Here’s one thing to keep in mind when you book your own vacation via the Internet: If you inadvertently screw things up, you have no one to blame or scream at. A few careless keystrokes can wreck the best laid plans. It’s the best reason I can think of to turn to a travel agent, especially if your trip is complex–multiple destinations, carriers, hotels, tour operators you’re unfamiliar with. You get the picture.
Another thing to keep in mind: Ignore those phony faxes offering you a last-minute deal and those spam e-mails that congratulate you for winning a free trip. Do you believe in the tooth fairy?
This is not a blanket endorsement for travel agents, but a good agent can save you time, and most likely money, by doing the bookings for you. These days you can expect to pay some fees–$25 to $50 per airline ticket–to have the reservations done by an agent. Few businesses do work for nothing. And, should something go amiss with your trip, you have someone to perhaps bail you out.
Many people have never used a travel agent, or a certified travel counselor (the MBA’s of the industry), so let this serve as a primer.
Some years ago, I interviewed a president of the American Society of Travel Agents, an organization of more than 20,000 members. When I asked about trip planning, he said something like: “Go to a travel agent. I just hope to hell you get a good one.” The same, of course, can be said for doctors, dentists and lawyers.
Most travel agents are members of ASTA, or the Association of Retail Travel Agents, a smaller group. Both have standards and codes of ethics their members should adhere to. Since neither organization really polices its members, it is possible to find a lousy agent.
For starters, ask friends, relatives, neighbors and colleagues for recommendations. Word-of-mouth generally will turn up someone good. Lists of ASTA agents also can be found on the organization’s Web site (www.astanet.com). Then, the ball is in your court.
Be inquisitive. Ask questions about the agent’s experience, the agencies fee schedule, how payments are processed, what kind of consumer protection the agency offers and how your vacation investment should be protected, things like that.
Beyond this, how can consumers best protect themselves?
Use a travel agent and pay only with a credit card, said Richard M. Copland, ASTA’s current president. One of the advantages of a credit card, he said, is that under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, if services are not delivered, the consumer has 60 days from the billing date to dispute the charge. In the case of a cruise, where you might make a deposit six months out, Copland recommended travel insurance from an independent firm. “It’s an extra expense,” he said, “but in today’s world, you must be defensive, you must be protective. If something is going to happen, it’s going to happen.”
A lot of people are encouraged to buy insurance from the supplier, Copland said, “but if you buy insurance from the supplier and the supplier goes bankrupt, what about his insurance?
“These are little things the traveling public quite often learns the hard way by trying to save a couple of bucks, to do things yourself. In so many cases, when you are dealing with an agent, it really doesn’t cost you more money.”
Thousands of do-it-yourself travelers love to look for bargains on the Internet, but it’s often tough to know if companies are legitimate.
“One thing you’ll find when you’re using travel agents–travel agencies personally or through their networks with others–is that they are fairly familiar with most travel sellers,” Copland said. “ASTA has its own chat room where agents can talk back and forth. Let’s assume you’re sending a couple to San Diego. You have some vendor out in San Diego, but no idea [about the operation]. You can find an agent in San Diego that might be familiar with that operation.”
Copland said there’s no question that’s one of the major functions of travel agents–knowing who the suppliers are.
“It’s a very significant problem nowadays. One of the biggest scams in the country right now is in travel. What’s the old saying–`If it’s too good to be true it probably is’? There’s no question that if you go by yourself on the Internet, or you see an ad somewhere, we like to say, `Without a travel agent you are on your own. Good luck.’ It’s very dangerous.”
Copland noted the proliferation of come-ons via e-mails and faxes.
“`Come down to Ft. Lauderdale, free, blah, blah, blah.’ Trust me, there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Copland said.
Patricia D. Kelly, chief of the Illinois attorney general’s consumer protection division, also warned of the deluge of travel offers via unsolicited faxes and e-mail spam.
“Anything vague like `major hotels, luxury cruise ships, dream vacations’–those are so vague that they really are meaningless. Yet those are the words that we see in solicitations that lead to trouble for consumers,” Kelly said. “These are travel opportunities that are more expensive than you think they are going to be. They are red flags to avoid.”
But a goodly number of people ignore the red flags. Kelly said her consumer protection office received 729 travel-related complaints statewide last year and 311 so far this year. Some people complain about the unsolicited faxes or send a copy of spam e-mail, so not all the complaints came from people who were actually hurt, she said.
Go to a local travel agent with a fixed address where you can talk face-to-face with a person, and get everything in writing, Kelly advised. “The complaints we get are about the people who are more devious in their presentations. Travel agents have not been the problem.”
Travel agents are not regulated by the state of Illinois–though to sell airline tickets they must be accredited by the Airline Reporting Corporation, a ticket accounting and distribution firm for 130 airlines. The Illinois’ Travel Promotion Consumer Protection Act requires travel promoters–tour operators and other entities that don’t fall under ARC–to carry $1 million or more of liability insurance and a surety bond of $100,000.
Nancy Kelly, president of Kelly Cruises, a cruise-only agency in suburban Oak Brook who had been in business for 24 years, offered this insight:
“Today the majority of people, more than 80 percent, pay by credit card. They give us their credit card number–generally in our business it’s over the telephone–and we call the charge [for deposits and final payments] into the cruise line. If the client is not in our office, we send them paperwork, asking them to sign a universal credit card form authorizing the use of the card and the amount to be charged. If they pay by check, they send the check to us. The check goes into an escrow account. We turn around and in 24-48 hours send the money to the cruise line.”
Since the statedoes not regulate travel agencies, Kelly said, “We maintain the escrow account as a good business practice. We’re not sitting on clients’ funds because we don’t earn a commission until after the client sails. We also carry a bond and insurance because of membership in Cruise Lines International Association and Virtuoso [an upscale group of agencies]. We must carry a minimum of a $1 million in insurance, which we do through the Berkeley Group. Our clients’ funds are very secure.” Kelly added:
“When I first came into the cruise business, people were very concerned about who we were and if their money was going where it was supposed to go. Today we rarely have anybody that even asks.”
Perhaps the best advice for consumers comes from the Federal Trade Commission. It echoes, if not emphasizes, the consumer warnings that come from ASTA and state attorneys general:
“You get what you pay for.”
The FTC urges people to:
Buy your vacation travel packages from a business you know.
Verify arrangements in writing with your travel agent before you pay.
Use a credit card to make your purchase.
A lot of devious travel operators would love to get you on the hook for “a dream vacation” or a “free vacation.” Don’t be a sucker.
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E-mail Alfred Borcover: aborcover@aol.com
