Have I been ripped off with edreams booking?

[moffat39]

I would be grateful if anyone can comment on booking with edreams for Lisbon to Madrid for wife and I. Had been checking on availability on sky scanner for the flight for a month or so for this route and had noticed fares were going up. We were travelling this route on Saturday 17 May.

Sky scanner showed best fare was with edreams at around $90 or so each and went ahead and booked. First time I had booked using a link through sky scanner. End cost that has shown up on credit card is $333 and that includes credit card charges for currency conversion etc. Looking at sky scanner again today best available for that flight is $73 but through airtickets and not edreams. When I went to book nothing mentioned about luggage and assumed that luggage was included (have since learnt never assume!).

Received confirmation email which mentioned that would need to be booked separately and said I would need to phone and pay so much per minute for the call. Booking was last Sunday and sent an email about the luggage but no response yet. Will have to call at additional cost on top of the international call.

Have today checked my eticket (did not do so last Sunday as all the details in the email were correct and I have been busy since) and see that they have booked for me return flight! Is this to get me a cheap a one way fare?

I need to sit back and think have I been ripped off? Any comments on this? At the end of the day it would seem my gripe apart from fees and charges not being made clear until the end of the booking is that as part of the booking process I was never informed about having to buy baggage or being given an option to buy baggage. I am aware if I booked with easy jet or ryan air then of course I would have need to buy baggage but had not expected that with Iberia.

The cost of the call to their call centre which is a 1902 number is $3.03 per minute.

 

[Mwenenzi]

have since learnt never assume!).
< snip >
am aware if I booked with Easy Jet or Ryan Air then of course I would have need to buy baggage but had not expected that with Iberia.

No luggage in the base price is common in Eu (and TT/JQ in Aussie)
If an airfare is too good to be true its probably not true.
Seems to be a substantial business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDreams
http://www.edreams.co.uk/

 

[moffat39]

Thanks for the prompt reply. Lesson from this is make sure you do your research before booking on line in countries and companies that you are not familiar with. Had assumed (wrongly) that a full service airline booking includes luggage! Still none the wiser why I have a return ticket when I booked a one way flight. Will probably have to contact Iberia direct to see what I can do about the luggage

Have done some google searching and many pages have come up with complaints about edreams. Here are some of the links which make interesting reading!

http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k3482801-EDreams_reliability-Air_Travel.html
http://kobasworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/from-dreams-to-scams-the-edreams-story/
http://boards.independenttraveler.com/showthread.php?13630-Do-Not-Use-Edreams-Booking-Website
http://www.airlinecomplaints.org/showthread.php?t=986&page=2

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Because a one way fare on iberia would cost you $700-$800 whereas a return would be $100-$300 or so. It's common practice by people in Europe to book returns because one way fares are usually very expensive on legacy carriers. Many airlines including BA and IB now have a base fare that is hand baggage only also.

You should have just booked direct a return on iberia.com with the return far into the future that you never intend on taking. Then you could have booked with baggage one way and without baggage the other way (saving money for the throwaway leg)

 

[moffat39]

Now I understand about the one way fare v the return fare! Had not known this before. Seems we are spoilt with the way our carriers allow one way fares.

We are flying one way from Frankfurt Hahn to Porto on Ryan Air and that was a very good price so now understand more of a difference between LCC and carriers like Iberia.

Remaining challenge will be how to pay for luggage. Will report back once I can achieve that.

Only hope these posts will come as a warning to others. Do your research before booking on line in Europe!

 

[samh004]

Remaining challenge will be how to pay for luggage. Will report back once I can achieve that.

Find your booking reference number/string of letters and numbers in your confirmation email. Use that to manage your booking on the Iberia website and from there you should be able to purchase luggage.

 

[TheDan]

Now I understand about the one way fare v the return fare! Had not known this before. Seems we are spoilt with the way our carriers allow one way fares.

Only hope these posts will come as a warning to others. Do your research before booking on line in Europe!

To be fair, most AUS carriers charge you a hell lot more on international fares (NZ excluded) for one-ways compared to return.

 

[moffat39]

Thanks for all the helpful comments. Had thought I would have to go through edreams to do the luggage.

Was able to successfully book the luggage on line with Iberia at 15 euro each. That is for 23kg each.

As a matter of interest I did a dummy booking on Iberia for a return with Iberia with luggage one way as suggested and that would have been around $280 for the two of us. With the luggage now purchased the edreams tickets have cost me around $360 so edreams charges for the two of us around $80.

Not the end of the world but an expensive lesson for me. Will make sure I do my research before booking!

 

[vantage03]

I have booked short haul Eu economy fares through eDreams a few times as when I have been looking they have offered the cheapest one way fares.
Each time they've booked a return for a one way ticket. I've never had a problem with the tickets, as previous posters have said, usually a one way is way more expensive than a return with Eu carriers.

 

[Alanslegal]

I also have booked using edreams and had no issues. People have to really understand what they are paying for before they press Confirm.

 

[Alanslegal]

As a matter of interest I did a dummy booking on Iberia for a return with Iberia with luggage one way as suggested and that would have been around $280 for the two of us. With the luggage now purchased the edreams tickets have cost me around $360 so edreams charges for the two of us around $80.!

Before paying additional for luggage I would always check what the airlines website says what is included, sometimes you pay on top of what's already free.

 

[moffat39]

Good point but in this case my ticket with Iberia. I had wrongly assumed in the beginning that as I was travelling with Iberia the fare included luggage.

After some replies on this forum I was then able to check further and found that did not include luggage.

Good to see others have had positive experiences with edreams. Knowing what I know now if I had the time over again would have booked directly with Iberia and saved myself around $80.