Studentcity.com representatives told College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Noel Kamm that she had two choices: miss her midterm or miss her flight to Cancun.

“When we booked the trip, they told us that the flight would be sometime this weekend, but probably not Friday. If it was Friday, they said it would be sometime in the afternoon or evening,” she said. “But when we got our flight reservations two weeks ago, they had us leaving at 8 a.m. on Friday, meaning a bunch of us were going to miss midterms.”

When Kamm called the Internet-based company to reschedule her Spring Break departure though, employees informed her she was out of luck.

“Every time we called, we got stuck with this same one rude guy who told us that there were absolutely no options; we couldn’t have a refund, and we couldn’t get on any other flights. He basically said we had to choose between our exams and our vacation,” she said.

Several phone calls and two representatives later, Kamm located an employee who was able to place some of her group on a later flight, saving them from having to make the agonizing decision between their trips and their tests.

“My group has 15 people in it,” Kamm said. “They were able to put eight of us on a Sunday flight to Cancun and the rest are just going to go ahead on Friday. They had a limited number of seats. If any more of us had had a midterm, there would have been a major problem because they ran out of room.”

Kamm’s story is not an uncommon one. Each year, thousands of college students purchase low-cost trips to exotic locales through companies like Studentcity.com. Many who do so find their week of relaxation transformed into one of stress and frustration when they encounter problems such as delayed flights, run-down hotels and low-quality food.

According to Lucy Hirleman, a Certified Travel Counselor and president of Berkshire Travel in Newfoundland, New Jersey, a major cause of traveler frustration is the fine print in contracts. It often allows travel companies to place customers in alternate hotels that are not as nice as the hotel advertised and makes it difficult to receive a refund or change plans.

“Students have to read the fine print. That’s the bottom line. If they don’t, they can be very unpleasantly surprised,” she said.

Hirleman also noted widespread use of charter flights by travel companies as another consistent source of problems.

“Charter airlines can cancel their flights up to 10 days in advance,” she said. “Also, charters are allowed to change schedules at the last minute and delay their flights for up to 48 hours with no compensation. The tour company isn’t obligated to provide you alternate transportation or compensation, either. Students just have to be aware that trips won’t always be what they thought they would be.”

Will Houston, a senior in the School of Management, knows first-hand how trips arranged by travel companies sometimes do not live up to expectations.

“For Spring Break one year, we went to Tampa using one of those travel companies,” he said. “We were told the hotel was really nice, but when we got there the hotel was awful. Three toilets backed up every day.

“People ended up sleeping on each other’s floors because some of the rooms were so bad. It was ridiculous. There’s no guarantee. I mean, if you buy something at Wal-Mart and don’t like it, you can take it back and get a refund, but generally you can’t do that with these trips.”

Although his group was given a partial refund to compensate for the unacceptable accommodations, Houston remains dissatisfied and wary of Spring Break operations that promise what seems to be the impossible.

“I don’t even use those companies anymore,” he said. “They can say you’ll have a nice hotel in the historic district, but you never know if they mean the hotel is nice in relation to the rest of the historic district, which is a cesspool, or if it is nice as in four-star. You just never know what you’re getting.”

Joanie Cahill, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, is another unhappy traveler.

“Last year, for Spring Break, we decided to skip the whole Mexico scene and go to Spain,” she said. “We used EF Tours, and it was all-inclusive. The flight and the hotels were okay, but the food was terrible. The worst was the night we had cold spaghetti noodles tossed with tomato paste and canned tuna fish for dinner. I expected good food, and the EF people told us the food would be good,” she said. “But it wasn’t.”

Although Cahill and her group complained, the company took no action.

“They apologized, but their basic attitude was, ‘Oh well,’” she said. “It was annoying. I probably won’t use a company again. I’ll just book my own trip.”

And after her ordeal, Kamm seemed to agree.

“Next time, I’ll make my own plans,” she said. “At least then I’ll know what I’ll be getting for my money.”