, substantially increasing the overall holiday cost. Travellers wanting to avoid these unexpected costs are recommended to execute a “mock booking”.
Offering a solution, the expert suggested: “The only way to guarantee you’re going to get a set price is to do a mock booking, so kind of go through it, work out what you want to add then decide ‘okay well that’s going to cost me that much’ and then go back to the beginning and think ‘well maybe I’ll choose the option where everything’s already included and will that be cheaper or not’..”
