While thousands of Boston University students are gearing up to jet set to lush destinations, ready to release their stresses through daiquiris by the pool during their week-long hiatus from the trying pressures of college life, students may be unaware that they have made themselves the prime target of financial exploitation.
OPEN FUN, HIDDEN FEES
The lavish, bikini-clad sand adventures filled with wrist bracelets, non-stop partying and wet T-shirt contests may prove to be more problematic than the typical worry of later seeing yourself in a compromising position on the Internet.
Students expecting to enjoy a relaxing time off from exams and classes have returned after traveling to tropical exotic getaways like Acapulco, Cancun or Jamaica reporting that they have been hit hard with hidden fees from their one-price-travel package, according to a March 2004 report released by Massachusetts Student Public Interest Research Group titled “Spring Broke: How to Avoid a Spring Break Ripoff.”
According to the results of the report, thousands of students each year opt to purchase a one-price-travel package from companies like Student City, where all the arrangements for their trip are made on their behalf. While these packages may initially be an enticing option for students by offering competitive prices on necessary arrangements such as airfare, hotel accommodations, and providing the necessary wrist bands to get into nightclubs, these travel packages often have hidden fees and have proven to be worth more hassle and loss than the extra money they initially saved.
The 2004 report by MassPIRG, which surveyed Spring Break travel advertisements and flyers circulating around twelve colleges across the country, found that every single advertisement examined was marked with “hidden, confusing and misleading fees.”
Through their research at college campuses across the country in winter 2004, MassPIRG found advertisements for 17 different travel companies that presented students with trips across the country and outside of the country. In its report, MassPIRG looked at the company prices for a one-week Spring Break package to Acapulco departing in mid-March, taking into consideration the price-per-person with a four-person hotel room.
The report found that “hidden fees” for each advertised trip were only marked in “very fine print and totaled an average of up to $367,” causing a resulting price for the Spring Break trip to be, on average, up to 62 percent higher than the prices initially advertised.
The largest percentage difference between an advertised price on a travel company flyer and the actual price including the fine-print hidden fees was for the company Paradise Parties, where the actual price of the entire package was $1016, which equaled over double the initial advertised rate of $499, according to the report.
ParadiseParties.com states the average price for a trip to Acapulco, including hotel and airfare accommodations for a trip from March 10 to March 17 leaving from Logan Airport, starts at $899.
Paradise Parties Spring Break Vacations website includes a frequently asked questions section, which is only available after searching the fine-print where it states the initially advertised price does not include an added departure tax “that currently ranges from $47-$48 and a $10 processing fee.” The fees, however, are included in the total package price and a breakdown of the fees can be provided only after contacting Paradise Parties Spring Break Vacations.
WARM WEATHER WARNINGS
MassPIRG, in their report, warns that in addition to providing deceptive marketing tactics, student-traveler companies also often require students to give up many of their rights such as reserving the right to “change travel and accommodation” plans at their discretion. These travel companies also require travelers to sign a contract where they waive their legal right to later file a dispute with the travel company if something goes wrong with their trip.
MassPIRG Consumer Advocate Eric Bourassa said certain travel companies exploit unknowing students by gauging them with hidden fees and “confusing terms because they know students are less experienced at negotiating a deal, and that students are eager to book Spring Break plans.”
Bourassa said he does not foresee the exploitation and travel scams by travel companies that target students ending in the near future.
“As long as there is Spring Break I’m sure there will be travel scams targeting students,” Bourassa said. “It’s just important that students are aware of these scams, ask a lot of questions and shop around.”
Bourassa recommended students shopping around for one-price Spring Break travel packages should be cognizant of the fact that fine-print hidden fees and confusing terms and conditions are routine practices for travel companies.
“They should read any flyers on campus with a critical eye,” Bourassa said.
Bourassa also said travel companies that advertise for Spring Break packages should advertise all fees including any necessary mandatory fees, such as departure taxes and processing fees. He added, “Potential fees and price increases should be listed in readable type next to the base price.”
He also recommended that travel companies revoke the practice of contracts requiring travelers give up their legal rights. Bourassa said, all websites and flyers should legibly display a company’s terms and conditions, including their privacy policies.
RISKY BUSINESS
The rush of thoughts about warm afternoons on the beach may lead students to gloss over the very fine print of travel packages, but there may be a hard-wired reason students throw caution to the ocean wind.
Alya Guseva, BU assistant professor of sociology, students who are embarking on Spring Break believe they are taking risks but in actuality, they are racked with uncertainty.
“Risk is a probabilistic notion, and students certainly do not know statistical odds of positive [or] negative outcomes,” Guseva said in an email. “Risk judgments are made based on analysis of past observations of a similar kind . . . A fairly large number of similar students taking same trips in the past — their experience, whether negative or positive, could indicate the likelihood of making it back home safely.
“Uncertainty is the situation when there is no possibility of making such probabilistic judgments,” she continued. “In general, individuals are not very good at making risk judgments, since they usually lack data and processing capacities.”
College of Arts and Sciences senior Arlyn Depagter said she and her friends encountered problems during her 2005 Spring Break to Acapulco after using Student City.
“After we paid for the trip, they tacked on an additional fuel charge to the airplane price,” Depagter said. “They provided us with horrible flight times. When we arrived at the airport, we sat on a cramped plane because they did not have enough flight attendants.”
Depagter said she and her friends took a different route in planning their Spring Break this year. “We avoided all of those companies this year and went through a travel agent who was a relative,” Depager said. “There was security of knowing that they were doing what was right for us.”