Letter: Traveller's fare

Sir: There is far more to complain about in the way our airlines treat their customers than the inexcusable over-booking antics mentioned by Professor Peter Mathieson (letter, 6 November).

When booking to travel to Munich from Stansted via Amsterdam on KLM/Air UK flights, I was quoted vastly different rates by a travel agent in person and by booking clerks for Stansted on the phone. I tried Stansted once more the next day to find the rates had changed yet again. Inquiring how many rates there were, I was told there were no fewer than nine different fares charged for the same flights and these could change by the day as if one was buying a share on the stock market.

Why aren't airlines, like any other commercial organisation, required to publish their fares and on what conditions these fares are offered? Perhaps Peter Mandelson can look into these anomalies.

ALAN BLYTH

Lavenham, Suffolk