Flying-High Deals--or Pie in the Sky?

Question: Telephone marketing--can the seller be trusted to deliver? Should I give him my credit card number?

I got a call from a travel organization in Houston. The caller told me my name had been “computer selected” (the computer has irrevocably violated our right to privacy) to receive an eight-day trip, including round-trip air fare and hotel, to Hawaii or London for $349. This outfit would send me nothing in writing, however, until I accepted and charged the trip by phone to my credit card. The London trip sounded too cheap to be credible.

I got the name and number of the manager, and I wonder if you could check it out? It seemed like a boiler-room operation, but he assured me the only “catch” was to provide five names of potential customers. (I don’t think you should publish his name or number--he may get a thousand customers that way.) Also related to this is an ad I’ve clipped from The Times: “Hawaii--$29 round trip. Must pay for hotel accommodations for a minimum eight days (seven nights). Moderate hotel rates start at $35 per person. (Double occupancy).”

Is this a similar deal?--B.S.

Answer: Because of the complexity of making travel arrangements in an age of ever-changing air fares, hotel rates, transfer fees, “special arrangements” and related matters--especially because so few of us travel frequently enough to be comfortable with it--few endeavors lend themselves to middlemen as much as the travel business.

Almost without exception, the organizations making these calls, or placing these advertisements, aren’t travel agencies as such but bill themselves variously as “hotel brokers,” “marketing agencies” or what-have-you that work on group discounts or direct rebates from the airlines or hotels with which they have an affiliation.

No Complaints

If there is hanky-panky involved in any of this (and high pressure itself doesn’t quite cut it as hanky-panky), neither the U.S. Attorney General’s office nor the postal inspectors, locally based in Pasadena, have had any complaints.

We did, however, talk to both of the promoters that you mentioned. The Houston-based International Travel Club, according to its president, Jerry Sieber, does indeed work from computerized phone lists incorporating frequent travelers of a higher-than-average income. The $349 “eight-day trip, including round-trip air fare and hotel to Hawaii or London,” isn’t exactly what the telephone pitch you received is all about, however.

What the $349 price (actually, it’s $349.90) buys you is not the trip itself. It’s really for a three-year membership in International Travel Club, and the trip, according to Sieber, “is a bonus--a round trip for two to Hawaii, London, Paris or about 20 other locations. If she chooses to take it.” The interesting question here is: Why on earth wouldn’t you take it?

“All she has to do is buy one round-trip economy air fare for one (no hotel) to that designation, in addition to which we’ll give her a 40% discount.”

Well, that’s slightly different from the way you remember the pitch, isn’t it? This “round-trip economy air fare” is in addition to the $349 membership fee. It’s a point, Sieber says, that was supposed to have been spelled out in the telephone solicitation.

What Sieber is attempting to do, he explained, is to build up his travel-club membership with people who, during their three-year tenure, will turn to him in booking their future travel needs.

“Although there’s nothing in the agreement that says they have to use me exclusively,” he says.

Booking on the bonus trip requires 45 days advance notice, and the travel arrangements themselves, in all cases, are handled by Melia Travel Service, which Travel Weekly, a trade journal of the industry, lists as being based in New York City.

The other offer you found intriguing--”Hawaii--$29 round trip”--is a product of World Travel Inc., and the ad came out of the company’s Mesa, Ariz., office, which handles the West Coast.

“What you are buying,” a spokesperson for the company said, “is a certificate--actually $31.03 with postage and handling--which is good for one adult, round-trip fare to Honolulu or Maui. It’s good through December, 1989.

“To validate the certificate,” she added, “you give us at least 45 days advance notice, stay a minimum of eight days and book and pay your hotel accommodations through us. You can actually stay up to 30 days, however.”

What you get along with your $31.03 certificate is a 16-page, magazine-format booklet describing about 45 hotels on the two islands.

“The moderate hotels charge about $70 a day for two people, and you can break it up any way you want--maybe four days in Honolulu and four days on Maui. The inter-island transportation runs about $35 a person per hop.

“We’re strictly hotel brokers, not a travel agency,” she continued. “We’re compensated by the hotels and we use all of the major airlines servicing Hawaii. The buyer has three days to look over the literature, and the money for the certificate is completely refundable.”

So, what can I tell you about such offers? The first broad area of advice is to be very, very leery about giving your credit card number over the phone to anyone unless the party is well known to you or where you have initiated the call yourself--as would be the case in ordering advertised merchandise from a local department store.

Anything Possible

Do travel bargains like this really exist? Well, in the wonder world of travel, anything is possible.

“What you usually have in these discount air fares,” according to Eric Friedheim, publisher of Travel Agent magazine in New York, “are extra seats on a tour that didn’t sell out. And, sometimes--although they’ll deny it--the airlines themselves will ‘distress’ seats. If they’ve got 50 empty economy seats on a flight, they’ll take the position that it’s better to get something for them than to leave them empty. Hotels will sometimes do the same thing with rooms.”

But, Friedheim advises, it’s well to be very inquisitive about these deals. What airline is being used? What specific hotels?

“A good air fare can be more than wiped out if they’ve booked you into very expensive hotels,” he points out. “It’s also a good idea, once you’ve got the name of the hotel, to call ahead and confirm the rate.

“Also,” Friedheim adds, “buying a one-way ‘economy’ flight is pretty meaningless. There are all stages of ‘economy,’ and a deal like this is very likely at the high end of the ‘economy’ scale.”

A rip-off, or a bargain vacation? Unfortunately, as you can see, there’s no hard-and-fast answer. But, if it does turn out to be a bummer, remember that there’s no local, established travel agency with whom to register a complaint.

Don G. Campbell cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to consumer questions of general interest. Write to Consumer VIEWS, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.