Buy airline tickets, beware of "default" additional fees
If not careful, customers buying airline tickets online will be charged extra baggage fees, booking fees and insurance fees because airlines have automatically pre-selected these packages...
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| Customers need to be careful when buying airline tickets to avoid being charged additional unwanted fees. In the photo: buying airline tickets at a Vietnamese airline agent. |
Meanwhile, airlines claim that it is the system's default or the insurance company rents the booth to sell products, the airline is not involved!?
Additional charges apply...
Following a series of complaints from passengers about the decision to automatically add travel insurance to the price of air tickets when buying tickets online, Singapore Airlines has just sent out a notice that it will cancel this method.
But in Vietnam, it is not like that. According to the reflection of passenger NTA (HCMC), in early February 2018, when buying a round-trip ticket from Singapore to HCMC of Vietjet Air, he also encountered the above "unclear" problem. Knowing that it was free, Mr. TA only brought a piece of luggage not exceeding 7kg.
But when he was about to fill in his credit card information to pay, he suddenly discovered that the ticket price had jumped 760,000 VND higher than before for both ways.
"It turns out that the airline has automatically pre-selected 380,000 VND/20kg of checked baggage/flight for passengers. They do not create conditions for passengers to choose to "buy" or "not buy". If they do not read carefully, passengers will lose money if they do not need to bring checked baggage" - Mr. TA said.
Similarly, on the Jetstar Airlines website, after completing the flight selection, ticket type, seat selection... there is also a small notice: "We have defaulted to 25kg of checked baggage for you - this is the most popular choice for flights on this route"... And the ticket price can add up to... 1.2 million VND.
If Vietjet chooses 20kg of luggage for passengers by default, Jetstar chooses 25kg for 245,000 VND (in 7 different checked baggage levels) with the caption: More economical than the price at the airport.
When buying airline tickets on the official websites of Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Jetstar, if not paying attention, customers may have to pay some other fees that they may not have bought if they understood clearly, such as seat reservation fees or travel insurance fees.
Before issuing the ticket, the Vietjet system displays: "Please add travel insurance to my ticket. I have read, understood and agree to the terms and conditions of the contract and the declaration content." In fact, Vietjet has pre-selected the travel insurance fee for customers at 59,000 VND. Although Vietjet tells customers to choose "no, thank you" if they do not need it, many passengers say that the airline should not pre-select it by default, forcing customers to read carefully and find a way to cancel it if they do not want it.
Jetstar takes better care of its customers than Vietjet by adding a standard seat reservation fee for passengers at 30,000 VND/person. Similar to Vietjet, Jetstar chooses an insurance fee for passengers at 55,000 VND. Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines charges a higher travel insurance fee of 88,000 VND/ticket. Customers who want to cancel must click on the option to not select this service to cancel.
What do the companies say?
Through discussion, Vietjet Air representative said that this automatic fee collection is due to the default system. Passengers' needs for baggage and insurance are diverse, many Vietjet customers have needs for these products.
Therefore, the default selection mode will help customers in need save time... Vietjet representative said that customers who do not need it can remove the baggage and insurance package without any problems.
Responding to the question of why the insurance premium is automatically selected in advance, a Vietjet representative said that this is an additional program when purchasing airline tickets, and customers can choose not to select this fee if they do not need it.
Regarding the opinion that the airline did not pre-select this insurance fee for passengers, Vietjet representative said they would check again and respond later.
Jetstar representative also said that Jetstar Pacific's electronic ticketing system is used in conjunction with the global Jetstar system. Jetstar Pacific's ticketing features are developed based on research on... customers' consumption habits, convenience in operations, and information transparency is ensured.
Many airlines practice pre-selection of products and services on the electronic airline ticketing system. Jetstar Pacific recommends that passengers should read the instructions carefully during the selection and booking process.buy the right ticket
A representative of Vietnam Airlines confirmed that the airline does not automatically collect travel insurance fees, but this insurance is only pre-selected for passengers. If passengers do not want it, they can easily remove it. This has been clearly shown to passengers.
Responding to the fact that passengers buying Vietnam Airlines tickets may be charged an additional insurance fee of VND88,000, while other airlines only charge VND55,000 - 59,000, a representative of Vietnam Airlines said that the airline's website in this case is an e-commerce trading floor and PVI Insurance rented a booth to sell travel insurance products...
Look carefully when buying tickets online
After discovering that the ticket price had increased, and re-buying the ticket online, Mr. TA discovered that after completing the flight selection, seat selection... when he reached the "additional categories and services" section, he read carefully and discovered that at the top of the page, the airline had informed the customer that they would have... 20kg of luggage per person.
According to experts, not only airlines, but also online shoppers need to carefully read the information at the payment stage to avoid unwanted charges.
Singapore Airlines has changed
In a statement released in January 2018, Singapore Airlines said it had "listened to passenger feedback" and decided to only include travel insurance as an optional extra when customers purchase tickets online.
Previously, in early January 2018, the airline added the automatic calculation of travel insurance fees into airline tickets when passengers purchased online (accounting for 1.3% of the total ticket price, up to a maximum of about 850,000 VND).
Many passengers who bought tickets from Singapore Airlines have complained on forums and social networks that the automatic addition of travel insurance during the ticket purchase process is "not clear" so they can choose not to buy it.
Customers often only discover the price increase when they see it. Many other passengers say they only discover they have been “pickpocketed” after they have completed the ticket purchase process.