Now Eurostar and BA hike their prices if you’re British

BRITISH families are being ripped off to the tune of hundreds of pounds on holiday bookings, a Mail investigation has revealed.

Tourists from the UK are often charged significantly more for summer breaks than their European counterparts – with premiums applied to both travel and accommodation.

It comes after the Mail reported how British families are paying more for hotels and entry at Disneyland Paris than those in France and Belgium, sparking an investigation by the European Commission.

But the issue is far more widespread – and also applies to package holidays, flights and international trains.

The Mail found that a family of four would pay:

£523 more for a package holiday in Majorca than the Germans;

£397 more for a BA return flight from London to New York than the French are charged from Paris.

More than £300 extra for a oneway trip on the Eurostar train from London to Paris than French passengers coming the other way.

Holiday firms are not the only culprits, with global brands such as Apple and Amazon also accused of over- charging UK customers compared with other markets.

Last night Marc Gander, of the Consumer Action Group, said: ‘It seems that whenever someone has a British postcode, businesses feel totally unabashed about charging more. We do know that prices can vary between countries because of different tax regimes and issues around currency conversion, but the differences here are so high that they look like profiteering.’

When booking with UK firm Thomas Cook, The Mail found that a one-week holiday for a family of four at a four- star hotel in La Dorada, Majorca, comes in at £2,541.96 on its British website.

But the same break is £2,018.30 on the firm’s German site, amounting to a difference of £523.66.

Meanwhile, a family of four flying with British Airways on a return trip from London to New York in August will pay £4,271.44.

This is £397.14 more than the French return fare from Paris with the airline’s sister carrier OpenSkies, which is advertised on the BA website.

BA also operates a flight from Paris to New York that stops at Heathrow to collect UK passengers before crossing the Atlantic. A one-way ticket for a British fam- ily from Heathrow is £4,036.44 – £454.44 more than the French pay.

On the Eurostar, a ticket from London to Paris in August comes in at £498 – more than double the £194.36 price for a French family coming in the other direction.

Thomas Cook said the timing of school summer holidays in different countries can partly explain the gap. Children return to classes earlier in Germany than in the UK, meaning holiday prices drop.

A spokesman added: ‘ We are committed to providing our customers with great value holidays across all source markets. Costs in different markets across the supply chain, such as hotel or flight charges, are inevitably subject to price changes in response to customer demand over the year.’

BA said it was unfair to compare the OpenSkies fare with its own as the services are different. A spokesman added that it offered a wide range of competitive fares.

Eurostar blamed exchange rate fluctuations for the discrepancies.

A spokesman said: ‘We work hard to ensure our ticket prices are the same across all our markets. However, recent fluctuations in the exchange rate have impacted our pricing system, and we have been working to adjust this.

‘From Tuesday, August 4, the system will be updated to ensure ticket prices are more aligned with the current exchange rate.’

Disneyland Paris has denied over-charging British families, saying its basic packages cost the same – give or take exchange rates – when booked direct.