Cheap-flight ads often don’t list all costs

[unhappycamper]

Cheap-flight ads often don’t list all costs
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — When Illesheim military spouse Kelly Belliveau saw an advertisement for cheap flights to the States, she thought a trip home would be a perfect gift for her husband before he deployed to Iraq.

But the couple’s excitement at the prospect of seeing relatives soon turned to anger after they discovered that the 299-euro fare advertised by MTI Travel — for a flight from Nuremberg to Orlando, Fla. — did not include extra taxes and charges, she said.

The 299-euro rate “sounded pretty good,” Belliveau said. “But when I called them they said they wanted 500 euros” for the trip.

Her husband, Spc. Sean Belliveau, 32, serves with 3rd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, which is preparing to deploy to Iraq this summer.

“He wanted to go home during block leave, but it was going to cost 1,500 euros for the whole family. Now I have to break my husband’s heart and tell him he can’t go home and see his parents,” she said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54754