A single dad has been left fuming after being charged hundreds of pounds to take his young children on holiday. Will Johnson was shocked to discover that a trip he had planned with his two children would cost hundreds of pounds more than if he was paying for the exact same holiday, but for two adults and one child.
The Mirror reports that Will was hoping to take his two daughters, aged eight and five, away when he stumbled across the perfect summer break for the family-of-three with Jet2. It was only as Will went through the Jet2 website and entered his daughters' ages that the price for the all-inclusive break increased by a staggering £900.
Baffled by the eye-watering price increase, Will put in numerous phone calls to Jet2 and tried different options on their website. He then realised that it was not a fault in the system, but that he would have to pay that price if he really wanted to take his children on a summer holiday.
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Even though his young daughters would take up less space than the average adult and eat less than one, Will would still be forced to fork out hundreds more than if he and a partner were taking a child abroad. The dad-of-two claimed that he even found one holiday whilst trawling the Jet2 website which cost £2,500 more per week for an adult with two kids than two adults and a child, due to the extra cost of a "single parent suite".
Will told The Mirror: "I’m not suggesting they should be offering special rates to single parent families, I’m simply suggesting that a three person family is a three person family - they use the same seats on a plane as well as a transfer and stay in the same room, so they should be the same price."
He explained that he had been excited to book a trip abroad for his family over the upcoming summer holidays, and, after looking through all his options, found a seaside break in budget-friendly Bulgaria. Will added that he spent hours looking at different options when he first noticed price differences offered for two adults and a child compared to a single parent with two children.
While some holiday deals appear to be charging more for the same holiday in the same room, others automatically suggest customers book a junior suite rather than a cheaper double room. Discussing what he found when looking for holiday deals, he said: "A two parent family can have a double room but they force the one parent family to have a junior suite costing an additional £2,500.
"The double room is not an option for the single parent family. I assume they have decided the sleeping arrangements might not work, but I believe I should be able to make that decision for myself, it’s not for Jet2 to decide which beds my family members sleep in."
Will said he called Jet2 to try and have one of his daughters reclassified as an adult, but a customer service worker was unable to help. He did say that he was sent an £80 voucher to use with the booking following the call, but he couldn't get it to work as it required two adults to be on the booking, he claimed.
"I don’t believe that Jet2 are purposely doing this, I believe there’s a glitch in their matrix but everybody I’ve spoken to there is either unable or unwilling to do anything about it and single parents who aren’t quite as vigilant as myself will be paying more than they should without realising," Will said.
"I did eventually book with Jet2 as I didn’t really have a choice, prices were going up. I ended up paying £689 more than I would have if I could have booked the holiday I initially wanted.
"That’s partly because prices went up as I was arguing with Jet2 but the package I booked was still more expensive for me than it would have been for a two parent family."
A spokesperson for Jet2 said: “We do everything we can to cater for single parents travelling with children, including offering £60 off their booking through a promotion code and giving them a range of family-focused hotels to choose from. Infants under two also travel for free.
“The cost of the Jet2.com flight element is the same for single parents, however the allocation of single parent rooms from hoteliers does mean there can be a difference in the overall price, which is common in the industry. We are working with hoteliers on this and hope to announce further details in the future.
“Because our allocation of single parent rooms within this hotel had been fully booked at the time he was trying to make his original booking, Mr Johnson may have seen a different price due to unavailability. However we are pleased to confirm that he has booked one of our allocated single parent rooms in the hotel on another date.”
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