When Adam Wescott paid $1,050 to STA Travel last month for a 7-day, ‘all-inclusive’ spring break trip to Cancun, he had little concern about the quality, much less the reliability of the package.
But as of yesterday, he had yet to be notified of arrival and return dates, flight arrangements and hotel accommodations.
‘Considering that we’re suppose to leave a week from tomorrow,’ Wescott, a College of Communication freshman said, ‘it isn’t the best of feelings.’
But as one of the 40,000 students expected to visit Cancun during March and April, Wescott’s impromptu travel itinerary isn’t unusual. According to Jennie Dufour, manager of STA Travel on Commonwealth Avenue, many agencies cannot release details of group trips until the last minute, due to the difficulty booking charter flights and a large number of hotel rooms in popular spring break destinations.
Working with Sun Splash Tours, a New York-based agency with 15 years of experience, to plan Wescott’s trip, Dufour said STA uses only reputable companies to coordinate student packages. While some agencies advertising in the George Sherman Union and the halls of the College of Arts and Sciences building entice travelers with promises of beach parties and all-you-can-drink bars, Dufour advises buyers to ask a lot of questions and request a written contract before handing over any money.
‘Make sure you call the company to confirm your flights and know whether or not the country requires a passport or birth certificate to enter as well,’ Dufour said.
However, even the fine print on many travel contracts is often far from a stress-free guarantee. STA provides a list of guidelines for vacationers using any independent charter service, which usually includes smaller airlines like Icelandair and Miami Airlines, warning them of such potential hazards:
‘The length of your flight may be grueling with several stopovers on the way,’ it states. ‘Flight departure and arrival times are also subject to change with little or no notice, and it is your responsibility to reconfirm your flight.
‘The number of beds in a room is not always equal to a number of people in a room,’ it says. ‘Spring break operators reserve the right to change your hotel to one of greater or equal value at any time.’
Additionally, airlines are no longer required by law to provide compensation for delays unless they are in excess of 48 hours, according to the guidelines.
Wescott said that even though details of his trip have been vague, he and his four friends were still saving a significant amount of money.
‘We looked up airfare and hotels online and realized it would be much more expensive if we booked them ourselves,’ he said.
With increased airport security and post-9/11 fears of going abroad, 39 percent of college students still traveled last year during spring break. According to Student Monitor, the research group that conducted the survey, that number was an increase of five percent from 1998the last time figures were taken. Florida accounted for 25 percent of the group’s final destination, where California claimed 13 percent and Mexico took 8 percent.
While Panama City, Florida, is bracing itself this year for 450,000 students and South Padre Island, Texas, and Daytona Beach each expect 150,000, Cancun officials are estimating to receive roughly one-third fewer visitors this year.
And despite the number of students affected by poor vacation packages which consistently rank near the top of the Consumer Union’s top scams and take in $12 billion annually shoddy spring break trips are not always about simply scamming travelers out of their cash, said Robert Williams, president and CEO of the branch of the Better Business Bureau serving Eastern Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont.
‘Not all fraudulent offers involve losing money; some are simply misleading,’ Williams said. ‘The accommodations may not be what you expected, or what you thought you paid for. And the actual cost of the package is sometimes misrepresented when companies fail to inform customers about additional fees.’
According to a recent consumer alert released by the Federal Trade Commission, traveling students are advised to contact the U.S. Department of Transportation Public Charter Licensing Division to make sure the charter operator has properly filed to operate charter flights from the departure city to the destination.
The FTC also recommends that students know their rights as travelers. They are permitted to cancel their package if the booking company enforces a ‘major change,’ which includes a change of departure or return date or city, a hotel substitution to a property not named in the contract or an overall price increase of more than 10 percent.
But most of all, they advise reading all terms of any contract before signing a deal and presenting a credit card.
The fear of an unpleasant trip, plus her own searches for plane and hotel deals online prompted CAS sophomore Liza Tabachnik to plan her trip to Daytona Beach without the help of an agency.
‘It didn’t seem like you were getting a whole lot with some of these packages,’ she said. ‘And I’m not 21, so the ‘all-inclusive’ drinking factor doesn’t affect me anyway because we are staying in the U.S.’
A tight schedule and limited budget also played a significant role in Tabachnik’s itinerary, which she said includes free Disney World passes from a friend who works there.
‘I am definitely going for cheap,’ she said. ‘We’re not going out as much as originally planned and are sleeping six people to a room.’