Travelers Should Check Small Print Before Believing an Advertisement

Beware the asterisk. You can find it in almost every travel advertisement or company guarantee.

The star-shaped reference symbol is usually very well hidden, but once you find it, there’s a strong probability that it will tell you something you don’t really want to know, an opportunity for the advertiser to more or less disclaim what it has claimed in the first place.

An asterisk will quietly tell you some unfortunate things such as:

--The special discount fare you thought you could finally afford only applies on Tuesdays after midnight, and only if your first name is Sheldon.

--The beautiful suite advertised at that great price is only available if no other English-speaking person has asked for it in the last 12 months.

--The super-saver airline seat is available, but not only do you have to agree to fly for at least a week, but you must also agree to stay on the plane for seven days.

Skeptical Public

These examples are exaggerations, of course, but anyone who has traveled knows that they are not that far from the truth. A Gallup Poll once showed that the public held advertising 19th on a list of 20 professions for honesty and ethics.

In a world where a Motel 6 room now costs at least $18.95 a night, it’s no wonder that the public has become more than a little skeptical about travel advertising.

Not too long ago a major airline boldly advertised that it was the best on-time airline in the Southeast, “based on the latest Civil Aeronautics Board statistics.” What the airline conveniently forgot to mention was that the CAB had stopped keeping specific route-by-route on-time performance statistics nearly two years earlier. The ad was technically correct, but also misleading.

Then there was the time when two airlines claimed, in differently worded quantity versus quality advertisements, that each was the favorite U.S. airline.

Based on Survey

The first airline based its claim on an independent survey conducted by the Airline Passengers Assn. The results indicated that it was the members’ favorite airline. The second airline claimed that it was/is “America’s Favorite Way to Fly,” and based that assertion on the fact that it carried more passengers than any other domestic carrier.

Both statements are correct. But, is a survey of a passenger association whose members didn’t even come close to the number of people who fly valid?

Or is the second airline’s claim any more valid, because it simply flew more people? The answer is that both airlines clearly cannot make such poorly supported unilateral statements.

Some advertising is in the teaser category, and some seemingly attractive “bargain” offers can sometimes be more expensive than if the consumer bought a cheaper unadvertised or less-advertised fare or rate.

Another ad once caught my attention with what seemed to be a great promotion: Fly X-Airline on a coach round-trip flight with a minimum of 300 air miles in each direction, and that airline would sell me a round-trip ticket to Hawaii for an incredible $100.

Offer Had a Catch

I did some quick calculations, and realized that the promotional minded carrier calculated the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco at 349 miles. Perfect, I thought.

And too good to be true. The catch was that the ticket had to be a full-fare coach ticket to qualify. At the time, a round-trip coach ticket between the two California cities could be purchased for as little as $78. However, the airline’s official coach fare was listed at more than $220.

That fare, coupled with the Hawaii “bargain of $100” brought the real cost of the Hawaii trip to $320. A discounted coach round-trip ticket to Hawaii, on at least two other airlines, was then being sold for $178. Even X-airline’s cheapest round-trip coach ticket was $290.

Many ads can also be misleading once you’re on the ground, and separating fact from fantasy with travel brochures can also be an almost impossible task.

What’s your definition of a package tour? Sometimes it can mean you’re “packaged” into an awful hotel room. Ever hear of something called a “run of house” room? “If you see it in a brochure,” warns Ron Letterman, who runs travel operations in Hawaii for American Express, “beware. What it means is that you stand an excellent chance of getting the worst room the hotel has to offer.”

‘Bait and Switch’

Letterman also warns about brochures that promise “ocean view” rooms. “Don’t count on them being on the beach,” he says. “In fact, don’t be surprised to find that your ocean view room requires a taxi ride to get to the ocean.”

One of the frequent problems encountered by travelers taking Hawaii package tours is that in many cases (especially in the economy hotel range) only 10% of the operator’s inventory is available in that range. “It’s an unfair bait-and-switch problem,” Letterman says. “You make your reservations to Hawaii and find there were only six rooms available in that price category, and they’ve been sold.

“We don’t do that,” he says. “If we advertise a room at a certain rate, you will get that room. If there’s one rule of travel I’ve learned,” he says, “it’s that no matter how rich you are you don’t want to spend more than you have to. We won’t make promises we don’t deliver.”

Sometimes, however, companies make promises you don’t want them to deliver.

Some of you may remember when a camera firm and an airline joined forces a few years ago for a heavily advertised promotion. The advertised deal: The airline was offering a free round-trip ticket for domestic travel to anyone buying a a particular model camera, if the purchaser also bought an identical full-fare coach ticket.

The cameras ranged in price from $30 to nearly $200. It seemed like a pretty good deal, especially if you were in the market for a new camera.

Saved Virtually Nothing

But as it turned out, there was no great deal with the camera/air fare promotion. For example, the lowest round-trip coach fare between Boston and Orlando, Fla., on the carrier was then $244. The lowest full-fare airline coach ticket (the kind you needed to buy to qualify) was $474.

Even if you bought the cheapest camera possible, you saved virtually nothing under the plan, although you were then able to take instant color pictures of an expensive coach ticket.

A similar two-for-one airline ticket-camera promotion by another carrier and another camera company also seemed to give the wrong picture. If you bought a particular camera you would get a free round-trip ticket on any flight on the carrier.

But the catch was that to pick up the free ticket, the prospective camera buyer also had to pay full fare for a one-way ticket to his destination, a fare that was substantially more than a host of widely discounted round-trip fares offered by the carrier involved in the promotion.

Some ads take direct aim at competitors. “Sorry I’m late,” says a print ad from Z-Airline, promoting its hub city of Salt Lake. “I had to fly through Denver.” Another ad features an apologetic secretary giving bad news to her boss. “I have to book you through Denver, sir,” she says. “Maybe you’d rather vote by proxy.”

‘We’ve Got the Numbers’

The full-page ads got Denver airport officials angry, and they are preparing a major counterattack. “Still,” says the airline’s spokesman, “none of our competitors has refuted the ad because none of our claims can be refuted. At Salt Lake City we’ve got faster connections, less congestion and fewer delays and we’ve got the numbers to back up those claims.”

In fairness, a majority of travel ads that make these claims, or ads that offer guarantees are not premeditated, evil conspiracies aimed at the unwary traveler.

A motel chain, for example, once advertised a straightforward “no excuses” room guarantee. Simply stated, if they promised you a king-size bed, you’d get one. Shortly after the program was announced I found myself at one of the member-inns. The room I had reserved was somehow “not available.” When the desk clerk offered me nothing but excuses, I produced the “no excuses” ad and the manager quickly corrected the situation.

Holiday Inns has a program promoting its “Hospitality Promise,” which “promises to do everything reasonable to correct a guest’s problem or the hotel will not charge for that portion of the guest’s stay.”

Three Guarantees

Another strong quality guarantee was introduced a few years back by a European national carrier. The airline offered three guarantees. The first guarantee promised full-fare passengers who missed a connecting flight $50 if the flight they missed was headed for another city in the carrier’s country, $100 for missing a European destination and $200 if the connection was beyond Europe.

The second guarantee promised all first-class or business-class passengers a seat on board the transatlantic flight on which they were booked. If the seat was not available, business-class passengers would be upgraded free first-class. If first-class was also booked, the business-class passenger would be flown free in tourist-class.

The third guarantee was perhaps the airline’s boldest. It guaranteed passengers that their baggage would arrive with them at their destinations. If it didn’t, the airline would pay the passenger $200 over and above any other claims.

The international carrier claims it only had to honor that guarantee about a dozen times. Still, don’t expect the airline to deliver on the promise this year. For unexplained reasons, it has elected not to offer the guarantee this year.

Take Ad With You

It is very much in your best interest to know what the restrictions/conditions may be for any trip you want to take. If you’re confused, take the ad or brochure with you. Often, a local airline or hotel representative needs to be reminded about a nationally advertised promotion or guarantee. If things really sour, get names and addresses and keep all paper work and receipts.

The Federal Trade Commission and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus like to hear from consumers. (Your FTC district office and local Better Business Bureau chapter are good places to start.)

If the travel ad is indeed misleading, or what has been promised or guaranteed in the brochure isn’t delivered, and you have done your homework, you might well be in line for a partial or total refund of your money.