Travel giant Tui demands extra cash from holidaymakers while boasting of ‘another year of record profit growth’

By
Damien Gayle

Last updated at 12:52 PM on 7th January 2012

Holidaymakers who have paid for trips with Britain’s biggest travel company are being forced to shell out extra before they can depart, it was claimed today.

Tui, which this year boasted ‘another year of record profit growth’, has demanded extra cash to cover exchange rate and fuel price fluctuations.

A school ski trip was told to pay an extra £13 for every child before they could travel, while customers for an adventure holiday to New Zealand faced demands for an extra £200.

Travel giant Tui, owner of Thomson and other travel brands, has been demanding extra cash from customers who have already paid for their holidays

Travel giant Tui, owner of Thomson and other travel brands, has been demanding extra cash from customers who have already paid for their holidays

The demands were made despite the firm yesterday posting a full-year profit of £400million, with chief executive Peter Long hailing a ‘good trading performance in the UK.’

Tui subsidiaries have said they are adding the surcharges to customers holiday costs in response to the rising cost of aviation fuel and fluctuations in the value of the pound.

One customer, a parent whose child was booked on a ski trip, told the Independent that Tui subsidiary SkiBound was asking for an extra £13 for every child.

The parent, who did not want to be named, told the paper: ‘It means that the quoted price of the trip can be very competitive – because they can always stick a supplement on at the end once they have secured the business.’

Most surcharges are blamed on the increased cost of transport, but the sinking value of the pound has also been used to justify retrospective price increases.

Adventure holiday operator Exodus, also a Tui subsidiary, upped the price of a £5,500 trip to New Zealand due to depart next Saturday by an extra £200.

'Good trading performance': The extra charges come as Tui CEO Peter Long hailed record profit growth

‘Good trading performance’: The extra charges come as Tui CEO Peter Long hailed record profit growth

A spokesman told the Independent: ‘We will incur extra costs of over £400 for trips operating in 2012 due to dramatic exchange rate changes, but half of this has been absorbed by Exodus and the other half will have to be paid by the clients as a currency surcharge.’

She added that such price fluctuations worked both ways, saying that cost savings are also passed on to their customers when found.

Holiday companies are by law allowed to surcharge customers who have already booked their trips if they can show costs have risen for reasons beyond their control.

They are obliged to absorb the first 2 per cent of any cost increases and if the hike exceeds 10 per cent customers are entitled to cancel with a full refund.

No surcharge can be made within 30 days of departure.

A spokesman for SkiBound told the Independent that prices for their ski trip were calculated in August 2010.

‘Since that time we have seen significant cost increases arising from aviation, transportation fuel and other costs,’ she said.

News of the surcharges has emerged just days after the cost of air travel rose on the back of new green taxes levied by the European Union.

A ruling last month by the European Court of Justice meant any airline using any EU airport was to be subject to the environmental charge from January 1.

It comes on top of charges to be introduced in April by the UK Treasury which will add to the burden faced by British holidaymakers.

In all, the cost to a family of four of a return flight to Florida will rise by a daunting £344.

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I deal with a travel company that guarantees the price one pays is ring fenced and does not increase. Simple really.

A rise in fuel charges is nothing but BS from TUI and others sticking surcharges on.—For a start, they receive the money from the consumer up front from holiday makers and if they ran their business properly they would buy fuel ahead at the price prevailing when the booking was made. The same applies for hotel costs or ANY related cost where they have use of that money for 9 months or more before supplying the service.—These companies aren’t novices at international travel and hotels for goodness sakes and either they are incompetent in buying forward or just scamming the holidaymaker. Its time consumer protection laws were made to ‘lock in’ prices when the full amount is paid up front !

If they and other operators carry on doing this and gets more into the public domain then the DIY holidays will get more popular where you book your flights and accommodation separate.

Some passengers may have paid well in advance or their travel, hence Tui would have earned free interest. It’s all about greed. Maybe Which should look into this tell passengers their rights rather than be treated unfairly.

Well another year off holidays in the good old English country side. A nice pint in a country pub accompanied by a nice English meal…Keep your stupid holiday prices as far as I’m concerned.

Let your fingers do the walking and tell TUI to take a hike. Don’t give the Germans any more of your money.

Traveling Under Influence…,says it all really.

TUI has not been competitive on flight prices once in the 12 yrs we have lived here ( not even before Ryanair and easyJet started flying this route).

Vote with your feet – plenty of other companies, and never forget their practices for future years

CFO Long should be fired for not arranging adequate futures protection for exchange and other financial risks all travel Companies face. All businesses need to have managers who actually know what they are doing and its the boards job to make sure that happens. An entirely preventable situation which ought to warrant lots of in house questions – and Oh Yes did Mr Long get a bous this year !

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