Ryanair today (3^rd Oct) issued its October OTA Survey, which again shows that OTA eDreams continues to overcharge its “Prime” Members almost three times the price (€21.49) for a €8 reserved seat booked directly on Transavia and over twice the price (€34.87) for a 10kg bag that costs just €16.90 if booked directly on the Wizz Air website.

This month eDreams has resumed screen scraping Ryanair’s website and overcharging its unsuspecting “Prime” Members with hidden mark-ups of +36% (€15 for an €11) for a reserved seat, +24% (€20.99 for a €16.99) for a 10kg bag, and 20% (€24 for a €20) for Priority Boarding, all of which are significantly cheaper when booked directly on Ryanair.com.

These latest examples show that eDreams “Prime” subscription induces consumers into paying a yearly fee of €69.99 while promising “savings” yet eDreams then overcharges their “Prime” Members for flights and other services, whether they fly on Ryanair, easyJet or Wizz.

Ryanair continues to call for consumers to be protected from non-transparent overcharging OTA’s, like eDreams. In April, Ryanair submitted a complaint to the Spanish Consumer Affairs Ministry calling on them to outlaw eDreams “Prime” overcharging and to require all OTAs to offer consumers transparent pricing, just like Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” partners do. Sadly, Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry hasn’t taken any action to protect Spanish consumers from these eDreams overcharges.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Our October OTA survey shows yet again that eDreams continues to overcharge its “Prime” Members by up to +169% when they are booking flights and services via eDreams rather than directly with the airlines. European consumers continue to be induced to pay €69.99 p.a. for eDreams “Prime” Membership with promises of non-existent “savings”, when Ryanair’s October OTA Survey shows these “Prime” Members are being overcharged by eDreams when booking flights and other services via the eDreams’ website.  

This latest evidence of consumer overcharging is unacceptable. EU Govts and consumer authorities, including Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry should take urgent action to outlaw these hidden OTA overcharges to protect consumers.”