I booked two Eurostar tickets to Paris from Thomas Cook. The tickets cost £178 and I was charged £253.48 — a whopping £75.48 commission. Thomas Cook thinks this is reasonable — I don’t. Roger Fennings, via e-mail
The Travel Doctor replies: I don’t either — a mark-up of more than 40 per cent is pretty rich for what amounts to a simple transaction.
Thomas Cook is unrepentant, however.
A spokeswoman said: “We are sorry that Mr Fennings is unhappy with the commission charge and booking fee that were added to his Eurostar booking. As a booking agent this is standard policy and the total cost was made clear and accepted by Mr Fenning when the transaction was processed.”
For future Eurostar bookings you should go to Eurostar direct, especially if you prefer to make phone rather than internet reservations, because it has just abolished its £5 charge for bookings through its call centre (0870 5186186). There is no charge for payments made with a debit card.