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cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

Cheating swine.

www.japantimes.com has a story on how HIS travel agency has been swindling foreigner customers for years by charging about 20,000 yen or more higher prices. Go to that website and read it while you can - you have to register to read Japan Times stories after the story has been up for a few days.

I am disgusted by these HIS people and their excuses. In a normal country they would be sued but of course this is Japan so lying and cheating can be excused in all sorts of ways. I did a calculation based on info from Jp friends and I and my husband were cheated out of around 200,000 yen over the time we used HIS when we lived in Japan.

Get angry about it too - and remember that anger without action means nothing. Boycott HIS and tell them why - the fact that too many Japanese feel they are justified in pulling stunts like this has no relevance in the real world.

luckbox · Joined: 18 Mar 2006 Posts: 180

JaredW · Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:04 am Post subject:

That is eye-opening, and, if true, quite alarming. Now is that exclusive to the Japanese branch? Why I ask is because I always use the SFO branch since I live here in California. Thay have always offered me the best deal because I check.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

J. · Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 327

Yes, this is what I was saying a while back...that you can never get the advertised price when you call. I got disgusted with them about a year ago when they tried to jack up the price of a trip to Vancouver and told them it was false advertising and I wouldn't be using them. At that time I didn't know about the policy, but just that I was always getting stung with higher prices, which they always attempted to justify with some fishy reason. Now I will not be using them EVER AGAIN; I have switched agencies, fed up with their tactics.

I urge everyone to do the same unless they quit this policy.Shame on them.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

I have used HIS travel many many times and I found their quotes exactly the same as STA or Across. How could they be charging more unless they were all doing it too. Confused

No question there is a lot of collusion going on, prices are outrageous during peak periods of travel, sometimes 400-500% over the low season.

That story really makes me ill, not so much that they were cheating us, but in their justifications. I probably have spent close to 2 million yen with them over the years, but never again. If the gov't had some balls, they'd make HIS pay us back. That is how they would learn their lesson.

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

Nothing new here... I wrote a letter to the Yomiuri about it a long time ago but they chose not to publish it because of HIS advertising dollars (even though I didn't name the company explicitly). I'm glad the JT had the balls to publish what DY wouldn't.

Debito Arudo has also known about HIS charging foreigners much more for tickets for a while now.... He has been trying, but getting something done about it is not that easy.

The travel insurance company that HIS goes through charges foreigners the same amount of money as nhonjin but they get only half the coverage.. (Effectively, making it double price).

azarashi sushi · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 562 Location: Shinjuku

Thanks for bringing that to our attention Cafebleu.

That makes me so angry! Thank God I've never used HIS. Fortunately in Tokyo there are lots of other travel agents so there is no reason to use them.

The reasons they give are so pathetic I feel insulted that they actually expect anyone to believe them.

shuize · Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 1270

I've also had a bad experience with HIS. But I'm glad this thread is now going to help me keep a vow I made to tell as many people as possible how much they suck.

In our case, my Japanese wife booked some tickets with HIS but after my wife paid the agent called back and said she was sorry but she (the HIS agent) miscalculated the price by around 1,000 yen. It sort of sounds like what was described in the article, but the amount was so little, maybe not.

Me: "That's too bad. It's not a lot of money, but we already paid and it's a pain in the ass for her to go back to the bank to wire more money again -- not to mention the extra 500 yen bank transfer fee. You admitted it's your mistake. You should cover it."

Her: "I can't do that."

To make a long story short, they wouldn't do anything to make their mistake right. Like an idiot, I didn't follow up with a supervisor. Rather than pay a cancellation fee we ultimately paid the difference. But as I told the woman on the phone:

"We'll pay the 1,000 yen to cover your incompetence. But trust me when I say we'll never use your company again and I will tell as many people as I can how much you suck."

ETA: Reading that article makes me want to call up HIS, spend about an hour on the phone wasting their time running through all kinds of different travel options, then, just when I'm about ready to make up my mind say, "Oh, you know what, since I'm a foreigner, I guess I'll be using someone who doesn't try to screw me over." Then call right back and start over again.

I also agree with azarashi sushi, the HIS explanation is moronic. Especially since it sounds like the airlines didn't know anything about it and charge a fixed price regardless.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

I am a bit shocked and disappointed. Having had my Japanese wife book our tickets many times through HIS, I never dreamed that they would use such a flimsy reason as they think people wouldn't use the return portion of their ticket as a justification for charging more for tickets that are sold to foreigners. We have gotten some great deals, but certainly as Gordan said, they should be made to give refunds to people that they have overcharged in the past.

bornslippy1981 · Joined: 02 Aug 2004 Posts: 271

I used HIS once, and paid the same price that was listed on the United Airlines webiste.

Maybe mine was an isolated incident, or are travel agencies usually cheaper than purchasing online from the airline?

That was the first and only time I ever purchased a ticket from a travel agency.

guest of Japan · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 1601 Location: Japan

I'm guilty of doing exactly what HIS complains about. When my wife and I moved to the US we bought round-trip tickets because they were each about 10,000 yen cheaper than one-way tickets. I don't feel like I wronged the company at all because there is absolutely no reason why a one way ticket should be more expensive. Additionally, I can't remember ever seeing an empty seat on a plane I've taken going to or from Japan. There are always people waiting on stand-by.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

mtheta · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 76

Wow, I am glad this thread was started. I am heading to Japan in a month and was actually told by my new employer to use HIS to book my flights. She said they had really cheap flights. I am a super wizz when it comes to finding the lowest flights so I did my own research and ended up using a different agency here in Canada.

My concern is what to do once I am in Japan and want to travel. I tried finding budget airlines, but most websites are in Japanese, so I feel like I am stuck.

Does anyone one know of on-line search engines that quote cheap domestic flights for Japan? I found ANA has been most reasonable so far.

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Across Travel, No. 1 Travel and quite a lot of others cater to the foreign community in Japan and often have really good prices. Google and you should be able to find their English websites. These 2 and others advertise in Metropolis, the free English magazine you can pick up all over Tokyo and other places in Japan too.