Office of Fair Trading questions airlines" travel insurance sales

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation into airlines' sales tactics on the internet and questioned whether it is legal for them to automatically include travel insurance in a booking unless customers opt out of the purchase.

Several airlines, include budget airlines like Ryanair (www.ryanair.com), add the cost of travel insurance at the booking stage and customers must remember to tick a box to remove the charge. They can often find much cheaper travel insurance premiums elsewhere.

OFT boss John Fingleton said the charge was a 'grey area' but he claimed the best way to avoid the additional fees for items like travel insurance was for customers to voice their displeasure.

He admitted the OFT was not likely to take action against airlines for the sneaky ways in which they sell travel insurance to unwitting clients because he said public anger would be more effective than legislation.

Mr Fingleton said he was equally irked by Ryanair's 'puerile' and 'childish' booking fees.

The airline charges passengers €5 per person per flight to pay by credit and charge cards, but passengers who book with MasterCard Prepaid - a method which the OFT described as rare - can escape fees.

Mr Fingleton accused the airline of introducing free payments with the relatively obscure MasterCard Prepaid simply to enable it to advertise low fares. Without offering a free payment method, the airline would be obliged to include card fees in its advertised fares.

Digg    Reddit    Facebook    Tweet This