Office of Fair Trading & Civil Aviation Authority to ensure travel sites are not misleading

If you've ever been caught out by an extremely cheap headline price for a flight, only to find it doubling by the time you finish, we've got some good news for you.

The Office of Fair Trading and the Civil Aviation Authority has launched a set of guidelines for tour operators, airlines and travel agents reminding them of their responsibilities to consumers under UK law.

The OFT and CAA will then be reviewing travel websites to ensure that they provide clear, transparent and timely information to their customers.

The guidelines are designed to remind tour operators, airlines and travel agents of these key obligations:

• Flight headline prices must include all unavoidable and foreseeable charges - including taxes, fees and other compulsory charges.
• Information about optional extras, including hold baggage, must be clearly available from the first stage of the booking process.
• Optional extras must not be pre-selected.
• The name of the airline must be clearly visible from the start of the booking process.
• Clear information about financial protection must be displayed to customers.
• Terms and conditions must be clearly visible and easy to understand.

The fact that travel companies are being reminded of their obligations in this way is good news for customers as it should mean an end to misleading headline prices and optional extras which are pre-selected as standard and virtually impossible to take off.

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