Steve Mills, director of the tourism, travel and leisure team at BDRC Continental, looks at how budget airlines are driving acceptance of hidden charges
? | When it comes to air travel it seems that, although we complain about hidden charges, the budget airlines are gradually educating travellers to accept such charges for services that were once part of the headline flight price, according to new research released by BDRC Continental.? Budget airline travellers stressed more than anything else that they would like to see fewer hidden charges added to their ticket, yet budget airlines are still managing to convince customers that paying extra for an ever-widening range of services is acceptable. |
At the recent ITT Convention in Dubai I was in conversation with a travel agent in the Belgian bar. Our discussion turned to the idiosyncrasies of customers and my friend asked me this question. ?It might just be where my agency is?, she said, ?but my staff spend a lot of time finding out what people need and then, when they think they are ready to book, they will suddenly say that there?s something wrong with the holiday and we have to go all the way back to the start and try to find something else for them. And quite often we can?t find anything that suits them and so we lose the sale. What?s wrong with these people?? 