Beware of Travel Scams

I rarely, if ever, win anything of import. Whether raffles or those "be the 4th caller" type competitions, it's always been a waste of time or money.  But I recently entered a radio station's on-line competition, then promptly forgot about it until I received a call from the station saying I was the winner -  4 roundtrip tickets anywhere in the 48 contiguous states, worth $1,600 dollars (or $400 per person) and $1,090 to spend on hotel courtesy of  Delta Vacations.  I was thrilled, to say the least, drove down to the station picked up the paperwork and now all I have to do is figure out where and when. Considering the cost of airline tickets has skyrocketed, I'm not sure if I will wind up owing some money, but it shouldn't be much. 

But not all give-away deals are legit, and some are downright scams.  You have the timeshare scams that make you sit through a long presentation and then hardsell you into buying into the timeshare, that you may or may not ever use. And the "robo-calls" that travel guru Arthur Frommer talks about in his blog.

The lesser form of scams involves the use of robo-calls. Your telephone rings, you pick up the receiver, and in quick order you first hear the sound of seagulls, then of waves breaking on the shore, then various bars of maritime-like music, and then the stentorian speech of a gravelly-voiced announcer saying: "This is your captain speaking and I'm inviting you on a cruise -- a free-of-charge cruise".

You ultimately pay the small amount of taxes and fees associated with that cruise -- the actual sailing is supposedly free of charge -- and find yourself confined to the deck of a ferry traveling from a port in eastern Florida to the Bahamas, a "cruise" of about two hours. You don't receive a cabin. The small amount you've paid for phony fees and taxes is actually triple the size of a ticket for deck passage that you could have bought on the very same ferry.

I've never encountered a robo-call, but I have had my fair share of phone and email scams telling me I just won a 2 night stay in Las Vegas, or some other destination. I've also received them in the mail, and they immediately get tossed in the garbage. Frommer also discusses those attempts at scamming the unsavvy, wannabe traveler :

The scams currently on view in the world of travel are endlessly ingenious. Some of them tell you that you are the lucky winner of a contest -- that you will be receiving a free vacation simply for paying a registration fee. The reason so many people succumb to these phony announcements is that there actually are legitimate contests, and some people are correctly chosen as winners. But those people receive a registered letter announcing they have won -- and not a recorded phone call. The receipt of a registered letter is perhaps the only persuasive evidence that a contest is on the up-and-up.

Although I did not receive a registered letter, I knew mine was legit because I did not have to pay a thing to win the competition.
Another type of scam, which I'm sure everyone has encountered at some point in time, are those emails from friends or relatives claiming to be stranded in a foreign country, pleading for money. Over the years I have  received several from friends and cousins, and they actually looked legit. One from a cousin mentioned she was in London, had lost all her money and needed help to pay the hotel bill. The email address was hers, but it obviously had been hacked. I contacted her son who said it must be a scam because she was not in London.  Many claim that with the advent of social networking, it's very easy for scammers to get very personal information from people, though Joanne did not have a Facebook account at the time.
Then there's the shameful grandson travel scam that targets the elderly. These range from bogus traffic accidents in Canada, to being bailed out of jail in Spain and Mexico.  Unfortunately, many fall for it.

You'll find a great list of how to tell if something is a potential scam here.

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. But don't let that stop you from availing yourself of the legit ones, as I intend to do. Just do your research.

Happy travels.

What You Should Get If You Are Involuntarily Bumped Off Your Flight

The travel industry isn't going to advocate on your behalf when things go wrong during a trip, so it's incumbent upon you to learn the ins and outs and know your rights.  We're not always aware of what we are entitled to, so we often lose out.

For example what happens when you get bumped from a flight involuntarily?  One couple who wrote to travel ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine,  Christopher Elliott, were complaining about a problem they were having with Southwest Airlines.  Apparently, they were on their trip home from Fort Myers to Milwaukee when they were informed at the gate that the flight was overbooked. 

They had two options:

"take the next available flight" two days later, or "accept a refund of the cost of their return flight."
The family opted for the refund check in the amount of $1,387.20.  Problem is, the agent made a mistake in the amount written, and their bank refused the check because of the discrepancy.  For almost a year they have been trying to recoup the amount, to no avail.  They even contacted the Department of Transportation, but still did not receive the money owed. They finally contacted Elliott to troubleshoot on their behalf. So the family is out the $1,387.20 plus the amount they had to pay for four one-way tickets back to Milwaukee.

Elliott had some interesting information for all travelers, including the Milwaukee family of four: The Department of Transportation requires that airlines compensate travelers for involuntarily being bumped.  It's a federal regulation that passengers receive compensation for the value of the portion of the ticket in question. In fact, last year those amounts were increased:

The new rules also double the amount of money passengers are eligible to be compensated for in the event they are involuntarily bumped from an oversold flight. Previously, bumped passengers were entitled to cash compensation equal to the one-way value of their tickets, up to $400, if the airline was able to get them to their destination within a short period of time (within 1 to 2 hours of their originally scheduled arrival time for domestic flights and 1 to 4 hours for international flights). If they were delayed for a lengthy period of time (more than two hours after their originally scheduled arrival time for domestic flights and 4 hours for international flights), they were entitled to double the one-way price of their tickets, up to $800. Under the new rule, bumped passengers subject to short delays will receive compensation equal to double the one-way price of their tickets, up to $650, while those subject to longer delays would receive payments of four times the one-way value of their tickets, up to $1,300. Inflation adjustments will be made to those compensation limits every two years.

Elliott, managed to get Southwest to overnight the family their check for the $1,387.20 plus a $500.00 travel voucher.

TSA Pockets Passengers' Change

You know all that spare change that you have in your pockets that  you place in plastic bins or bowls before you walk through security checkpoints in airports to avoid setting off the metal detectors? Many people are walking off without retrieving their coins, and the TSA is pocketing that money. 

A whopping $409,000.00 plus in coins was left behind in 2010, with the most losses in the following major airports:

Passengers at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York left the most change in 2010 ($46,918.06), followed by Los Angeles International ($19,110.83), Hartsfield Atlanta International ($16,523.83), San Francisco International ($15,908.02), and Miami International ($15,844.83), according to the TSA.

Of the $409,085.56- $376,480.39 of it was U.S. currency (from pennies to dollar coins) and $32,605.17 was foreign currency. And that's nothing- TSA has collected over $2.1 million since 2008.
Most people don't really care about small coins, I've seen piles of pennies strewn across parking lots, but those pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters add up, so it's worth holding on to, and the best place to put that change (and all your other metal) is in a plastic bag inside your carry-on before you leave home.
The TSA has allegedly been using the ill-gotten gains to help fund its operations, but Congress is pushing to change that. Florida Republican Jeff Miller wants that money to go to the USO  instead, and introduced a bill to Congress that will do just that.

"Allowing TSA to keep unclaimed taxpayer money for any and all purposes is an egregious breach of its duty to the public that it serves," Miller wrote in a recent letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. "This money should be put to good use, and there is no better organization to use this money wisely than the USO."

A House committee passed the measure, next it goes to the full House for approval.

How To Get Through TSA Security Relatively Pain Free

Since 9/11 air travel has become a major pain, and unfortunately it will never revert back to the good old days when we could just walk through security with nary a worry, bags chock full of gifts and goodies over 3 ounces, and all the necesseties we wanted on hand. Now we have to strip down to the bare essentials to ensure a swift check through. It's off with the shoes and any outerwear we might be sporting- and we practically need to send everything through checked baggage. 

There are random searches that we have no control over, some of which are truly insane- like the 95-year-old woman in a wheel chair on oxygen, but apart from that we do have control over whether we will be singled out or not. The best way to ensure smooth flying is to be prepared.

PACK YOUR CARRY-ON BAGS ACCORDINGLY:

First of all check the TSA website, or your airline for the current restrictions. The TSA website has a plethora of useful information on how to get through checkpoints with relative ease. First of all:

Pack your bags in an organized manner. When it goes through the x-ray a jumbled mess, it might make something innocuous look suspicious, and your bag will definitely be checked.

You can still only bring a one quart clear plastic zip bag per person filled with liquids or gels in 3.4 ounce containers or smaller.  Place that bag in one of their bins. If you have medication, breast milk, baby food or formula in larger amounts, let the TSA agent know beforehand.  If you bring anything over the designated 3.4 ounce amount, be prepared to have it tossed out.  For safe measure I put everything in the little bag, including lipstick and makeup.
Put anything that has metal including belts, all your jewelry, body piercings, your watches and small change in a separate bag inside your carry-on luggage or purse.
Leave anything sharp out of your bag, along with certain sports items, flammable items, tools and firearms, unless you want them confiscated. TSA has a list here.

Traveling with liquid food or gifts, put those in your checked baggage. Don't wrap gifts- you will be wasting wrapping paper if asked to remove it.
Empty all your pockets and put those items in your carry-on.

PRIOR  TO GOING THROUGH SECURITY X-RAY SCREENING:
Take off your shoes. TSA now recommends putting your shoes directly on the conveyor belt rather than in a bin.
Take off your jacket or outer clothing and place in a bin.
If you have undeveloped 800-speed film, that should not be x-rayed, take it out and hand to an officer.

Unless you have a laptop friendly bag, remove it and place it in a bin.

BRING PROPER I.D.
Make sure the name on your e-ticket or airline ticket is exactly the same as your identification.


Photo H/T Nomadic Matt

Come Travel With Me

Two of my greatest passions are travel and photography. I have a photography blog, but was inspired to start one for travel as well. I will share tips, travel related news, photos, reviews, and anything else that might spark my interest that I feel will be useful or just plain fun for others who adore travel as much as I do.

As the daughter of a U.S. Diplomat, I was blessed to have been born and raised all over the world, and have lived in and visited many countries.  Having lived in so many different lands I now have what I consider gypsy blood.  If I had the chance I would pack a bag and go- whether by car, plane or train.  There are still so many places in the world, and even right here in the U.S., that I have yet to explore, but I hope some day to have that pleasure.

I invite you to take the journey with  me.