So angry with on-line travel agent

[plummymummy]

I booked our holiday a few months ago via the internet. It was an internet agent that allows booking of flights and car hire. I have now discovered that Ryan Air charge a baggage fee for every bag checked on to the plane. If paid at time of booking this fee will be £5.00 per bag each way (£30 for 3 adults whole trip). If it isn't, the fee doubles. The website I booked on does provide the option for passengers to pay this baggage fee, which now means we will be stung for double the cost. First I called Ryan Air (40 mins on phone waiting for advisor to answer), they blamed the agent saying the travel agent should make customers aware at the time of booking. The agent are blaming me for not checking with the airline - why should I if the agent is allowing me to book directly through them? My point is that the agent should allow customers to pay for baggage at time of booking. I put this to the supervisor who said she was going to call me back but hasn't. Any suggestions?

Sorry that should say the agent does not allow

We had a similar thing - when going skiing - when we got the flights details through we were flying easyjet - we had to pay a charge for the skis etc but it was only because i knew this did I do it in advance otherwise we too would have been stung £120 on arrival at the airport.

If I remember rightly, as long as you book the luggage before departure, you still pay the cheaper price. You only pay the doubled price if you turn up for your flight and want to have baggage loaded there and then. As such, can't you ask the agent to add however many pieces of baggage now, pay them and you should only be charged the lower amount?

I guess that is the danger oif not bookign direct yourself , the online system would probably have promoted you but the agent won't necessarily have passed that info on. Usually you can update your booking though, before check in.

No Ryanair only offer the opportunity to pre-pay at time of booking otherwise the cost is double. I spoke to them the other day after being held in their queue for 40 mins. The reason why I bothered to wait 40 mins was to see if I could still pre-pay at the lower rate. Have sent a stroppy email to the agent (ebookers)and they are supposed to get back to me tomorrow. If no joy, will have to pay the extra then try and claim it back on return. Phoned ABTA but they will only get involved once agent has responded to complaint.

worked in travel briefly. all travel agents are nightmares. book your own holidays direct wherever you can.

Sorry that wasn't very constructive in terms of your current problem. Keep phoning, and eventually they should get fed up with hearing from you and just pay up. IME, anyway.

I tried to change it on-line but it will only allow flights to be changed - not baggage.

And Mindles - the phonecalls cost 10p a minute so if you queue for 20 mins and make several calls like that, suddenly it seems a bit pointless as one is increasing their total bill iyswim

I have scrutinised the ryanair website thoroughly and there is defo no way of paying the reduced fee unless it is at the time of booking. Therefore, the agent will not be able to add luggage on for us and we will have to do it at the airport at the higher cost.

Oh yes I see. Sorry never thought of that, cos I only spoke to them in a work capacity of course the cost of the bill was never an issue. Well I really hope you get this sorted, they are a nightmare for things like this and of course it's the last thing you want when you're trying to organise a nice peaceful holiday.

I think you should definitely be able to get your money back after your holiday, because it is the agents job to tell you things like this. Threatening to go to ABTA may help. Of course getting the money back after your holiday is not exactly convenient...

Well thanks for all your advice anyway. I'm not going to let it spoil our holiday