14 DAY TRIAL // The EU investigators started an investigation in multiple European countries to find out if the online travel agencies are trying to mislead the consumers when selling airline tickets, the Associated Press reported today. Until now, the European Union investigators discovered that numerous clients are forced to pay much more than they were first informed because the airline agencies attempt to obtain additional money from the customers. It seems the merchants are attempting to exploit several catches concerning the tickets and manage to increase the price of a 20 euro flight to as much as 100 euro, AP added.
According to the same source, Belgium is the country which hosts most of the travel agencies attempting to mislead the clients "with 46 of the 48 sites showing irregularities." On the other side there are Greece, Austria and Cyprus with only honest and legal agencies.
But how do they manage to steal our money when a ticket for a trip costs 20 euro? Well, it's simple. Usually, the travel agency informs you that there are no available tickets for your flight so you're forced to pay for additional services included in another class. Very often, the online airline companies are displaying the ticket price without insurance which could easily raise the value of the flight.
Is there any chance to stay away from these agencies? Not really because you don't know exactly which are the ones to avoid but the European Union investigators gave an ultimatum to those found in illegality: they have the chance to correct the problems until the end of January 2008, the time when the EU officials will analyze their offering and decide if they moved into the legal side. In case they didn't, they might be fined or worse, they may receive a temporary closure.