Any travel advisors out there? Is this acceptable?

[costagirl]

My brother tried to book flights for himself and his 3 DC, from Gatiwick to Faro in July. Went through website called onthebeach.com which is Abta backed. Found flights advertised at £113 each, and booked. Total cost less than £500. Booked by credit card. The next day onthebeach contacted him, saying airline had put prices up without telling them, and he needed to pay another £350! Unfotunately he was so aghast at telling the kids they were no longer going, he paid it (but can't afford it.)

1. Can he cancel the booking? (This was Sunday night)
2. Can the travel company do this? Surely the advertised price is the one he agreed to pay?

PLEASE give us some advice!

think that if he's now agreed to pay the higher price there's not much he can do? At least they contacted him to tell him it was more expensive

um yes, i think he can cancel because don't the distance selling regs say that you have a 14 day cooling off period? maybe google that and see what you can find?

can they do this? well, yes. they can ask you to pay extra. if it had been me i think i would have pushed a bit harder and asked what woul dhappen if i didn't want to pay?

read small print on website

terms & conditions

when was payment taken from card - that usually = time when contract was made & they can't change it.

will try to come back later to thread

tried website you said - it is american property rentals - are you sure that's the address?

but they haven't changed it have they? they've just asked him to pay more, which he has then agreed to do.

the problem is, i suspect they are entitled to cancel it if they so desire. which they would have done if he said he didn't want to pay the extra.

address is co.uk

hmm well it seems this may be covered in their terms ofbusiness.

By clicking to book and entering your personal and payment details on our website, you are making us an offer to purchase the product on your behalf. At this point we immediately re-contact the Principal. Each Principal will still require a short period of time to confirm that your chosen flight / hotel is still available. Although the email confirmation sent to you is NOT contractual acceptance of the Principal's ability to provide this product, it is an acknowledgement that we have received your offer, and should the product be available as detailed on our website then you have entered into a legally binding agreement to purchase this product subject to the Principal's Terms and Conditions.

Once we have received confirmation from the Principal, we will contact you via email to let you know that your order has been booked. The contract is formed when the Principal issues its confirmation invoice and their booking reference number. Please note that once your booking has been confirmed to us, you can only cancel the booking in accordance with the relevant Principal's terms and conditions which may involve cancellation charges. Equally you may also be subject to our cancellation charges to cover our administration costs.

and they do state that prices etc may be inaccurate as they yse third party datA

Thanks for all your messages. I rang onthebeach and they pretty much confirmed what you all said. How naive of us to think that the price we see is the one we pay! I've only dealt with Easyjet and Ryanair before, not through a broker, so this has never arisen. Expensive lesson, only book through airline in future.

He still has cancellation rights. I think in his position I would call their bluff. I would ring them and say I was going to cancel the lot under the Distance Selling Regulations and see whether they can find him a better price, and get a cast-iron agreement that it's the final price.