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Caution needed when buying trips
When Erin Allison was a first-year student, she bought a spring break vacation and had visions of four-star hotels and white sandy beaches.
What she got from her travel company, however, was far more than she had bargained for.
"We started paying for the trip in October, and we were supposed to leave (for Cancun, Mexico) the Friday before spring break," Allison said. "The company gave us no flight time, but they called us on Thursday night and told us we were flying from Rochester instead of Minneapolis."
Having class until three hours before her flight was scheduled to leave Minneapolis, Allison and her friends were already under the gun to get in the air on time. She said the company paid for a shuttle from Minneapolis to Rochester, but the nearly 90-minute drive caused the travelers to miss their scheduled flight.
"Basically, we got screwed out of an entire night," said Allison, now a junior. "We got into Cancun around 1 a.m. but didn't get into the hotel until almost 4 a.m."
When the group got to the hotel, they had another letdown coming. Expecting to find a beachside resort, Allison and company were shocked to find that their deluxe hotel was located on top of a mini-mall.
"There was lots of extra charges. The guy said he was really sorry, but you could tell he didn't care," she said. "He offered us a (drink) wristband that we already paid for. He sure didn't offer to give us our $109 back."
In total, Allison said that she spent over $800 just to get to Mexico, and the cost of the wristband pushed the expense to more than $900.
The moral of this story and the hard truth are one and the same: the travel company reserves the right to change flight times, places of departure and hotel accommodations in every contract for travel packages.
"If you buy a travel package, 99 percent of them come with everything included," said Alexis Rochefort, a public relations specialist with the Institute of Certified Travel Agents, a company in the business of educating the travel industry. "The most important thing you can do is to research every part of your travel package. Call the hotel, confirm your reservations. Call the airline. You need paper proof."
Rochefort said that there is no way to tell how many people get a raw deal from travel companies each year, since many people don't register complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
The main reason that companies reserve the right to change accommodations is because they don't book enough rooms. Many travel brokers have inside connections at resorts and can get great group rates and then overbook, expecting cancellations. If not enough people cancel (most vacation packages are non-refundable), then room shuffling happens.
Even if a traveler is dissatisfied enough to take legal action against the travel company, he or she will still have a difficult time getting any financial compensation.
"It's very hard to get your money back, depending on your contract," Rochefort said. "You can call a lawyer, but even one loophole can lead to your getting nothing. Don't ever sign anything you're not comfortable with."
The ICTA offers this free advice to prospective spring break travelers:
- Always check your travel agent's credentials. Ask them if they have a Certified Travel Counselor on staff. A Certified Travel Counselor has a minimum of five years of full-time travel industry experience and has completed a rigorous academic study program and accreditation exam.
- Do a background check on your travel agent. Inquire as to how many years the company has been in business. Ask your contact person how many times he has visited the location. Don't hesitate to call the Better Business Bureau; that's why it's there. Also ask to speak to a satisfied customer. If there aren't any, maybe you should go another route.
- Get everything in writing. Before you spend one penny, get a contract and insist that every detail of the trip is included � airline, hotel, restrictions, cancellation policies. You should get the total cost listed, including any add-ons or last minute charges that could be anticipated. Your package should also list the conditions under which your accommodations may be changed.
- Pay by credit card. This will help to protect against fraud. Paying with a credit card creates a paper trail that can be traced to the travel company, in case they decide to disappear. If your travel company does not accept credit cards, do not do business with them.
- Know your rights. You have the right to cancel a charter flight without penalty if the operator changes the itinerary (flight or hotel) and if you find yourself dissatisfied with the change. You may also cancel if the price increases at the last minute, but only if you have it in writing.
Not everyone understands the power they possess as consumers. Erin Allison didn't and she paid for it once. It hasn't, however, put her off on spring break.
"I'm going this year," she said. "But only to Canada."
Matthew Janda can be reached at: [email protected]
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