Thomas Cook accused of ‘marking up’ tickets
Thomas Cook has been accused of selling Olympic tickets with huge mark-ups despite a worldwide ban on charging above their face value.
The Sunday Times reported that a pair of tickets for the men’s 100 metre final with a night in a Travelodge hotel room and a travel pass was being offered by the operator at just under £3,000.
Once it deducted the hotel room which was being advertised at £325.92 and the travel pass at £29.20, each ticket cost £1,306 – more than triple the face value of £420.
Locog – the 2012 Olympics organiser – has previously said tickets were not allowed to be sold for more than face value.
But Thomas Cook, which paid more than £20 million to be the official provider of ticket and accommodation packages, claims their price is still competitive compared to other retailers and is based on securing the ticket and the accommodation for a specific date and event.
It added that many packages are sold making no money and the fact that some do make money is simple economics.
A spokesman said: "Any comparison to ballot tickets and separately purchased hotel rooms relies on having successfully obtained all those tickets and a hotel room on the date required.
"80% of our ticket and hotel packages are on sale for £500 or less and two thirds are £300 or less."
This comes as thousands of Spain’s Olympic tickets remain unsold including tickets for the opening and closing ceremony and the men’s 100 metres final.
From today, all EU residents will be able to purchase these tickets through Viagogo website, reports the Daily Mail.
Olympic organisers say that up to a million more seats will be made available once capacities of the Games venues have been finalised.
To buy surplus Spanish tickets, visit the website for the Comite Olimpico Espanol at http://coe.ticketpa.com/
Diane
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