Ryanair is making intense accusations against online travel agencies, with its investigation for June highlighting eDreams, once again, as the top local authority “pirate”, as it overcharges the travelling public 44 euros for an easyJet flight that on the airline’s website costs just 31.99 euros.
According to Ryanair, eDreams continues to cheat and overcharge unsuspecting eDreams Prime membership members, charging them 38% for an easyJet flight.
Furthermore, Ryanair points out that “eDreams falsely advertised inflated fares of EUR 60 for a Wizz Air flight and charged eDreams Prime members a supposedly ‘reduced’ fare of EUR 38, even though the same flight on the Wizz Air website cost only EUR 31.99”. Ryanair notes that eDreams does not sell Ryanair fares in June, but still overcharges for flights by other airlines.
Continuing its threats against eDreams, Ryanair says that “eDreams’ Prime membership is another scam, as it misleads consumers into paying an annual subscription with the false promise of discounts on 100% of their flights, while using hidden surcharges to create fictitious discounts in order to disguise the fact that they overcharge customers for airfares.”
Ryanair continues to call for consumers to be protected from overpricing by OTA pirates such as eDreams.
In April, the low-cost airline called on Spain’s consumer affairs minister, Pablo Bustinduy, to outlaw eDreams Prime and force pirate OTAs to apply transparent prices, just as Ryanair’s “approved OTA” partners now provide.
Dara Brady, Ryanair’s Director of Marketing, Digital Marketing and Communications, said: “It’s no surprise that eDreams has once again been revealed as June’s OTA pirate, overcharging even Prime consumers up to 38% for flights. It is shocking that consumers are deceived into believing that they receive discounted prices when they sign up for eDreams’ Prime subscription (at a cost of €69.99), when in fact eDreams continues to inflate airline fares to almost twice the real price and offer fake Prime “discounts”, which still lead to higher fares than,What a direct booking on airlines. This is deceiving consumers, and it is unacceptable for EU governments and consumer authorities to sit idly by while consumers in the EU are repeatedly deceived.”
