Authorities Sue Travel Firms Over Discount Packages

Government regulators lashed out at unscrupulous travel operators Tuesday, accusing 25 companies of deceiving consumers about the costs and strings attached to discount vacations.

As part of a nationwide sweep dubbed Operation Trip Trap, state and federal regulators announced they have filed 47 lawsuits against travel companies, particularly targeting those that mislead college students about spring break trips.

“Students get down there and find out they don’t have the reservations they were promised,” said Andrea Foster, who directed the crackdown out of the Federal Trade Commission’s Atlanta office. “They end up with eight students to a room or sleeping in a hallway.”

The FTC, joined by California and 19 other states, also took aim at telemarketers who tell consumers they have won free or cut-rate trips that end up costing thousands of dollars more than expected or require travelers to sit through time-share pitches.

“People are very vulnerable to the suggestion that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Paul M. Ruden, the American Society of Travel Agents’ senior vice president for legal and industry affairs.

The group, which represents about 10,000 U.S. travel agencies, estimates that travel fraud costs Americans about $10 billion annually.

The California attorney general’s office filed two suits Monday as part of Operation Trip Trap: one in Orange County Superior Court, against Fountain Valley-based Island Tours Inc. and Surf & Sun Tours Inc. of Phoenix, and the other in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing Dream Marketing of Winter Park, Fla., of charging inflated fees, failing to provide promised transportation and operating without a license in California.

Dozens of spring break travelers complained about travel packages purchased from Island and Surf & Sun, said Sandra Michioku, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office. The state’s suits allege the companies delayed students’ departures for days, often resulting in lost hotel reservations, and switched them from promised hotels and airports without warning.

Jason Lindley of Raleigh, N.C., paid $936 for air fare and lodging at Cancun’s luxurious Oasis hotel. He departed eight hours late after being bused from the Raleigh airport to Charlotte. Then he found out he was staying at a different hotel--way different, he said.

“They put us in this little dump,” said Lindley, adding that he had not received a refund. “We were supposed to have a quad and got a double [for four people]. Then our flight home was 15 hours late. I’m glad something is being done about it because it was the trip from hell.”

Island Tours President Mike Erickson blamed the miscues on Surf & Sun, saying his company merely resold packages that the other firm arranged.

“We didn’t do anything,” said Erickson, whose company handles more than 8,000 trips a year, almost all of them during the four-week span of spring break. “It’s like selling bad eggs--you don’t know until you break them that they’re bad. Every single student [who refused to travel because of delays] has been refunded their money.”

Surf & Sun officials could not be reached for comment.

California regulators are seeking cease-and-desist orders against the companies they have sued, restitution for customers and penalties of at least $50,000.

The FTC filed complaints seeking similar redress from five companies in Florida, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina: American International Travel Services Inc., Air-Land-Sea Reservations Inc., All Around Travel Club Inc., Resort World Inc. and Cervenik-Anderson Travel Inc.

American International and Air-Land-Sea sold vacation packages, in some cases telling consumers they had won their trips as part of a prize promotion, without disclosing that the deals hinged on attending one or more seminars to pitch a time-share project.

FTC officials said it is difficult to gauge whether travel fraud is increasing, but it consistently ranks among the top 10 complaints on lists compiled by state and national consumer agencies.

The FTC did a similar sweep in 1997. Foster called this week’s action a way to reinforce that effort and said the agency is combining it with a consumer education campaign made up of brochures and tips listed on the agency’s Web site, https://www.ftc.gov.

Times staff writer Stephen Fuzesi in Washington contributed to this report.