Sneaky Hidden Charges On Snowboarding Package Holiday
Misinformation, sneaky hidden charges and no help whatsoever. Just some of the way's i can describe my experience with Inghams.
I've been to Whistler in Canada snowboarding many times and have always booked with Crystal and chosen BA flights. I have never before had any extra costs of snowboard carriage, hidden or not provided as an option at the time of booking.
This year, for a change, I chose to give Inghams a try for the first time and booked a holiday for 6 adults at a cost of just under £8,000, choosing the exact same flights I always take, with BA.
I booked around 8 months ago, but have just received my eTicket, After reading the fine print, i've found out that the snowboarding package holiday i've booked, doesn't allow us to take our snowboards - unless we pay them more. Something that is not stated at any time during the holiday booking process, making this a hidden charge.
If snowboard baggage on a snowboarding package holiday wasn't included, this is surely very important information critical to the decision making process and as such, it should have been highlighted during the booking process. Inghams purposely hide this additional cost and as such obtained my booking by deception.
After speaking to Inghams twice, once on the phone and once via social media, i've basically been told tough. Not even a gesture of goodwill. They have not taken any responsibility for the fact that this information is not made available at the time of booking and I am very unhappy as I feel like I have been mislead by them.
When questioned about this, I was told that sometimes they use scheduled flights, sometimes they use charter flights. Some flights charge for bags, others include them, though this is not stated, so it is impossible for a customer booking online to know what kind of flight they are booking as part of a package.
After saving for 2 years and being already stretched to the limit, this £330 represents the cost of a lift pass, and is an extra cost I neither budgeted for or have the money to find. 2 weeks before a holiday. Anything to say on this matter Inghams? Any acknowledgement or sympathy for the fact that an unexpected cost of £330, so close to a holiday can have a massive impact on a customers ability to actually afford to do anything whilst on holiday?
Had I known about this additional cost, i'd have simply booked elsewhere as the overall cost of the holiday is now higher than I could have got it elsewhere.
**UPDATED 13/01/2013**
I went to the BA website today to book in my snowboard, but the price on the BA website was different (£28) higher than the price Inghams gave me on my eTicket.
After phoning Inghams again today to querey this, they simply told me that their terms and conditions state that BA prices might change. No apology at all for providing out of date information. I asked if I could pay for my snowboard bag and they told me I could only do that with BA. I asked them for BA's phone number, they told me they didn't have it.
I asked for contact details so I could make a complaint. They gave me the email address that I complained to a fortnight ago and didn't receive a response from.
On the basis of this experience, I conclude that Inghams are absolutely USELESS and massively unhelpful. If I have to book my baggage direct with BA, why on earth would I bother booking a package deal in the first place?! I may as well have simply booked the flights and accommodation separately myself!
I will not be booking with Inghams again and will instead return to Crystal or go back to making independent bookings next time I go to Canada.
This pre-holiday experience with Inghams has put a real downer on things as I now feel very negatively towards them and their lack of transparency and dodgy ethics, i'm just hoping we don't have any further problems with the trip as I have very little faith in their ability to do anything to help!
7 January 2014
Unprompted review