Episode 4 Rip Off Britain: Holidays

We asked you, "Who's left you feeling ripped off when it comes to your holidays?"

And you couldn't wait to tell us your holiday disasters.

Don't understand how people can do this to other people.

I wanted to cry then.

I had more than enough.

Whether it's a deliberate rip-off,

a simple mistake or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Keep asking the questions, go to the top if you have to.

We do get results, that's the interesting thing.

Your stories, your money. This is Rip Off Britain.

Hello and welcome to Rip Off Britain,

where this week we've come to the island of Tenerife,

to investigate why so many of you keep telling us

you've had a raw deal when it comes to your holidays.

Of course, the way we all travel has totally changed since the days

when we all pored over brochures and had no choice whatsoever

but to book through High Street travel agents.

Now, in a way, we are all travel agents,

putting together our own trips and itineraries

from the blissful comfort of our own homes.

And that can be a blessing sometimes, can't it?

Because there are certainly huge pluses to that,

we can compare options and prices in an instant.

But there can be downsides as well, and it's those that we're going

to be hearing about on some of your stories today.

Situations where you have not got quite what you bargained for,

and it certainly hasn't been easy to put things right.

Coming up, Ryanair's unique way of handling complaints.

-Does it matter if they insult their customers?

-It's ridiculous.

No other company would get away with that.

I don't know why they still get away with it.

And the complications of trying to take your pet on holiday too.

There'll never be a holiday like it again.

No, I'll never take her on a plane.

For years, holidaymakers strolling through resorts like this one

find themselves lured into high-pressure sales pitches

by commission-hungry time-share touts.

And then a steady supply of horror stories followed.

But the industry promised that it had cleaned up its act

and new rules were brought in.

So why at Rip Off Britain do we still keep hearing

about endless problems with time-share?

In those far off days,

when holidays abroad really started taking off,

and the Spanish coast began to change beyond recognition,

time-share seem to offer an affordable way

to guarantee annual trips to the sun.

But the industry has always had a dark side.

And not everyone who's persuaded into signing up will always realise

that it's time-share they're being talked into.

Salesmen can have all sorts of ways of dressing it up.

So you may think you're buying something completely different.

That's something Bernard Rogers from Leicestershire knows only too well.

He's currently working as a delivery driver,

but had hoped by now not to be working at all.

I've been retired for about 18 months

and I've just gone back to work again.

Well, just on a part-time basis but it's more like full-time now.

And the reason he's having to work so hard

instead of enjoying his retirement?

So I can pay off some of my debts.

The debts he's saddled with are down to what he says

was sold to him as an investment opportunity,

when in fact it was nothing of the kind.

It happened when they went on a family trip to Tenerife back in 2007,

and received an intriguing proposal

from a company called Resort Properties.

We had a note pushed under the door from the sales guy

for Resort Properties, who this complex belonged to.

They followed up the invitation

and were told about an opportunity that it seemed was just too good to miss.

We were told that if we put this investment up, in 22 months

they'd contact us and they'd buy it back off us, plus 17%.

And by 24 months, it would all be done and dusted.

As Bernard and Maureen understood it, the deal was that they

would buy property from which they'd be able to make money.

Over the two-year period,

not only could they rent it out to other holidaymakers,

and of course stay in it themselves,

but their properties would grow in value.

At the end of that period, it seemed they could sell up

and, with a tidy profit, have a perfect pot of cash

for their retirement.

I invested £25,000.

And my wife actually invested £18,500.

We took out a mortgage against house to fund it

and then I got some money in the bank, so I paid mine cash.

Unfortunately, although the plans the Rogers believed

they were buying into sounded ideal, what they clearly remembered

being told at the time is not what it says in the documents

they signed.

But it was only at the end of the two-year period in 2009,

when Bernard got in contact with the company to talk about cashing in

his investment, that they began to realise the truth

of what they had bought.

In fact, there were no plans to sell on their properties

or for them to get their money back.

My husband contacted the firm and they kept telling him

that they hadn't even got that in process, nothing was going to happen.

And then he mentioned the names of the people we'd spoke to and they

told us they weren't working with the company, they couldn't be contacted.

Maureen and Bernard felt confused and naturally worried.

And as that continued,

they decided that on their next visit to Tenerife, they'd call in

at the Resort Properties office to find out what was going on.

But when they did, they found the business was no longer trading.

It had been acquired in 2011 by a company called Silverpoint,

one of the biggest players in time-share in Europe.

By now it was very clear that the tens of thousands of pounds

Bernard and Maureen had handed over hadn't been invested

in the way they had thought.

Instead, they had simply bought into an expensive time-share contract

that they couldn't get out of until the year 2050.

And, of course, they'd taken out a mortgage on their home to do it.

Five years after they handed over their cash,

they're stuck paying maintenance fees they didn't expect

on a time-share they never intended to buy.

It's left me feeling angry and upset,

because the money I put up front was what my mum had left me.

With Resort Properties no longer trading,

we contacted Silverpoint, who manage the properties now.

They stressed that they're:

But they say the paperwork does make it clear that the agreement is

for a time-share and, from looking at it,

they're satisfied that the couple signed a contract saying

they understood their purchase was not a financial investment.

They also say that, although the contract does last until 2050,

they'd be happy to explore resale options,

although they can't guarantee success.

As for Bernard and Maureen,

they say Resort Properties rushed them through,

signing paperwork they didn't understand

at the end of a long meeting,

with some of the clauses on the contract even pre-ticked.

But however that happened,

signing up was a mistake that had left them devastated.

And, sadly, their story is a reminder that no matter

how plausible the sales pitch might seem,

you shouldn't agree to anything

unless you're absolutely sure what the paperwork says.

It's making my husband ill because he's 70 next year

and he's still working 12 and 14 hours a day couriering,

and the money he's earning from that is paying for the monthly repayment

of the mortgage money we've took out.

If we die tomorrow, it doesn't die with us.

It transfers to our children,

and we don't want that burden on our children.

Just as the programme was about to go on air,

Silverpoint contacted Bernard and Maureen to say that,

although it wasn't them that sold the time-share in the first place,

they don't want any of their members to be unhappy.

So, as well as assisting in reselling the property,

all further maintenance fees have now been waived

as a gesture of goodwill.

We understand they've also offered the couple a sum of money

to help resolve the matter.

So, let's hope that they can bring the whole situation to an end.

Next, well, budget airlines really have revolutionised

the way we travel.

Since that very first no-frills flight from London to New York

that took place 35 years ago,

the world really has become a much smaller place

for a much smaller price.

And there is one budget airline that somehow manages to dominate

the headlines,

most recently by publicly rubbishing the opinions of customers

who have fallen foul of their policies.

So, should we really care what Ryanair thinks about the people

who disagree with them?

It first took off in 1985,

an upstart airline whose boss wasn't afraid to tell the rest

of the industry exactly what he thought of them.

Since then, Ryanair has become the world's seventh largest airline,

flying over 580 million passengers to a total of 168 destinations.

But it has to be said that this company,

when it comes to customer service, has an unusual approach.

And certainly when they're dealing with customer complaints,

a very unique style.

Well, it seems that hardly a week goes by without one of those rather

distinctive comments from Ryanair's boss Michael O'Leary

making the headlines.

Especially when he's criticising the very customers

who are making his company a small fortune.

Clearly, the old adage "The customer is always right"

is not the motto for this company.

But what is quite extraordinary is that none of this seems to do

any harm to the business.

Millions of us still fly with the airline.

So, what do prospective passengers really think of what Ryanair

has to say about its customers?

To test that out, I'm going to give some of Michael O'Leary's

more memorable comments another airing.

-Can I talk to you very quickly?

-Course.

Have you ever flown with Ryanair? Because I've got some quotes here.

-"You're not getting a refund, so ... off."

-Yes.

"We don't want to hear your sob stories,

"what part of 'no refund' don't you understand?"

-What do you think of that?

-I think it's terrible.

-And I think it should be stopped.

-But would you still fly with them?

-No.

-So you've stopped flying with them?

-I have.

Have you girls ever travelled, flown with Ryanair?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Because they say interesting things about customers,

like "What part of 'no refund' do you not understand?"

-Do you think they're rude?

-That's very rude.

-That sounds rude?

-Isn't it a cheap airline, though?

-What?

-Isn't it a cheap airline?

It's very cheap, yes, so does that not matter -

-if you're cheap, you can be rude?

-No.

They should still give the service what we paid for.

No airline should treat their customers like that, really.

-Have you ever travelled with Ryanair?

-I have travelled with Ryanair, yes.

What do you think about them?

It's cheap and cheerful. It gets the job done.

When you're booking a flight through Ryanair,

you're not paying very much.

So you shouldn't realistically expect amazing customer service

in comparison to other airlines.

But if that's right,

and it is just a case of "You get what you pay for,"

does that mean it's OK to publicly lambast a customer

who has fallen foul of the company policies?

All passengers flying Ryanair must print off their boarding pass

before heading to the airport.

It's all in the terms and conditions and,

before you confirm your booking, you have to tick a box

agreeing to that, and to paying a charge if you turn up without them.

But this summer, one woman from Hertfordshire felt the full force

of Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary's wrath

after failing to print off the ones for her family.

She was charged £236 to do it at the airport,

and her case sparked a flurry of press coverage

after it was reported Ryanair's boss branded her an idiot.

The airline later insisted he'd made a general comment

and not a personal attack on her,

although he wasn't completely repentant about his very public response.

The lady in question did it, there was five people in her group,

on her outbound flight,

then arrived at the return flight two weeks later,

"Oh, I didn't have time to print it in Alicante for two weeks."

What do you think of a company that treats customers like that?

It's not good customer service at all,

you won't get people reusing that airline

if that's the way they speak to their customers.

It is ridiculous. No other company would get away with that

and I don't know why they still get away with it.

But here's the thing.

Though undoubtedly an unusual tactic,

being told that the customer is always wrong

does not seem to have been bad for business.

In fact, in 2012 Ryanair's rise in profits,

coupled with an increase in passenger numbers,

put them in the position of being Europe's biggest airline,

which does seem to suggest that,

however rude some of Ryanair's comments may appear,

they don't put people off.

-Have you ever flown Ryanair?

-Several times, Angela.

-What do you think about them?

-I think they're fabulous,

they offer a really good value for money service.

What do you think about the way they treat their customers?

Saying that you're stupid if you don't know how to print of your boarding pass.

I think he's a little bit strict.

And I think...

I think they could operate a more flexible customer services policy,

but having said that, the service they offer, cheap and cheerful, going from A to B, is fine.

When we asked Ryanair about their unique approach to customer service,

they were very polite, telling us...

All they ask passengers to do is:

As any failure to do so has cost implications for them:

As far as they are concerned, their customer service is second to none...

It's hard to see Ryanair changing its style,

so as long as we consumers are more concerned with price

than manners, we should know exactly what to expect.

Don't show up in our airport looking for a free gin and tonic,

don't show up on our aircraft looking for a free meal. You know you're not getting one.

It's estimated that more than one in five of us

don't take out adequate travel insurance when we go away.

It isn't always easy knowing what cover you need or exactly what

to look for in a policy, but the way we book our travel these days

means that having the right insurance is more vital than ever.

A lot of people now book their holiday in little sections

separately, so they book a flight from one person,

they book their hotel themselves

through a comparison website.

And if you do that, you don't have the protections you might have

if you book a package holiday.

In that situation it's really important that you've got

a travel insurance policy that's going to cover you.

If you end up having to make a claim for medical treatment

while you're overseas, the cost of that could be incredibly expensive.

So we recommend that you look for a policy that's got a minimum

cover level of £2 million for travelling in Europe

and five million for travelling elsewhere.

That may seem incredibly high, but you can get close to hitting those

cover limits and you don't want to end up having to pay a penny.

But if the unexpected does happen,

you don't want to be told your insurance isn't valid.

So, here's a sobering fact.

You may find your insurance policy won't pay out

if you've had a glass of wine or two.

Many insurers have really strict limits on the amount you can drink

and still remain covered.

The worst-case scenario is that you have a couple of glasses,

end up having to make a claim for something completely unrelated

but have it turned down because there was a note in your file

saying that you had a couple of glasses of wine that night.

So if you do like to have a drink on holiday,

make sure you read the small print in your travel insurance policy

before you go, and pick up a policy that is right for you.

If that sounds scary, here's cause for hope.

New industry rules are on the way that will make things easier

for consumers when it comes to making sure your insurance company

has all the right information.

From later this year, the Consumer Insurance Act is going

to come into force.

That will put the onus on insurers to find out everything they need

to know from customers before they take out an insurance policy.

Currently, the onus is on customers to let the insurer know everything

that could be relevant to that policy before they take it out.

But if you're over 65,

as of April last year the insurance industry and the government

have introduced an agreement which should make things better.

Known as signposting,

it means that if a company won't give you cover because of your age,

they'll have to point you in the direction of someone who will.

If you do get turned down by an insurer, don't lose heart.

There's almost certainly somebody out there that will cover you,

and it might be worth asking the insurer that turned you down

if they do have someone who they can pass you on to.

If you can't find anybody,

try going to the British Insurance Brokers' Association.

They can put you in touch with a broker that will cover you

no matter what your circumstances are.

While we've been on Tenerife,

we've been hearing about your holiday experiences.

Rob and Wynn loved visiting the Maldives,

but on their last trip they were confronted with some small print

which made them distinctly uncomfortable.

We've been to a number of different islands,

which are all gorgeous. This particular one, what's it called?

-Vilamendhoo.

-Vilamendhoo, a brand-new island and a gorgeous island.

But they've got several odd policies.

Before they'll let you on the sea plane which will take you

to your island, you have to sign a disclaimer.

And the disclaimer really disclaims them from

any injury for any purpose whatsoever.

-No matter what the circumstances?

-No matter what the circumstances.

Simon, what do you make of that?

I have never heard of anything like this.

And, luckily, there is absolutely no weight.

So long as you have booked through a UK tour operator,

they are absolutely responsible for ensuring your safety on that island.

So, if somebody staggers off the plane,

"I'm exhausted, I just want to get to my hotel and relax."

If somebody puts a clipboard in front of me and says, "Sign here,"

what I would do is say, "I signed this under protest,"

signed under protest, take a picture of that.

And then give the tour operators hell and say, "What are you doing?!

"You are trying to... Your agents, the people running this island,

"are trying to absolve themselves when you know full well,

"because it's your duty under the UK law, to look after me."

You often tell us that the way your holiday has been advertised

is at odds with what you find when you get there.

We were told we could walk to the beach, but it wasn't,

it was like a golf resort and it was quite far from the beach.

So we had to get a taxi.

We did walk on the first night, but it was such a trek.

-It took about an hour and a half, didn't it?

-Yeah.

So yeah, I think you should be told how close,

if you like to go on the beach, which we do every day, I think

you should be told how close it was to the beach, be honestly told.

Yeah.

While we've been out here, we've been running

some of the problems you've sent us past our travel experts.

Simon, an e-mail from Gosport from David, who says that he sent money

to his son in America, 1,100.

He was charged by Santander, his bank here, £25,

which he says, "Fair enough, that was an administration fee."

However, when his son went to collect the money by a branch

of Santander in the States, he was charged 25 to access the money.

How can they be charged twice for the same transaction?

Well, because I daresay somewhere in the Santander rule book,

in the UK it says this will cost £25,

which is about right for a money transfer out there.

And then, somehow, in the US book of Santander rules

it says, "Of course you need to pay 25."

So, another £15 for that.

Frankly, I wouldn't dream of using my standard bank

to transfer money abroad.

Better than that is to organise, in advance,

a prepaid travel money card.

In that case, the dad can just load the card in the UK with money.

You're getting a pretty good rate of exchange,

there generally aren't any significant charges,

there may be a bit for an ATM here to actually withdraw the cash,

but it's a much cheaper way of effectively transferring money abroad,

certainly than going to your bank and saying, "Organise this for me."

Where do you go to get it? Into a bank?

Ah, well, you can go to a travel agent. You can go to a post office.

You can go to your bank of course, or, if you're online,

you can search around

and go maybe to a comparison website where you'll be able

to see the merits and the demerits of these various things.

And certainly there will be a card that's right.

I've actually got about half a dozen of these cards,

they're very useful in various situations

whether you're transferring money or whether you just want to lock in

to a particular rate of exchange.

Santander say their terms of conditions state

that international transfers may incur a charge.

So what happened here was standard and correct.

But, as a gesture of goodwill,

they have refunded the fee paid in the UK.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain, how when you hire a car abroad

you may end up paying for the same thing twice.

I basically had two insurance policies for the same thing.

Come on, doggies. Come on. Good girls.

'As you know, we're a nation of animal lovers.

'Every other British household has a pet of some kind,

'and eight million of us have dogs.'

In my case, I have two. These are my two cavaliers.

This is Gemma, who's five, and Roxy, who's just a year old.

As a family, I have to admit it, we are devoted to them.

Let's face it, we all love going on holiday.

But increasingly, pet owners like me just simply don't want to leave their dogs behind

for two or three weeks,

so how do you go about taking them on holiday with you?

Good question.

Taking your precious pooch away with you isn't always simple.

In recent years, new rules have come in, designed to make it easier

to travel overseas with a pet

and to avoid the need for dreaded quarantine wherever possible.

But some pet owners still find the process time-consuming,

stressful and expensive.

Last year, Ann and Chris Denton from Ross-shire were planning

the holiday of a lifetime in Canada and Alaska.

But they didn't want to leave their beloved lurcher, Pearl, at home.

We've been married 30 odd years. Never had a family.

So this is our family. You know, it's always been dogs, dogs, dogs.

Wherever we go, the dogs go with us.

Whether it's a long holiday, short holiday, everywhere. The dog comes.

As they would be away for three months, they were horrified

at the prospect of leaving Pearl in a kennel for all that time.

It was just out of the question.

You know, we couldn't put her in kennels

because of the amount of time we were away. It was just far too long.

-In fact, we wouldn't even consider it for one week.

-No.

We wanted to take her on holiday anyway.

It seemed the perfect opportunity for Ann and Chris to take advantage

of the new Europe-wide rules that came in at the start of last year.

Under these, British pets can now travel more easily

without blood test to countries on an approved list, including Canada.

The thing was, at Christmas I always wanted to go to Canada

and Alaska to see wild animals and things like that.

And we said this for donkey's years, but they were going to change

the regulations so that the pets, you can take your pets with you.

-And that's what made our mind up.

-Yeah.

With the decision made to take Pearl on a plane for the first time,

there was just the question of making the arrangements.

But before their four-legged friend could even make it to

the airport here, she would need a pretty expensive shopping

list to comply with the new rules.

First of all, a pet passport, with a price tag of around £30.

A vaccination against rabies, roughly another 50 quid.

A specialised crate for the dog to go in the hold, about £140.

And a microchip implanted so Customs can ID her,

adding around £20 to the bill.

Without one of those, your pet won't be able to travel.

And your dog, by the way, needs to be measured as well.

The Dentons hadn't realised it would be this complicated,

not to mention expensive, to fly Pearl to Canada.

Although all three of them safely made it to the Rockies,

the journey back proved to be a lot more complicated.

The couple claim they'd been given conflicting advice

when finding the way through all the rules.

And as a result, they hadn't yet booked Pearl's flight home,

as the airline said they should have done.

So they ended up having to arrange it whilst they were in Canada,

which again was not easy.

To fill all these forms in, 17 pages,

because by this time it was overtaking our holiday.

You know? We were concentrating on getting the dog back home.

In the end, the Dentons did travel home with Pearl.

But the whole experience has left them

vowing never to take her skywards again.

We couldn't possibly go through it. No.

There will never be a holiday like it again.

I'll never take her on a plane. Never.

And although Ann and Chris's difficulties were unusual,

it isn't always simple either for those of us

wishing to take our pets on trips closer to home.

I know how confusing and complicated it can be to try

and take your dog is on holiday, particularly

if you don't want to spend a fortune doing it.

One of our favourite destinations is the South of France

and I do like to take the dogs with us.

We've got that time to spare. However, it confuses me

even further the way the costs and rules vary in taking

your pets abroad, depending on how you choose to travel.

Let's say you want to take your dog to France by plane.

There isn't even agreement between all the airlines on how

they'll get there or what you'll have to pay.

Fly British Airways and pets are only allowed as freight in the hold.

And as BA Cargo don't deal direct with members of the public,

you have to use a pet travel agent, which all adds to the cost.

Life is a bit easier for the four-legged with

some of the Continental airlines.

Air France, and for that matter Germany's Lufthansa

and Holland's KLM, will let you carry a small cat or dog on board

with you in the cabin for a very small fee.

But it's a plain no

to flying with a pet on the best-known budget airlines.

EasyJet and Ryanair won't carry them at all.

So what about going on the train? After all,

the Eurostar zaps from London to Paris in something like two hours.

Sadly, like all pets, Roxy and Gemma won't be able to go on it

because pets are not allowed on the international train.

However, the main ferry companies have a much more pet friendly

attitude and you can set sail to destinations across Europe

with your pets on board.

But if as a pet owner you find all of this information a bit confusing, trust me,

there is a way you can do it without it costing you a fortune and if

you would like further details, all you have to do is go to our website.

Next, hire cars.

Something that on many holidays are absolutely essential.

But an awful lot of you have contacted us

because you're experiencing exactly the same problem and it's this.

You've sought out the best deal online and then

when you've booked and paid for the car, you've done what really

seems to be the sensible thing to do and opted for extra insurance,

just in case the worst happens.

It costs a few pounds more but should give you all the cover that you need.

So why when you then try and pick the car up at the airport have

so many of you been told that you now need to shell out extra to buy

that same insurance a second time?

It's estimated that up to two million Brits hire cars abroad every day.

But how many of those have ended up paying for something

they didn't need?

Musician Peter Watt did.

When he landed in Milan at the start of an Italian holiday,

he was looking forward to a smooth ride.

But he hit his first bump in the road before he'd even left the airport.

Before we went on the trip, we decided to hire a car,

so I trawled the internet through the usual search engines

and found what looked like the best deal at the time.

It was about £18 per day for the basic car,

included in that was coverage and damage waiver.

There can be confusing jargon involved when you hire a car.

Collision Damage Waiver or CDW covers you under certain

circumstances for accidental damage to the vehicle.

But it usually only gives basic protection

and leaves you liable for paying what's often a very large excess.

Sometimes as much as 1,000 euros.

And it can be hard to argue against paying that.

Most hire companies insist on taking your credit card details when you first pick up the vehicle

so that if you return the car with any sort of damage, they've

already got the authorisation to take that money right away.

They normally swipe your credit card

when you go on these things to cover the excess and I don't

like the thought of someone having their hand in my wallet, basically.

To avoid the risk of a high excess charge

and giving anyone the right to take it,

Phil took up the option of paying a bit more to buy extra protection,

so that he wouldn't be stuck with a huge bill if anything went wrong.

I decided to cover the excess on the Collision Damage Waiver

because I know it's fairly expensive stuff.

The cost of the cover was around three or four pounds per day.

And as far as I'm concerned, it said zero excess, so I was purchasing

something that was going to indemnify me

from paying any excess should there be a problem.

In fact, the extra cover that Peter bought did not mean that

if he was in an accident he would not have to pay any excess.

It just meant that he would be entitled to reclaim it.

Cover like this can cost anything between £3 and £12 per day

and though not every policy will necessarily protect you against

damage to all parts of the car,

they can stop you being out of pocket for that whopping excess.

So, happy that he had all the cover he needed,

when Peter's flight landed in Italy,

he went to the car hire desk at the airport to pick up his keys.

But it was not a happy scene.

I was very aware of a couple,

sounded like an American couple, on the desk adjacent to the one

I was on, having a bit of a heated discussion about something.

I wasn't very sure what it was at the time,

but it was only a few minutes later I discovered

the reason for the gripe they were having.

I was about to face the same problem.

Peter was told by the man at the rental desk that the extra cover

he had bought was not enough and that the only way to avoid that

high excess was to buy a further policy from them. On the spot.

I said to him,

I've already purchased an indemnity policy to cover me for this.

And he just looked up and said, basically, we don't accept that.

I said, "What do you mean, you don't accept it?"

He said, "We don't recognise that policy."

The rental company's policy worked slightly

differently from the one he'd already bought,

which waived the excess altogether so that he didn't need to reclaim it.

And as he already had that excess cover,

Peter really couldn't see why he had to buy any more cover.

Especially as it was going to cost him 86 euros.

The cost was actually about the same as the car hire,

so nearly doubled the whole deal.

But keen to get on with the start of his holiday,

Peter did eventually pay.

The last thing you want to do when you've spent hours on a plane

and have arrived in a foreign country is stand there

arguing with somebody in order to carry on with your holiday.

But Peter is not alone when it comes to being talked into buying

extra car cover that quite frankly he didn't need.

Indeed, complaints about this sort of thing and a whole range of other

unexpected car hire charges regularly turn up in our postbag

and in our inbox.

So what can you actually do if you turn up at a car hire desk

and find that they are asking you to pay even more money?

Well, the man from the AA should know.

If you have bought insurance before, and it's normally cheaper to

do it that way, when you get to the destination, don't pay for waiver

as well because you're effectively paying for the same thing twice.

If you do buy insurance and you find yourself pressurised

into buying a waiver policy as well,

when you get back to the UK

see whether or not the insurance company that you bought

the cover from is willing to reimburse you that amount.

They're probably not obliged to do so, but reputable companies will probably take some sympathy

and give you your money back.

When he got back to the UK, Peter did contact the company from whom

he bought the first policy,

Rentalcars.com, but he feels he was fobbed off with standard e-mails.

I got the distinct impression they were just not listening to

anything I was saying.

None of the points I actually brought up were addressed at all.

Basically I had two insurance policies for the same thing.

I couldn't understand why the airport one didn't recognise

the one I purchased back in the UK.

So we asked Rentalcars.com how come their customer seemed to end up

paying twice to insure against the excess?

Though of course it wasn't Rentalcars.com who made him

buy the second policy,

they do agree that they didn't clearly respond to Peter's concerns,

which instead of resolving the situation,

contributed to his frustration.

They have therefore refunded the money that he paid them.

Even better, they've said where customers can provide

proof of purchase of a second policy with another car rental

company, they'll offer a full credit to use against a future rental.

But from now on, Pete is going to be very cautious

when looking to hire a car abroad.

I've always thought that going for the best price was the best policy

because inherently in the past,

it never seemed to be such a big problem.

But now there seem to be so many hidden items,

I'm wondering if the cheap deal is the best deal.

For many travellers, it's a familiar feeling.

Look at the small print on your airline booking

and at the bottom there is a baffling breakdown of where your holiday cash is actually going.

And there's that dreaded line that has nothing to do with

the cost of getting from A to B, tax.

So how much of our airline fares go on the price of the flight?

And how much is going straight into the government's coffers?

Take for example the price of an average flight to the Spanish sunshine.

Do passengers have any idea how big the tax man's chunk is to be?

I don't know how much we should pay for taxes really.

No idea. I don't know where any of our money is going.

I believe we pay the highest in the EU, but I don't really know anything about it.

No, I haven't got a clue.

Do you? Can you tell me?

Well, the biggest chunk is what's become known as the holiday tax.

Its official name is airline passenger duty, or APD for short.

And it's a tax that's levied on passengers

who are flying from UK airports.

The amount that we pay in airline passenger duty has soared

since it was first introduced in 1994.

It used to be a fixed rate of just a fiver

if you were flying economy and a tenner in the posh seats.

However since then, not only have these rates more than doubled, but

you will now also pay more depending on how far you fly, meaning that UK

passengers now fork out more on this duty than anywhere else in the world.

ABTA, the regulatory body set up to protect holidaymakers,

thinks that the government has gone too far.

It's basically a revenue raising exercise by the government.

We think it's now got way too high.

If you take for example a family of four who fly to Florida,

they will now be paying more than £260 in tax.

As for the airlines themselves, normally the most

bitter of rivals, several are now united in campaigning against APD.

It is making the UK uncompetitive.

It is making it impossible for us to compete on the global scale

and it's damaging the UK.

It's damaging job creation and it's absolutely the wrong thing to do.

It really is deterring people from coming to the UK.

I think it's getting to a stage where it's actually going to cost the country money.

Airlines such as Monarch, Jet2

and American Airlines have also joined forces with ABTA in backing

a petition to Parliament which now has over 100,000 signatures.

We've been calling, along with many others in the industry

and members of the public as well,

for the government to look at this and to say enough is enough.

Not only is it penalising people who want to go on holiday,

it's making us really uncompetitive now as an economy as well.

Many of Britain's airports,

especially those outside of London, are shouting loudly that APD

is hitting them hard and seeing them lose routes from airlines who

are saying the tax makes flights on less popular routes uneconomical.

But with the deficit high and the government desperate for cash,

why shouldn't air travellers pay their share?

Well, the Treasury says it acknowledges that family

budgets are being squeezed, so to help,

it's limited the rise in air passenger duty to inflation and

APD rates will only increase by one pound for the majority of passengers.

And there's more good news for passengers in Northern Ireland.

As of this month, APD has been abolished on long haul flights,

which at present means the daily departure to New York.

But what about travellers from the rest of the UK?

Is there any way to avoid a tax that is equally unpopular with

passengers and airlines?

Well, if you don't mind a longer flight, yes, there is.

On long haul flights that involve a change of planes,

if you say include a stopover of a minimum of 24 hours en route,

you will only be charged the tax to the first place you land.

For example, stop for a break in Amsterdam on the way to Singapore

and your APD is reduced from £92 to £13.

Nice, if you've got the time.

But for most of us, stuck with the limited time off

and wanting to get straight to our destination,

it looks like the so-called holiday tax is here to stay.

Here, at Rip-Off Britain,

we're always ready to investigate your stories,

on any subject, not just holidays.

Confused over your bills or just trying to wade through

never-ending small print.

When they sit you down to sign up for things, they don't give

you the chance or the time to read through all of that small print.

Unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out

and that so-called great deal has ended up costing you money.

You feel as though because you got a cheap deal, you are not worth their time in the same way.

You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share

the mistakes you made with us so others don't do the same.

I feel angry, I feel stupid that I'd allow this to happen to me.

You can write to us at:

Or send us an e-mail:

The Rip-Off team are ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

As we've been hearing, these days in the age of the internet,

it's never been easier to book or plan a holiday.

But if problems occur, then I'm afraid sorting them out,

that is anything but straightforward.

Sometimes, it may be a case of pure and simple bad customer service.

On other occasions,

it may be because you didn't get the protection you expected or

you didn't take the trouble to read and understand all that small print.

But whatever the reason, probably the best advice is,

check and check again, everything that you're putting into the booking for your holiday,

so when you reach your destination, it's exactly how you wanted it.

We have really enjoyed being on the island of Tenerife to sort

out some of your problems. Thanks for taking the journey with us.

-We'll see you soon with more of your stories. From all of us, bye.

-Bye.

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