Travel scams and how to avoid them

by Chris Owen on

Free trips that are not really free, discount pricing that’s not really available and memberships in travel clubs that don’t really exist? These are some of the ploys used by crooks posing as legitimate travel agents to take our money. Make no doubt about it, these people are criminals and law enforcement is after them.

Sunshine states of Florida and California have strict rules and government oversight to keep travel scams under control. Other states are learning the hard way as crooks move to areas they think are safe for prey on unsuspecting consumers. New Jersey is right in the middle of debunking a travel scheme, freezing the bank accounts and charging a husband and wife team with violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act on several counts.
Travel Deals of Marlton along with owner Daryl Turner and his wife, Robyn Bernstein promoted travel “seminars” through postcards delivered by mail. Unsuspecting guests attending the seminars were given vouchers for a free eight-night cruise plus free airfare. Later, company representatives would meet privately with the “winners” to pitch various levels of a club membership required to redeem the free travel along with assorted prices, ranging from $2,500 to $8,995 and an annual fee of $299.

Playing a shell game of sorts, those who actually purchased memberships then tried to book were either told their dates or requested accommodations were unavailable.

It’s an all too frequent scam that is entirely avoidable. The old saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” goes a long way towards staying clear of these scams. Scambusters.org says travel deals and offers through the mail are almost always scams and says to beware of phone calls too.

“If you are offered the travel deal by phone, be very skeptical. If you’re unfamiliar with the company, get its name, address, and local telephone number. Check their track record if you can. (Unless you can find a legitimate local or regional office for the company, it’s probably bogus.)”

The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has some good advice too:

  • Retain a healthy dose of skepticism. Be extremely skeptical about unsolicited e-mail, postcard and phone solicitations saying you’ve been selected to receive a fabulous vacation or anything free. Be especially wary of firms requiring you to wait at least 60 days to take your trip.
  • Do your homework. Some offers might sound great on the surface, but be sure to read the fine-print. Certain offers impose so many requirements and restrictions, such as black-out dates and companion fees, that you will either never have the chance to take the trip or you will end up paying more than had you made the arrangements on your own or used an ASTA travel agent
  • Run a “background check.” You should vet the companies from which you purchase travel services. You can do this by checking to see if they are members of ASTA or by searching for the company on the Better Business Bureau’s Web site. Other sites to check are www.complaintsboard.com and www.ripoffreport.com.
  • Keep private information private. Never give out your credit card number unless you initiate the transaction and you are confident about the company with which you are doing business.
  • Get the facts. You should receive complete details in writing about any trip prior to payment. These details should include the total price; cancellation and change penalties, if any; and specific information about all components of the package.
  • Protect yourself. Always pay with a credit card if possible. Even legitimate companies can go out of business. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, credit card customers have the right to refuse paying for charges for services not rendered. Details of the Fair Credit Billing Act can be found at the Federal Trade Commission’s Web site.

Flickr photo by B Rosen

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Poison alcohol kills Russian tourists: three things they should have known

by Sean McLachlan on

Poisonous alcohol has been blamed for the deaths of three Russians on a cruise off the Turkish resort of Bodrum.

The Russians were part of a trip by travel agency managers exploring tourism possibilities in Turkey. In total, 20 Russians and one Turk were poisoned by the drinks. The $50 cruise included 10-12 mixed drinks. While some reported that the alcohol had a strange taste, it appears that didn’t stop them from drinking it.

Initial reports suggest methanol was added to the booze.

This tragedy could have easily been avoided if these travel professionals had followed three simple rules:

1. Be wary of alcohol in Muslim countries. I’m sorry if this offends any legitimate Muslim brewers or vintners out there, but the fact of the matter is that much of the alcohol produced in Muslim nations is substandard, and apparently in this case downright dangerous. A culture that frowns on drinking pushes drinking underground. This lowers standards both for producers and consumers. Also, consumers are less likely to know what’s good and what isn’t. I’ve traveled all around the Muslim world and have seen a lot of dodgy booze.

2. If it tastes strange, don’t swallow. This is standard travel health practice. One of my worst cases of food poisoning happened in India. It was a hot day and I bought a local brand of cola. I took a big slug of it and swallowed, only to wince at an acrid, industrial chemical taste. I spit out what remained in my mouth but it was too late. Within an hour my gut felt like I’d swallowed a dozen razor blades. I learned my lesson: taste first.

3. Don’t overdrink. The cruise included ten to twelve mixed drinks? That’s poison even if the booze is normal. Overdrinking overseas (or even in the wrong bar back home) can make you ill, get you robbed, or worse. Drink sensibly. You’ll enjoy your vacation more.

[Photo courtesy Georges Jansoone]

Travel blog celebrates Memorial Day

by Chris Owen on
Whatever your plans are for this Memorial Day, odds are there will be thoughts of someone who served in the military. Formerly known as Decoration Day, today commemorates U.S. Service members who died while in the military service and is a reason for parades, shopping, family get-togethers, fireworks, trips to the beach, celebrations, picnics and more. Memorial Day is also a day when those who write blogs reflect on what the day means to them.

Princess Cruises blog, 50 Essential Experiences: The Travel Bucket List blog posts once a week and has taken us all over the world with personal accounts of travel from some of their longest-serving employees. The blog started with an account of President and CEO Alan Buckelew’s service in Vietnam. Today, the blog returns to Buckelew with some further thoughts

“This Memorial Day weekend will take me to Washington, D.C. as my mother-in-law is laid to rest with her husband in Arlington Cemetery. While there, my family and I will have the honor of visiting the Vietnam Memorial and observing the Rolling Thunder “Ride to the Wall,” a motorcycle ride to support POW/MIAs.”

Buckelew goes on to tell us about half-scale traveling version of the Vietnam Memorial called The Wall That Heals and about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund‘s Call for Photos, a campaign to collect a photograph for each of the more than 58,000 men and women whose names are inscribed on The Wall.

“The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is working to gather all 58,272 photos of those with names etched into the memorial to make sure no face is ever forgotten – nearly 19,000 have been collected so far.”

Another blog with Memorial Day content/wishes is The Word, All Entertainment, All The Time where you can vote for your favorite of the 10 greatest war movies ever made or listen to 20 Songs To Celebrate Memorial Day.

Flickr photo by paul-simpson.org

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Video of the Day – Cruise ship time-lapse

by Stephen Greenwood on

We have a lot of great cruise coverage here on Gadling, and today’s Video of the Day is a must-see for all of our cruise ship fanatics out there.

Captured onboard a series of ships such as the Splendour of the Seas & Majesty of the Seas, YouTube user radiofreebc was able to capture some incredible scenes from both inside and outside the ships along the coasts of Alaska, Uruguay, Italy, Turkey, and more. For most of the videos, radiofreebc shot with a Sony Handicam (DSR-SR12) and altered the speed while editing with Final Cut Pro. The fitting soundtrack is by a now-defunct 90’s band called Slide Five.

Do you have some amazing clips or photos from your latest cruise? Share them with our community! Upload photos to our Flickr Group or post a video link in the comments below; it could be our next Photo/Video of the Day!

When in Pisa, do as the Asians do

by Chris Owen on
We stopped in Pisa, Italy this week on a tour of the Mediterranean to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In contrast to lots of other landmarks and places of interest that we had seen in Italy, the tower and surrounding attractions were surprisingly well kept. Beautiful actually. I guess I had expected it to look like other things we had seen on our journey, which, over time, had become respectfully known, to us as “more old stuff”. Apparently we were not alone.

I saw this coming early on in our 9-day tour on Carnival Cruise Line’s new Carnival Magic and thought “I wonder how long it will be until we start saying dismissively: “Oh, more old stuff” but continued shooting photos, more than 1200 so far, to record what we had seen.

Recording our time at major landmarks with historical significance required that we be in the shot. Otherwise we could simply Google it and choose from a number of other photos, most of which would be better than mine. So off to what I thought was the good side of the tower, the one professional photographers would have chosen, to take our personalized photo we went. The plan was to be really inventive and use trick photography to make it look like I was holding up the tower. It’s really technical, I came to find out.

Before I had visited the tower I thought getting a shot like this would be relatively easy. The tower is not going anywhere so that leaves the subject (me) and the photographer (my wife Lisa) as the variables that can move to make it all work. Visualizing what this would look like through the lens, I positioned myself at an optimal place and instructed Lisa where to go. I figured a few tweaks here and there and this should be a wrap quickly then we would go find a nice wine bar to park at for the rest of the day.

Today I learned that it is difficult to tell “the photographer” what to do as they are the ones that are actually looking through the camera lens. When that photographer is your wife who has a new, well-deserved camera and takes some fabulous shots without your input, the moon and the stars align to make for a situation that can go sour really fast.

Such was the case as I tried to direct this scene with the sun at my back.

All I got out of that was the looming meltdown that has to happen on every journey, just to get over the regular life vs. travel life tension in the air. One blow-up and we are propelled into the next dimension, the one that allows us to move along and enjoy traveling.

Suddenly I found myself wishing I had paid more attention/tattooed on my body the helpful photo tips of Gadling’s Dana Murph which I had read but was having difficulty recalling right now in the heat of battle.

Moving to the other side of the tower, the side where the light was good, it was obvious that this was where we needed to be to take this photo.

I wanted one of the photos you may have seen before. One with the tower being held up, pushed over, or coming out of the pants or heart of somebody.

I was not alone.

Apparently the desire to be attached to the Leaning Tower Of Pisa is a universal one that transcends all ages, races, colors or creeds.

It did look like Asians are big on showing themselves pushing the tower over while other peoples of the world seem to want to hold it up and/or have expressions of horror on their faces as they attempt to make it look like the tower is falling on them.

I’m not sure if that means anything. If I had more time I might have polled these people with a battery of qualifying questions but we had just one day here.

I settled for a photo of my open hand holding up/stroking the tower, the open hand being universally accepted as a non-threatening symbol of friendship.

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