You buy a plane ticket, and then next month you have to pay extra.
Travelers planning a vacation this summer face this possibility by plane. The war in Iran created a political and economic shock in the world, which will cause greater unreliability when planning trips this summer.
European airlines have warned that for could face a serious shortage of aviation fuel for several weeks, which could cause them to subsequently increase the prices of already purchased tickets.
Effective: Affair after affair
"Several years ago, before every summer, there was an affair and tension with travel agencies, which proved to be an unreliable partner so many times, but it's clearly not enough for them, so they continue before this season", they write from the Association "Effectiva" and add that during covid, the agencies kept the money of travelers, some for two years, only to replace their trip with a new one, usually of lower quality, with fewer days or with an additional fee.
"After that, the fuel surcharge affair," they add, noting a new problem for travelers when they cancel their trip in time. They claim that "some agencies do not recognize this and find ways to keep the money paid to them, usually as an advance or part of the price of the overall arrangement". The cancellations are mostly caused by the risk of traveling to risky destinations, they claim.
These days, they add, passengers are canceling their trips, which are mostly planned for the end of May or June, which means that these cancellations are timely, given that there are more than 45 days left until the trip.
"In that case, as Article 107 of the Law on Consumers says, the agency can only retain the amount of administrative costs it incurred, but it must also explain them to the traveler," they note.
Utah: Read the contract carefully
Aleksandar Seničić, director of the National Association of Tourist Agencies of Serbia, says that it is important for people to know and that they must take into account what is written in the contract they signed with the agency.
"In numerous contracts, it is indicated that the plane ticket is non-refundable. When individual consumer associations gather people and activate them to sue the agencies, it often happened that everyone lost those disputes en masse," Senicic told "Vreme". "The law is quite clear here. If the price of the arrangement increases by more than eight percent, they can abandon the arrangement, but for increases below that percentage, they have to look at what is written in the contract they signed with the agency. It is not a pro forma paper."
Seničić claims that in Serbia, compared to many EU countries, the laws are much more favorable to the traveler, because they allow cancellation 45 days before the trip, while in Europe it is 120 days.
Air Serbia is holding the strings.
When it comes to an individual plane ticket, which is purchased independently and independently of the arrangement, Senicic says that the agencies cannot influence that.
"Air transport is the only industry where no law applies, not even the one on consumer protection," he says. "They mutually agree on the conditions and implement it. That's why I believe that, based on the increase in fuel prices, they can ask for an increase in the price of the ticket, but I don't believe that it will exceed ten percent of the ticket price. However, Air Serbia completely dictates our market, so we cannot be sure what they will do."
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