Price more expensive on phone than app but not charged offline fee
May 15, 2019, 12:23 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci.
Posts: 2,047
Price more expensive on phone than app but not charged offline fee
Was trying to book a return london to glasgow on app; but kept reporting error, try later on stage 5/5 in the process
Tried website; again error reported after credit card accepted
Telephoned silver-line; They made booking but was £30 more expensive than online quoted price ; he assured me he wasn’t charging me an offline fee.
Anyone know the reason
a. why the booking kept crashing, (I made an Amsterdam booking no probs with same credit card etc)
b. why the price was more expensive.
Tried website; again error reported after credit card accepted
Telephoned silver-line; They made booking but was £30 more expensive than online quoted price ; he assured me he wasn’t charging me an offline fee.
Anyone know the reason
a. why the booking kept crashing, (I made an Amsterdam booking no probs with same credit card etc)
b. why the price was more expensive.
May 15, 2019, 12:28 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,659
Was trying to book a return london to glasgow on app; but kept reporting error, try later on stage 5/5 in the process
Tried website; again error reported after credit card accepted
Telephoned silver-line; They made booking but was £30 more expensive than online quoted price ; he assured me he wasn’t charging me an offline fee.
Anyone know the reason
a. why the booking kept crashing, (I made an Amsterdam booking no probs with same credit card etc)
b. why the price was more expensive.
Tried website; again error reported after credit card accepted
Telephoned silver-line; They made booking but was £30 more expensive than online quoted price ; he assured me he wasn’t charging me an offline fee.
Anyone know the reason
a. why the booking kept crashing, (I made an Amsterdam booking no probs with same credit card etc)
b. why the price was more expensive.
May 15, 2019, 4:05 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Do all agents know when they are seeing an offline fee, given that IME it seems to be added to the base fare rather than charged as a separate item of TFC?
I wonder whether the true availability was perhaps in a booking class that cost £10 more each way, and then a £10 offline fee was built into the base fare quoted. Or some other combination of similar circumstances. But I find these situations quite hard to debug unless the person knows what the original booking class and base fare were, and what they have actually ended up paying.
I wonder whether the true availability was perhaps in a booking class that cost £10 more each way, and then a £10 offline fee was built into the base fare quoted. Or some other combination of similar circumstances. But I find these situations quite hard to debug unless the person knows what the original booking class and base fare were, and what they have actually ended up paying.
May 15, 2019, 5:14 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,659
Do all agents know when they are seeing an offline fee, given that IME it seems to be added to the base fare rather than charged as a separate item of TFC?
I wonder whether the true availability was perhaps in a booking class that cost £10 more each way, and then a £10 offline fee was built into the base fare quoted. Or some other combination of similar circumstances. But I find these situations quite hard to debug unless the person knows what the original booking class and base fare were, and what they have actually ended up paying.
I wonder whether the true availability was perhaps in a booking class that cost £10 more each way, and then a £10 offline fee was built into the base fare quoted. Or some other combination of similar circumstances. But I find these situations quite hard to debug unless the person knows what the original booking class and base fare were, and what they have actually ended up paying.
May 15, 2019, 5:18 pm
#5
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,659
Do all agents know when they are seeing an offline fee, given that IME it seems to be added to the base fare rather than charged as a separate item of TFC?
I wonder whether the true availability was perhaps in a booking class that cost £10 more each way, and then a £10 offline fee was built into the base fare quoted. Or some other combination of similar circumstances. But I find these situations quite hard to debug unless the person knows what the original booking class and base fare were, and what they have actually ended up paying.
I wonder whether the true availability was perhaps in a booking class that cost £10 more each way, and then a £10 offline fee was built into the base fare quoted. Or some other combination of similar circumstances. But I find these situations quite hard to debug unless the person knows what the original booking class and base fare were, and what they have actually ended up paying.
May 16, 2019, 2:49 am
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
May 16, 2019, 2:50 am
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
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Posts: 38,644
May 16, 2019, 8:16 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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If it were LHR-GLA-LHR, the differential between the lowest theoretical fares on those dates is £20, which could suggest that a £10 has been added on. But that seems unlikely, given that the agent categorically told you that there was no offline fee, and such a fee should have been visible to them.
May 16, 2019, 9:54 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci.
Posts: 2,047
Is this LGW-GLA-LGW? If, so then using some random dates it looks like the lowest theoretical I/I fare is £30 less than the lowest theoretical R/I fare, so on this route it looks like Anonba's first guess of phantom availability and no offline fee would be correct.
If it were LHR-GLA-LHR, the differential between the lowest theoretical fares on those dates is £20, which could suggest that a £10 has been added on. But that seems unlikely, given that the agent categorically told you that there was no offline fee, and such a fee should have been visible to them.
If it were LHR-GLA-LHR, the differential between the lowest theoretical fares on those dates is £20, which could suggest that a £10 has been added on. But that seems unlikely, given that the agent categorically told you that there was no offline fee, and such a fee should have been visible to them.
Why do phantom fares persist?
May 16, 2019, 3:49 pm
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
At a guess, some caching somewhere that's locked a false availability number in for I class on the outbound flight, when the true figure is I0 and you need to book in R class. If you check the website rather than the app to see whether you get the same issue, that would point to whether it's specifically an app problem. Also, if you look on EF at availability numbers for the flight, you'd see what the true figure is and whether the app's offer of an I class seat on that flight is just wrong.