Another airline decides to pursue the supremely sane option of including all-in fares on it’s offers page. Well, it’s there for flights from the Netherlands but not included on their offers from Sweden yet. One thing that I didn’t know before is that this is a requirement for a new Code of Conduct for Travel Offers.

Update – It seems to be only applicable for the Netherlands for the moment. Let’s hope it extends as far as possible.

KLM is introducing this change in accordance with the new Code of Conduct for Travel Offers, which requires the travel industry to include taxes and surcharges in the prices quoted for all flights starting from 1 April 2007. The KLM fares themselves remain the same. In addition, all KLM fares will always refer to return flights. This will allow you to know at a glance how much your ticket will cost, every time.

The only expense that will still be charged separately is reservation costs. The Code of Conduct for Travel Offers specifies that all unavoidable costs must be included – in other words, costs over which the customer has no choice.

Reservation costs, on the other hand, are different depending on where you book your ticket – via Internet, travel agent or phone. Here you have a choice and can influence how much you pay. Booking online via klm.nl costs ten euro per ticket, for example.

create your own visited countries map

They really saved my bacon on the flight home to Ireland at Christmas. I arrived a bit late at the airport and the ground staff were very nice, helpful and extremely efficient in getting me on the flight by remotely checking me in, sending my bags through specially and fast-tracking me through reserved queues. Thank you very much SAS!

Nice piece about The Commitments that was the most interesting piece related to the Ryder Cup that I have read. It’s a long time since I have seen that film, time to visit the local DVD rental shop in Sodermalm.

Funny.

One area where airlines could really improve consumer experience is in the area of pricing. Generally when booking a ticket over the internet, taxes, fuel charges and various add-on prices present the consumer with a price much different from the one quoted in the intial screen. The end result is that I feel ripped off even though experience has taught me to expect it.

Airlines may argue that some prices are not charged by them and this leads to my second peeve about the airline booking experience. If I miss or have to cancel a flight, why can’t the airlines retrieve the taxes and other refundable fees automatically? Or should I say, why can’t they be forced to do it by regulation. This is money that they haven’t earned and doesn’t belong to them. I wonder if there is a business opportunity to retrieve this money from airlines and charge a fee for doing so. Like a central clearing house for return fees.