Won a "trip" but only inc flight for 1

[AHobbyaweek]

Recently I won a trip to America. The only advertisement of the prize was A trip to "specific city", no purchase necessary.

I was really surprised I won and really excited. Then I received an email to send my details to the organiser for my "complimentary flight to the city".
I probably am but AIBU to assume a trip would include a hotel and flights for at least 2 people.

I don't want to go away on my own to America (from UK) for a week and would assume it was at least for two.

I am hoping I have the wrong end of the stick and this is just the flight bit but AIBU?

Just to say it wasn't an airline and doesn't seem to be with a particular airline.
It is a large computer/software company.

I won a trip to Venice and like you was so excited but it was a sort of scam as the flight was from a difficult airport at an impossible time on a date of their choosing. Accommodation was a shared room, (shared with someone I didn't know and couldn't choose), in a hotel that didn't look great.

I decided my time was more valuable than the flight fare. I "could have" booked a second ticket, arranged to share with my plus one and paid various fees and charges. The free trip would then cost more than if we'd booked a trip for two of us from the start.

I "won" a prize like this. Was a total scam.

I mean yes, I did get what was offered but in order to take the prize I had to spend £££ on accomodation and also travel for whoever was going with me........and had to be booked through the company who ran the compeition in order to be compatible with my "prize" booking.

Technically legal but a bag of shit.

Oh and
it turned out that there was another 30 or so people who also won First Prize I didnt go.

Thanks for all your experiences. Will be looking into it a lot closer now!

Try googling the company name with ""trip compeition" or similar. Thats what I did, we ended up with a FB group of "winners"! The company that run this compeition hold events at least 3 times a year and tickets to the events are prizes. But in order to attend you need to have confirmed accomodation booked via them. We keep trying to alert people but some people dont look past the words "You have won tickets to X event!" and dont add up what the actual cost is.

I use to enter sweepstakes/contests regularly and did quite well with it, one thing always stressed to me is read the T&C's. If they aren't easily accessible then ask to see them.

What seems reasonable to the average person doesn't necessarily to the people sponsoring a competition.

Sounds familiar. I hope it's not a scam though op. I won a 'prize', luxury accommodation but terms stated having to eat in a certain place (very expensive food and terms were not seen when entering!) so although it was cheaper than normal for that place it still worked out an expensive break for my meagre budget. The 'free' luxury weekend break would have cost a minimum of £200 on compulsory restaurant meals. We didn't go.

Be careful op...a flight without a hotel sounds like a con timeshare yanbu. Very stange competition. So you remember entering anything

Yes I remember entering and the company is a large software/computing company that I would normally trust.
Will be investigating though.

I won a meal or prize at Christmas at a local restaurant. That was for one when used questioned it. Never bothered going.

Unless they said it was for more people, it's perfectly reasonable for it to only be for one person. If you don't want to go on your own, find a single friend who does!

Yes I remember entering and the company is a large software/computing company that I would normally trust

Could the prize have been supplied by a third party as a promotion? Scammy promotional company contacts legitimate business with 'get more people at your trade stand' promotion, which they take up because they're a bit naive or don't think it through properly.

They innocently offer the prize draw to visitors at their stand without realising its a scam offering a 'free' flight but to get it you end up paying for taxes, a second flight at an inflated price and accommodation and in the end there is little or no saving compared to starting from scratch and arranging your own trip, with dates, flight times and destination that suits you better anyway.

Avoid like the plague would be my advice, (former very senior travel industry for 35 years!)

You will probably find you could do the total trip cheaper for 2 of you just shopping around rather than using the so called "Free flight" with loads of special conditions attached.

Pyongyang makes a great suggestion re googling the name of the organisation competition reviews. This will probably tell you all you need to know. Really hope I am mistaken but doubt it. I had LOADS of clients over the years who "Won" these things and asked if I would investigate for them. In every instance it was a scam, timeshare sales or similar.

We got that once too. Upgrading the TV subscription entitled us to a free flight to a choice of 40 destinations. Yes we knew it was one flight, but when we got the voucher through it was:

• Send us a list of 3 destinations - you're not guaranteed for any but we'll try
• Send us a list of 3 departure dates - you're not guaranteed for any but we'll try
• Send us your preferred departure airport (out of 5 international airports in the country, 3 of which are 3 hours plus away from us) - not guaranteed but we'll try
• We will confirm which one you are booked on 14-21 days before the flight
• Black out dates are all public holidays
• And you have 7 days to send the info

Impossible to book leave, impossible to book a second ticket, impossible to get good deals on hotels. However, it made us look into some of the places on offer and we had a fab break (fully at our own expense) in one of the more obscure places on the list that we researched when drunk and swearing about the 'free flight'