I believe somebody should challege the charges in court like the bank charges. I believe a challege would have a good of being successful. The the reason they charge per person, if there was 2 people going the charge would be lower than if there was 4 going, the argument would be it does not cost anymore to do a name chahge for 1 person than 4 people traveling and changing the name for 1 person. Something like that. A challenge in the small claims court is cheap and victory help would set a president, not sure if I spelt that correctly.

I will be doing a challenge in the small claims court when I need to make a change. I am confident the tour op will back down before its gets to court because they know a ruling against them would stop the rip charges.

It is nothing to do with the admin cost of a name change but in the way low cost airlines sell their seats.

If you book early you get a cheap price ( non changeable non refundable all there in black and white ). If you change the booking at a later date you pay the fare that is in place at the time ( usually higher ). Otherwise as soon as the cheap flights came out people would book them even if they didnt know all the names of people travelling, just put any old names in and then change nearer the time.

There is a difference here compared to the high cost of a name change when it has been inputted wrong that is a different matter.

Kind Regards
Stewart

How much does it cost to change a booking?
Changes cost 20GBP/ 30EUR/ 54CHF/ 1000CZK/ 260NOK/ 130PLN per name change per one way flight. In addition, if the flight time demands a higher basic price you will be re-charged the difference. Once again, the use of credit cards will incur a fee per person per individual flight of 2GBP/ 3EUR/ 5.5CHF/ 90CZK/ 26NOK/ 13PLN and the use of debit cards 1GBP/ 1.5EUR/ 3CHF/ 45CZK/ 13NOK/ 6.5PLN.

I have pasted this from the Jet2 website, so it seems if you were charged £94-87 you have paid £40 for the name change and the other £54-87 is the extra charges for the cost of the flight increase on the day of you amending your booking. Cheers Jayjan

If you go back to Jet2's website and put in your holiday dates you may see the price difference.

I did look at the price on the website yesterday, and the whole holiday was £20 per person cheaper than we paid. Looked again today, and that particular holiday is no longer showing so they must be sold out. The way I have looked at it is this ......I would have lost the price of the passenger who is not going if I had just left it and just the 2 of us gone, so I would rather pay the extra and take grandson instead. I do think that it is over the top pricewise though. After all it is the same seat that is being used as it was in the other persons name, so why would it be more money?
It's all a bit out of my depth to be honest, I just think it's a lot of money. Linda x

Thomson has a weird when doing a change, they cancel the whole holiday and then re-book it. They get more money for a holiday that was sold at a cheaper price, pure profit.

Stewart is right. If there wasn't a penalty for name changes, etc, there would be a black market set up whereby all the cheap seats would be bought immediately in any old name and then sold on for profit.

They never charged for a name change until recently, even though it was in the terms and conditions. In the past I have made changes, different resort, different country, different hotel and different date. I was never charged. But now they inforce the charge as its a money maker pure and simple.

Its nothing to do with a black market. I recently phoned thomas cook and was going to change hotel, resort and date. They gave me a price and no charges, but thomsons it takes a aurgument to get them to change wittout a charge.

As I said earlier will challenge any charges in court in the future if I get charges based on the number people in the party, the charge should be per booking. I have no objection to paying £10 or £15 for a change per booking, but its all about as much money they can get.

I love a fight with the big boys, I stand my ground and win. I took on DFS and they will do anything to refuse refund. Even when I took a letter in rejecting suite with 21 days the manager said he couldn't take the letter because it was nothing to do with him. I had a witness with me and I said you refusing the letter has been witnessed, he then took the letter. I even let them try adjust the suite, but after that I was having none of it. The manager tried tell me I had to let the manufacturer inspect the suite, I said no I will see you in court. Then he said they will collect and refund my money.

I think you are confusing changes to a booking with a low cost airline as in this case with one for a package holiday.

The Low cost airlines clearly state that changes to a booking at a later date will mean you will pay the fare at the time of the change. This has been standard practice ever since the start of low cost airlines.

Kind Regards
Stewart

Here are a couple of links on much the same subject that's been recently challenged in the Australian (Melbourne) courts.

We have the Westminster System

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,22190968-462,00.html?from=mostpop

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,22302991-462,00.html

Cheers Geri

And they have responded by allowing no name changes so if someone cant go, tough lose your money anyone new has to buy a ticket at the current fare.

Which system would you want.

Kind Regards
Stewart

I love the comparison with a sofa shop - just not sure what the relevance is!

Jetstar quite simply don't allow name changes now, quite within their right, and I suspect the low cost carriers here will do the same if their charges are challenged in court.

Long haul airlines have always had these restrictions for the reasons stated above - to prevent travel companies buying up all the cheap peak time tickets and then selling them on. Quite right too. Now they are more restrictive as they have to keep administrative costs to a minimum to be able to compete with low cost carriers over price.

They never charged for a name change until recently, even though it was in the terms and conditions. In the past I have made changes, different resort, different country, different hotel and different date. I was never charged.

We forget that travel companies / airlines are businesses and need to make money. It's primarily staff costs (i.e. wages) that cost money, so if they are using up additional time to make wholesale changes as indicated in above quotation then they should charge administrative costs accordingly to cover their time.

The fact that you say you have even changed countries before without being charged tells me they are either a) terrible business people or b) desperate to get rid of you.

There is not a problem with a charge to make a change, the problem is with the tour op charging per person and not by booking. I don't think they will stop allowing changes to be made to a booking even if they lost a court case. Did the australian case the person who brought the case say the change should be free of charge.

I don't mind a resonable charge, but when it is like me 3 people staying the same room and all of us paying the charge, the cost to tour op would be the same if they had only had 1 person who wants to make a change. My change with thomson which I got free of charge after a long conversation took the operator all of 2 minutes to make. If I hadn't pushed for the hotel to be changed for free it would of cost me £150, for 2 minutes of work. The reason I pushed for change free of charge was for a medical reason, if it was stated in the brochure I wouldn't of booked the hotel.

You can see why I think the charges are excessive, 2 minutes work to make the change, a fax to the destination to book me into a different hotel. I would think it would of cost no more than £20 to make the change, £150 was taking the mick.

The sofa shop was an example if somebody stands firm they will get the result they want, if somebody has a reasonable aurgument.

A twist in the tale here, lol.
When I changed the name (via email) I clearly stated Mr. When the new email came through they had put Miss. I rang straight away, and was told........."don't worry, it will be ok, they never look at the names anyway" Soooo says I, why am I paying for a name change! I refused to accept that it didn't matter and insisted they send another email with the correct name on.
I then challenged again the price of the name change, and they quoted the difference in price of the flight, plus admin charges. My reply was, in view of what I have just been told, I will be taking the matter further.
I had £45 refunded the same day!
By the way, on re-reading some of your very helpful replies, this was not just a flight but a package holiday from Jet 2. Linda x

In view of what happened to me last month, I do wonder if there is really a hard and fast rule concerning name changes? I have posted elsewhere, but I had booked my daughter on Ryanair, and had the eticket issued in her maiden name It had been bought low cost, and Ryanair changed the name with no charge at all

When I was working for a holiday company, there always seemed to be clients who mislaid their flight coupons, and I would reissue them for no charge at all. Other rather larger TO's would charge per ticket reissued.

Linda I'm glad you did get some refund, also am interested to know what percentage of the total cost of the holiday the change of name actually was. Not for any other reason bar nosiness

Hi Sue, the total cost of the holiday was £1,309.
Ended up paying £49-87 name change. I'll leave you to work the percentage out lol........ .....Linda x

Hi, just less than 4%. Tonyt

Lol thanks Tonyt! So if I'd have paid full asking price £94-87, it would have been 8%...... Linda x

Thanks both!! I do feel better for that