BEWARE: Budget Holiday travel scam & rip-off...

Darragh29

Just a heads up for all folks thinking of booking a holiday with Budget Travel... Budget Travel are currently running a marketing campaign based almost exclusively on the fact that they are not making customers pay a fuel charge, and this fact is the backbone to their "in your face" marketing campaign. What Budget Travel are not telling their customers is that on long haul flights (this happened myself and my girlfriend last October when we went to Cyprus with Budget Travel, when they first started advertising their holidays based on no fuel surcharge being levied on customers), is that they have instructed airline companies to NOT give any Budget Travel passengers that are on the flight, any meals, which other passengers who might be travelling with a travel company like Falcon, etc, will be given as part of their fare.

This is how Budget Travel sell you a holiday without a fuel surcharge. We had a crazy situation last October where any passengers who had the sense to travel with a reputable travel company like Falcon or Tomas Cook got a meal on the flight inclusive at no extra cost, then about an hour later, those that were travelling with Budget Travel were offered what was left at outrageous prices. The cabin crew had to walk through the airplane identifying Budget Travel passengers so that those people would not be given any meal. When those of us involved protested, we were told to take our grievance to the Budget Travel Rep. What really annoyed us was that we were not told about this when we booked and over the outbound and return flight, we paid well over 60 Euro for 4 in flight meals, way in excess of what a fuel surcharge would have cost us. So beware of Budget Travel and their rip-off and customer unfriendly business practices because I'll never travel with Budget Travel again, that's for sure. Our holiday ended up costing us the bones of 100 Euro more, no thanks to their sly and underhand tactics...

wba88

How low can they get?? Thats ridiculous!

Mad Dog

A pan of bread and some ham would have saved you half of that €100 on your way back because lets be honest they would only catch me once

Darragh29

Honestly, this is what they are doing, I don't even know if it is legal, as on our flight one passenger said as far as she knew, the airline had to provide a meal if the flight was a long haul flight, and the reply she got was that she could have a meal, but as per Budget Travel instructions, their customers had to pay for it, and let me tell you we had to pay through the nose for it. I couldn't believe it when I heard their campaign launching in the new year ****eing about no fuel surcharge, and you end up paying way in excess of what you would pay for a fuel surcharge when you realise that you are stuck on a plane for 4-5 hours and have to pay for a meal. As I said, the really annoying thing was that they don't tell you when you book for obvious reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if they have an arrangement with the airline carrier that Budget get to keep a percentage of the sales through meals on the flight, so its in their interests to not tell you about the outrageous charge for meals on the flight. If any hot snots from the Budget Travel marketing/propaganda dept are reading this post, as you wouldn't take my complaint seriously last October, HERE IT IS NOW FOR EVERYONE TO SEE!!!

Darragh29

Mad Dog wrote:

A pan of bread and some ham would have saved you half of that €100 on your way back because lets be honest they would only catch me once

Yes it would, if you knew the situation you were going to be in two hours later when you were 3 miles up in the air or whatever. They won't catch me like that again, it's not the first bad experience I've had with them but I can tell you it's the last...

Mad Dog

Hey man I wasn't trying to be funny with you because I flew with them last October too and same as you no meal outbound but we brought our own rolls with us for the flight home and they have the cheek to come round and offer you their plastic meals at exorbitant prices :mad:

mikedragon32

If the fuel surcharge was anything like the Aer Lingus surcharge you would have paid €40 per person per flight, totalling €160.

I agree that it is ridiculous that some passengers got meals while others didn't, but if you knew about this on the outward flight, why didn't you bring your own food on the return flight?

At least you've learned a valuable lesson and it only cost you €60. Most people learn the harsh reality of a budget service when things go badly wrong, like serious delays or accidents etc.

Nowadays if I do have to eat on a plane, I'll just eat a bar of chocolate or something like that as I would have had a decent meal before boarding.

Chalk it up to experience. I hope it didn't ruin what was an otherwise good holiday?

Victor

Isn't there an obligation to provide meals on flights over a certain distance / time (4 hours?). So essentially flights in Europe there is no free food, flights outside Europe they have to provide a flight price included meal?

John R

Darragh29 wrote:

What really annoyed us was that we were not told about this when we booked and over the outbound and return flight, we paid well over 60 Euro for 4 in flight meals, way in excess of what a fuel surcharge would have cost us. So beware of Budget Travel and their rip-off and customer unfriendly business practices because I'll never travel with Budget Travel again, that's for sure. Our holiday ended up costing us the bones of 100 Euro more, no thanks to their sly and underhand tactics...

Mad Dog's point is that you should have expected the same situation on the return flight and bought food before boarding.

How long was the flight 4-4.5 hrs? It probably wouldn't have killed you to go without food for that long, it's not as if you were forced to buy and eat the expensive cold airline leftovers.

What is it with people and on-flight meals anyway? It is like some pavlovian response, as soon as people get on a plane they start braying for minature plastic containers of minature plastic food. Fair enough, if it a long-haul flight or if it is free (as in I have been forced to pay for it in the price of the ticket) then I'll usually eat it but as is mostly the case these days they want a lot extra then why bother. I just don't get it.


I am not excusing Budget Travel's behaviour BTW, cutting out something you reasonably expected as part of the package without informing you and subjecting you to the farce on the plane is an appalling carry on and you are right to be p1ssed-off.

okidoki987

You could do one of the following at least
(A) Ring the Joe Duffy Show
(B) Go along to the Holiday Show in the RDS 26-28 Jan and loiter around at the Budget Travel stand and everytime somebody is about to book a holiday,
say to anybody standing next to you "There's no FREE meals on the plane,
did you know that?"
(C) Write into the papers (Indo or Herald)

Dellas

You could do another thing also!! Dont go Budget Travel again !!!Book Budget get Budget is my opinion !!!

There are many other good companies to go with like Omni/XL/Topflight/Stein/Sunworld/Airtours/Panorama etc....

lasno

Everybody is getting very upset because meals are no longer supplied free as part of a package holiday. To set the record straight it is not only Budget Travel that no longer provide free catering. During the last 12 months I have travelled between Ireland and the Canary Islands on eight occasions and only once was a meal included in the price of the flight. This was when I bought my ticket from Panorama. On other occasions I bought my ticket from Falcon, Budget, Sunway and Slattery and food was available to purchase on board.
Stein travel also provide a meal when the airline is Spanair.
When tour operators are negotiating contracts with charter airlines they want the cheapest rate possible per seat,consequently airlines cut service to the minimum in order to compete and the traditional free meal is the first thing to go.

event

Im just wondering, did anyone read the terms and conditions of their flights or at the back of the brochure?

does it mention it there?