Tigerair Australia issues warning not to book on cheap flights website eDreams

TIGERAIR has issued a warning to Aussie travellers over unauthorised ticket sales on an overseas flight booking website.

Tigerair is warning travellers against booking through cheap flight site eDreams. Picture: James Morgan

TIGERAIR Australia is warning travellers about an overseas ticketing website selling unauthorised tickets and charging for services, such as adding baggage, that are not passed on to the airline.

The budget airline said eDreams, a Spanish-based website which can be used to book flights, hotels and rental cars, did not have permission to sell tickets on the airline's flights.

However, the airline's commercial director Carly Brear said eDreams still persisted in selling Tigerair tickets and that legal action to stop them had so far failed.

"We have attempted on numerous occasions through various channels, including legal, to demand that they cease 'screen scraping' fares from our website," she said.

"To date we have had no resolution."

The Spanish website did not reply to requests for comment.

Tigerair's move follows a raft of complaints against the website from customers, many of whom have taken to web forums to vent their displeasure about what they say are incorrect bookings, cancelled flights, and a lack of communication from the website when problems arise.

In one instance, Brisbane woman Janice Chilcott said she booked two return Tigerair tickets from Brisbane to Melbourne in September through eDreams.

When she arrived at the airport in Melbourne, she was told she had to pay $90 for Tigerair to transport her bags as eDreams had not passed on her luggage booking to the airline.

The woman said she had tried to retrieve her booking money from eDreams but had received no reply.

Tigerair Australia is not the only Australian carrier to express concerns about some of eDreams practices.

While declining to outline the exact nature of any issues, a spokeswoman for Virgin Australia confirmed the airline was "in discussion with eDreams following some of the feedback we have received from our agents".

Qantas and Jetstar said eDreams was one of many online travel websites selling tickets for their flights and they did not have any specific concerns about its practices.

An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission spokeswoman said Australians using overseas websites to book travel or make any other purchases should first do their research before handing over money.

"If you are dealing with an overseas operation, the first thing you want to do is check their reputation," she said.

"Google them and see what people are saying."

She said while Australian consumer law theoretically applied to purchases made through overseas websites, in reality they were much harder to regulate.

If paying by credit card, she recommended customers check whether there was a charge-back facility to allow them to recover their money if something went wrong.

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