Clubs That Let You Go for the Discounts

With the U.S. dollar sinking in relation to foreign currencies and the cost of travel going up, discount travel clubs appear more popular than ever.

It’s not a free ride, however.

Most clubs charge a membership fee, but the savings can be substantial--from 5% to 70%. Some clubs even believe that the discounts aren’t enough--they’ll rebate 2% to 6% in certificates or cash on your total travel cost.

Some clubs will ship you off in a single day, providing you’re free to travel. If not, other clubs will plan your trip a year ahead.

Clubs also go to great pains to make their information available. They have hot lines, newsletters, magazines, mail post cards and flyers. When they have a “hot” trip available, they do everything but pack your bags. And thousands of trips are available.

Last Minute Cruise Club is a local organization (no membership fee) that brings consumers from 10% to 50% in savings. The club, in existence for 25 years, “blocks out” space on top-rated major cruise lines and informs its nationwide membership of what’s available in a newsletter mailed every two months.

Also, the club sends out weekly or monthly flyers of its “red hot” bargains, which require members to leave within two weeks, according to owner Molly Robertshaw, the club’s owner. “Not every ship suits every person,” Robertshaw said. As a result, the firm tries to “tailor people to a particular cruise.”

In 1987 Last Minute directed more than half its members to the South Pacific and the Orient on cruises lasting from three days to 100 days, including around-the-world voyages.

On joining, travelers fill out a form that indicates their interests in destinations and cruises. Mailers are aimed at groups with the same interests. The club also asks members to phone in with requests. “We try to help those people, too,” Robertshaw said.

Write to Last Minute Cruise Club, 870 9th St., San Pedro 90731, or call (213) 519-1717.

Another local club with no membership fee is Spur of the Moment Tours and Cruises, 10780 Jefferson Ave., Culver City 96230. The organization, composed primarily of retired or self-employed persons, offers up to 50% in savings. Spur of the Moment contacts its 50,000 members by mailing post cards each week. It also provides a six-minute hot line recording that’s updated every two or three days, with listings of various tours and cruises.

The club attempts to fill cruise ships at the last minute. Still, members often get two to three weeks’ notice on domestic trips and from six to eight weeks for vacations abroad.

When registering with the club, travelers are given a form asking where they wish to go and when. As the trips become available, members are notified.

Call (213) 839-2418 or (800) 233-2129 in California and (800) 343-1991 outside of California.

On Call to Travel, 11739 S.W. Beaverton Highway, Suite 120, Beaverton, Ore. 97005, features “service and one-on-one availability” for members who pay $39 the first year and $29 annually thereafter.

The firm, with only 400 to 500 members nationwide, discounts last-minute package tours, cruises and air fares to foreign countries. Members are given two months’ notice on all trips. On Call specializes in West Coast departures, according to manager Sukie Knudsen.

Although the club will notify members of trip discounts through a monthly newsletter and a hot line, updated every Friday, it also takes requests and will notify members of available trips in their geographical location.

For more information and membership, call On Call to Travel at (503) 643-7212.

Club Costa offers travelers two memberships, a deluxe category for $99 and a preferred listing at $49. Members of the deluxe rating are primarily eligible for condominium rentals in resort areas worldwide at a 10% to 50% discount.

Also, the firm gives deluxe members rebates from 2% to 6% on plane tickets, cruises and package tours in the form of travel-saving certificates, and offers hotel discounts (10% to 50%) in Europe. Other offerings include “peace-of-mind” benefits, including legal aid and emergency cash.

Preferred members don’t get the condo program, certificate rebates or the peace-of-mind benefits, but they do share in most of the club’s other offerings, including packaged tours that are being developed.

Club Costa, with 20,000 members, has discovered that Hawaii, the Caribbean and Europe are the most popular destinations, according to Norm Rowland, Costa’s director of communications. “We can book from one day to a year in advance, either for domestic trips or travel abroad,” Rowland said. Generally, members get three weeks’ notice.

They are contacted by a magazine or newsletter, each of which is printed four times a year and lists trips and destinations available.

Contact Club Costa, P.O. Box 8568, Kansas City, Mo. 64114, or call (800) 225-0381.

American Travel Assn., which claims almost 2 million members, offers discounts worth 5% to 65% on hotels, airline fares, tours, rental cars and cruises domestically and internationally. Members get from one day to a year before departure in the United States, and receive rebates of 5% in cash on top of discounts.

To get news of discounts, members may call a toll-free number. Every other month the club mails a magazine with general interest articles and travel tips. Write to American Travel Assn., 831 Greencrest Drive, Westerville, Ohio 43081.

Stand-Buys, 311 W. Superior St., Chicago 60610, features 50 regionalized hot lines for its more than 100,000 members, with what the club calls “plan ahead” and “brief notice” trips. Members get up to a year’s notice for the plan-ahead vacations, including 15% to 35% discounts. Brief-notice ventures, which come with three days’ to eight weeks’ notice, offer discounts up to 70%.

For a $45 annual fee per family, members also get a quarterly newsletter that lists cruises and tours with departures throughout the United States.

In addition, Stand-Buys offers a free second night at more than 3,000 hotels and motels abroad, discounts in a condo-saver program and auto rental savings, and claims the lowest published airline and hotel rates. After one trip, members get 5% discounted on the price of their next trip.

Call (800) 255-0200.

Airhitch is not a membership organization like most other discount clubs, but instead is a clearinghouse that deals mainly with students and young people with flexible schedules who want to fly to Europe. “We’re dealing with travelers on a shoestring,” one employer said. “We point people to flights with operators and airlines that have agreed in advance to take these people.”

Generally, flights are announced from three days to two weeks in advance. But users can “walk in that morning and leave that night.”

Airhitch, which is based in New York City, says the great majority of its flights go to airports within a 300-mile radius of Brussels--involving London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome and Zurich. It may get you on a plane going in your general direction, but not specifically where you wish to go.

Although destinations were somewhat uncertain, Airhitch sent more than 5,000 people to Europe last year at $269 or less from the West Coast and $160 or less from the East Coast. Airhitch charges a registration fee of $25, but considers it a “deposit” that is applied to the fare.

Potential passengers registering with Airhitch give departure dates and destination preferences, and afterward get a toll-free number they call three to five days before flight departures.

Write Airhitch, 2901 Broadway, Suite 100, New York 10025, or call (212) 864-2000.

South Florida Cruises offers discounts with no fee charged for cruises in the United States and abroad at savings of 5% to 60%. However, the firm specializes in specialty and Caribbean voyages, according to marketing director Donald Nagel. A seven-day “baseball” cruise from New Orleans to the Mexican coast Nov. 12 will feature former professional baseball stars. South Florida gives from five days’ to a year’s notice for cruises. Write South Florida Cruises, 2069 N. University Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33322, or call (800) 327-SHIP.

Discount Travel International, 114 Forrest Ave., Ives Building, Suite 205, Narberth, Pa. 19072, phone (800) 824-4000, charges $45 dues and offers its more than 300,000 members the opportunity to buy trips in peak season at discounts from 25% to 65%. The firm is the largest supplier of short-notice travel, with notifications of one day to eight weeks. It offers tour packages, cruises, air fares and condominium rentals worldwide.

Members receive news of trips through toll-free, regionalized hot lines, which are updated three to five times a week. A 5% cash bonus is offered for flights on scheduled carriers anywhere in the United States and a 7% cash bonus on most charters, tours and cruises.

Worldwide Discount Travel Club offers its 5,000 members several hundred trips, including cruises, air fares and tours, plus special rates on car rentals and hotels. For a $35 annual fee, members get a trip list every three weeks and a toll-free number for information. Trips range from a short tour of Europe to visits to such Caribbean islands as St. Martin, Aruba, Curacao, Jamaica and Antigua. Notice is from three days to three months, with departures anywhere in the United States. Write to Worldwide Discount Travel Club, 1674 Meridian Ave., Miami Beach, Fla. 33139, or call (305) 534-2082.

Moment’s Notice, 40 East 49th St., Room 702, New York 10017, phone (212) 486-0503, charges dues of $45 annually with a 24-hour hot line updated every weekday. The firm, with 30,000 to 35,000 members, features vacations to Africa, the Orient, the South Pacific and South America, with departures from both U.S. coasts. Members are given two to six weeks’ notice.

Encore Short Notice features three clubs covering hotel discounts, airlines, car rentals, villas, cruises and package vacations with two to four weeks’ notice. Membership costs $48 annually. Villas of the World, with discounts of 25%, charges $60, and Short Notice, which informs members of trips by “hot line” at 50% to 75% off, has a $36 fee. A lifetime membership for the three clubs is offered at $192. The club gives its almost 3 million members from two to four weeks’ notice and sends a magazine with listed trips and hotels four times a year. Write to Encore Short Notice, 4501 Forbes Blvd., Lanham, Md. 20706, or phone (800) 638-0930.