Scotland and Orangutans - 27 Oct 2007 - 4 views

I was thinking about going to Scotland over Thanksgiving break so I went and looked around at prices from the various online ticket sites. All of them were over my budget of 500USD to Britain and back. All of them except AirGorilla who was advertising tickets from DC to Edinburgh for $350! Now that was a good deal - so I email my friend who is up there - make plans, etc. I'm excited! Britain yay! Then I go and click "purchase ticket" button... but to my dismay tax was $370! I'm heart broken - I didn't know that tax wasn't included in the original quote. Do the other sites not include tax (they do actually). In my ire I sent them a nasty latter (my problem was that the tax wasn't included in the initial quote which I thought was deceptive).

here's my email: (please note that I wasn't actually going to see 'family' I just stretched the truth (edit: lied) for emphasis.
I think it's entirely too deceptive that you don't include the cost of tax into your quoted prices (as the other on-line ticket places do). I looked up a flight on you site - thought it was an exceptional deal - compared it to the other sites - called family in Britain to check their schedules - and then proceeded to purchase the ticket from your site - only to discover that taxes were not included and that the price was in actuality an additional 350US. I went from being excited that I was getting a great deal on a plane ticket and would get to go see my family next month - to angry, realising that it was not at all a good deal (in fact with taxes it was more expensive than all the other on-line sites) and that I was not going to be able to make my trip. I think this business of not including tax on your quoted price is intentionally deceptive and dishonest, and because of it I seriously doubt that I will ever consider AirGorilla again when I need to purchase flight tickets.
Sincerely,
JPM

This was the reply I got back:

Hello

Once you select you're specific flights the taxes are calculated and provided for you on page two prior to you entering the passenger and billing info. Each flight has different taxes associates based on number of stops, routing, and federal guidelines. We are not deceptive in any way. This is why the first page clearly states US$ + taxes . We apologize that you chose not to choose your flights for the full total before alerting your family to your plans. Please understand that we do our best to provide the lowest available fare at the time of your query. The fares change several times daily and we have no control of those changes.

Thank you for your feedback,

final thoughts:

Whilst I'm still annoyed that I won't be able to go on my trip I think the PR answer is rather funny. While I do admit that the price on the page does say "US$ + taxes" the '+ taxes' part is small and to the scanning eye easily overlooked. They never really address why they don't include taxes with the price quote (the other sites like Expedia, Priceline, etc.do) - it can't be difficult to write a simple programme to compile the numbers (like they already do on 'page 2'), and also you can't ever get to page two without pressing the "Go" button - which is psychologically committing. My personal belief is that they do not include taxes on the initial quote because they know that people who are checking their prices are also checking on Expedia, Priceline, etc. and they want to 'appear' to be the most competitive.