Oh, sh#t! The barbarians are at the gate and they’re demanding a refund
Like a horde of barbarians at the gate, a crowd of angry travelers is gathering at the travel industry’s front door. They want a partial refund for their vacation. We should probably give it to them.
Why?
This chart says it all. The price of a barrel of crude oil is nearing $60 — less than half of what it was three months ago.
At the same time, travel companies, including airlines, cruise lines and tour operators, have charged hefty fuel surcharges because of “high” oil prices for future trips, and often retroactively. I just spoke with one customer who booked a high-end tour for about $25,000, which included several thousand bucks in fuel supplements.
Now that the price of fuel is falling, how about a refund?
They are at the door. It’s a small crowd of frustrated travelers now, but its numbers are growing.
By this time next week, there will be more. Many more.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall at a company boardroom. I can only imagine the conversation.
“Some of our customers want a refund because of fuel prices.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“It would affect our earnings.”
Unless the travel industry gets its act together right now and comes up with a sensible plan for refunding fuel surcharges, there will be riots. The barbarians are already at the gate.
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6 Responses to “Oh, sh#t! The barbarians are at the gate and they’re demanding a refund”
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Fuel should not be charged separately. If wages go up, do they have a wage surcharge?
If they just sold the tickets for whatever price they need, people wouldn’t be griping about wanting the fuel portion back…or at least, they wouldn’t have cause to.
Bottom line is that the airlines generally aren’t profitable now, and they need to be. So calling it a fuel surcharge or whatever is pointless. Adjust your ticket prices accordingly!
For a short term, I can understand the maintenance of fuel charges to a certain extent as I understand that fuel for trips now was purchased 2 months ago. But if fuel costs continue to drop, refunds are in order.
Simple solution? For a cruise, turn it into a shipboard credit, for air flights, apply it as a voucher good for future travel. That strikes me as a reasonable compromise.
The so-called “fuel surcharge” always was a way to raise prices without admitting it. Now that this is exposed for the hoax it always was, it seems it’s time for action to ban this bait-and-switch practice of advertising a phony low fare that nobody can buy. I can’t believe there aren’t already class action lawsuits about this fraudulent practice.
The industry made the mistake of tacking it on as a fuel surcharge instead of just raising prices. Now they have to deal with the problems that occur when the cost of oil and fuel is rapidly dropping.
A lot less people would be complaining and asking for a refund if they hadn’t called it a FUEL surcharge.
Please check to see that I read this correctly. There is a bill being considered, thatwill require all travel industry quotes to include all taxes, fees, etc. I have always believed that what you pay for is what you stuck with. When I bought my car last July, I paid for it. I could have saved 5000.00 if I bought it today. The steak is .90 a pould less this week. I have not eaten it yet, can I have a refund? If the price seemed correct when you payed for the ticket, It’s yours!
Ah, Geoff - but you fail to appreciate the ingenuity of the travel industry.
It’s not commonplace among airline tickets (yet), but at least in the cruise industry, they can tack on a fuel surcharge AFTER you pay for your tickets - in other words, if you don’t pony up more money, your tickets are useless. Look for the airlines to move in that direction at some point. So if they can raise the price after purchase, they should be able to lower it (although I wouldn’t expect them to do that unless forced).