flightcentre.ca prices artificially lowered grrr

[pluto]

I have been pricing out a flight from Toronto to Italy for the second week of April, seemed Flight Centre had everyone beat by almost $200 a ticket, even for the same flight, including taxes.

Turns out when you get through to the 'booking' page they tell you the fare is no longer available due to changing availability. They've been advertising the same fare on their search results page for the past 2 days!

I called the local office and they said that happens a lot, and you always have to get through to the booking page to see the real price.

Isn't this a form of false advertisement?

[Kayne]

Flight centre has to be the worst for this stuff, I cannot stand there advertising. I love the $199 to vegas and then $300 in taxes lol.

[Shaner]

Instead of complaining about them, just refuse to use their services ever again. Even if they are slightly cheaper, just don't use them. If customers practiced this, companies would be terrified to upset us and would do everything they could to satisfy us. Instead, companies pretty much hold us hostage because they know if they have the lowest price, we'll come crawling back.

[bingofuel]

I think it's sleazy at best, but they're hardly alone. If it isn't "changing availability", there's always unadvertised taxes, surcharges, security fee, booking fees, service fees, etc that jack up the price. There is some movement in the legislature pushing for full price disclosure, so let's hope it gets through!

[GemInite]

I don't recall a time where I've ever found a flight being cheaper through flight centre

[dougg]

Every 2 months or so I visit a location in Europe and have been a regular Flight centre customer. This "Due to changing availability, the fare you selected is no longer available" scam has been going on for at least 6 months. It has occurred on every variation that I have tried (probably at least 100 attempts spread over that period). The only variable seems to be whether the hike will be $100, $200, $300 or more. They should be prosecuted for deceptive trading. Move your business elsewhere.

[dougg]

After noting the flight centre scan, I visited some other bucket shop sites. Redtag are also playing the same game. Interestingly both flight centre and redtag are "powered by softvoyage".

[highvelocity]

Other than the false prices, are they a reputable company?
I can get $150 off using my SPC for a Contiki tour through Flight Centre.. looks really appealing! Although I plan on actually going to their booths instead of online.

[Flyerman]

Flightcentre is reputable. However, many companies discount Contiki tours now. Just Google "Contiki"

[myapartment]

Avoid these idiots at all costs. I booked a ticket with them last October, flew to my destination, on the return trip my ticket got mysteriously cancelled by them when I got to the airport. So I phoned them up and asked them whats going on, they told me to go book another ticket and they will re-imburse me because of a "employee error" when booking my ticket. I was like fine, booked a ticket out of my own money $768 USD back to YYZ. This has gone to small claims court, and my court date is next week.

Bascially I want my money back for the origional plane ticket and the $768US i had to fork out to get back home.

[redbimmer]

I know plenty of people who have used them without problem. However I don't patronize businesses that practice deceptive marketing. If you don't vote with your dollar, businesses have no incentive to change their practices and honest companies get pushed out of the market. Personally I think Expedia.ca is one of the best online sites for travel. The price that's quoted is always the price you pay in the end, and they tend to find flights that aren't available with other sites.

[darren420]

I was trying to book a flight to Beijing, I first checked aircanada.com, they had flights on sale til March 07. I checked with Flightcentre.ca and the flight is somewhat cheaper that what is advertised on aircanada.com. But you know online, it had to be credit card so I went to a flight centre sales office. Big mistake! The $1089 flight advertised on aircanada.com is $1078 on flightcentre, but lo and behold, the travel consultant slapped me with a $1176 price tag for that flight that was "allegedly" only $1078 on their OWN website. And like all of you already knew, the travel "con"sultant said it's due to "changing availability". Well ain't that convenient! And guess what? I checked with aircanada.c and they still have it for $1089. It's been 2 weeks and the March 07 deadline has already passed and the price is still that. So what's up with those at Flight Centre?

Oh well, if you guys wanted to pay more than you should, you should definitely see Flight Centre.

[cmyden]

After noting the flight centre scan, I visited some other bucket shop sites. Redtag are also playing the same game. Interestingly both flight centre and redtag are "powered by softvoyage".

Bingo. All Canadian travel sites get their data from the same place, the SoftVoyage database.

You'll find the problem that the OP has with every Canadian travel site.

For flights alone, you really should just be using Kayak.

[IceBlueShoes]

I've had no problem with them.
I always research my own flights and then get them to match it/find it for me.

The no tax in fee is an industry thing. Always add $300-400 for flights for the tax. The only flights I've seen that have tax included are those out of Quebec. I'd think it's a provincial legislation thing.

But ya it sucks. Give me the total pre-tax price. Grr...

[wirebound]

Bingo. All Canadian travel sites get their data from the same place, the SoftVoyage database.

You'll find the problem that the OP has with every Canadian travel site.

For flights alone, you really should just be using Kayak.

yup, its just a software issue, it annoys them as well since they have all of these people complaining about it when they call them.... they should just change their system and the problem would disappear. It also seems to depend on the airline. AC seems to work fine for me but KLM doesn't.