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Avoiding Telephone Ripoffs In Hotels (Nov.
97)
Highlights: Most hotels add a surcharge for calls made from your room telephone and that may include 800/888/877 calls. Sometimes the hotel surcharge it is a percentage of what the phone company charged you. Sometimes it is a flat fee per call. There is no charge for receiving calls. Some hotels give you the first 20 minutes or so for a flat rate (or free) and add a per minute surcharge after that. Surcharge Methods 1. A flat fee for each time you pick up the phone handset until you hang up. (We won't elaborate on details how calling within the hotel is not charged.) 2. A per minute charge while you are making calls, sometimes including 800/888 toll free calls (Calls within the hotel are free, and the outside call surcharge rate may vary for local versus long distance.) 3. A percentage surcharge of what the phone company charged the hotel when you bill the call to your room. 4. Some hotels' systems block calls to selected numbers notably those of popular competing long distance carriers such as 1-800-CALL-ATT. 5. For the convenience of persons making short voice calls but to combat tying up lines for long periods with personal computers, some hotels offer the first 20 minutes or so at a flat rate or free and add a per minute surcharge for longer calls. Strategies 1. If you go down to the lobby and use the pay phones there, you escape all of the hotel surcharges. (Unless method #4 is in place.) 2. If you use a telephone credit card or prepaid calling card, you escape surcharge method #3. Method #4 may prevent you from doing this. 3. If your calling card or long distance carrier lets you press the pound key to let you make another call without hanging up, you can make several calls and pay only one method #1 surcharge if it applies. You also escape method #3 surcharges but not method #2 surcharges. 4. If your long distance carrier has a "call me and I'll call you right back" option, you can escape almost all of the method #2 and method #3 surcharges and pay just one method #1 surcharge for a batch of calls. However certain hotel phone systems might be technologically unable to route the call coming back to your room.
Useless Travel Certificates (Nov. 97) Highlights: 50% off hotel and car rental certificates are practically worthless. Personal Experiences: The first time I saw a mini-vacation certificate was when I was in college and someone advertised it on a bulletin board. Three Days and Two Nights I went to see what he had to offer and he showed me this cheap looking card with fine print on it. What caught my eye were the words "meals and transportation not included". They made it sound nice, something like: "Since this package does not include meals or transportation, you are free to come and go as you please and enjoy the many and varied restaurants in the area" So I was thinking, what was included? Seems like only a hotel room, and probably from a limited selection of second rate hotels. You had to reserve in advance and put down a deposit, too. I didn't buy it. Also you don't get the three days they advertise. You can't check in before 3 PM and you must check out by 11 AM, giving you just one and two thirds days and two nights. Then a few years later I joined a half price hotel club and they threw in one of those certificates at no extra charge. I never used it. I belong to a frequent flyer club (United Mileage Plus) and when I earned an award, they included a certificate for half off a hotel room for two nights and half off a weekend day car rental. I never used these either. Whenever I wanted to stay where a participating hotel was, there were other hotels nearby whose everyday low rate was less than the participating hotel's rate after 50% discount. Once a convention I was attending was held in one of the participating hotels but that time my desired nights were blacked out. The 50% discount is off the full weekday rate, called the rack rate. Most of the participating hotels offer substantial discounts on weekends without the certificates. The car rental certificate was useless too. If I were to use it, my credit card, which offers collision insurance for rental cars, would not cover that day. So I would have to pay an additional $15.00 for insurance and that was nearly the entire savings the certificate offered. Several years earlier the same airline offered a completely free car rental day with their frequent flyer award. I received and used that certificate where the final cost including collision insurance came out to about half the normal cost of renting the car. I have been to many conventions over the years and each one advertises a special room rate at the hosting hotel. Once I helped plan a convention and I found out that if a banquet is held and enough attendees stay at the hotel, the ballrooms and meeting rooms are provided at no extra charge. If conventioneers get a special room rate, then does that mean the casual vacationing traveler staying at the hotel helps subsidize all this?
Carry On Baggage Alert Highlights: Avoid carrying more than one carry-on sized suitcase worth of material for which you may be held liable or accountable.
On many flights, passengers are not able to carry on as much baggage as they planned to. Choose a seat behind the wings. People sitting at the back of the plane board first and therefore have more space available for carry on baggage. Don't choose a bulkhead seat. Then you are at least guaranteed space under the next seat for one carry-on. Get to the airport early. If you don't, everybody else will have boarded first and taken up all of the carry on baggage space. You may even lose your seat selection. If you want to board before your row is called, get behind someone who is obviously carrying more baggage than allowed. The gate agent will find it "mighty hard" to let him board and refuse your boarding. Consider extra insurance coverage. Arrange for its use and cost before departure. On business trips prior to departure, the manager should specify the precise procedure in case there is no carry on space on the plane and material has to become checked baggage. Arrangements for contingent costs, such as changing to a different flight or staying an extra night, should also be made before departure. If you are not comfortable about the baggage arrangements for your trip, don't take all of it. Let your manager choose what you take. Have the folks at the other end prepare a laptop or other PC and you just bring the diskettes. Government classified material cannot become checked baggage. Courier services are a viable alternative to handle baggage. Contrary to popular belief, custody of a parcel and responsibility for it are separable. Nothing prevents a manager, even if not traveling, from accepting the responsibility, accountability, and liability in absentia for the safe and secure transport of company materials (except government classified materials). Travelers should get this in writing. Selected articles on carry on baggage (subject to availability):
Baggage Inspection (9/01) Here are some things the airlines might do, and I kind of like them. 1. In addition to prohibiting knives, the airlines need to be more conscious of highly flammable substances and liquids, notably matches, cigarette lighters, and certain aerosol cans. Airlines may want to consider a published checklist of prohibited items (more detailed than that now used), and provide a self check area in the airport where passengers could inspect their own baggage before going through security. In the event a prohibited item is found at any stationary or roving security checkpoint, the passenger is surcharged and also the item is confiscated. The passenger also runs the risk of missing his/her flight. 2. Airlines might shrink wrap all carry on baggage. Passengers would have to remove baby bottles, diapers, medicines and other items needed during flight since they would not be allowed to get or open their carry ons during the flight. This would make it less critical to identify some of the prohibited items as some are not dangerous if the passenger cannot access them.
Apply For Refund Of Return Flight Home (9/01) For those travelers whose round trip return flight was cancelled, no other flights were available for days (storm, airport closure), and they had to return home by other means. Apply for a refund of half the round trip fare. This includes refunding miles if the ticket was a frequent flier award. Sometimes the refund will be in the form of a voucher or gift certificate for future travel. Normally this is not allowed and you get surcharged to the level of a one way fare. The travel industry has a term for people who book round trips and fly just one way -- throwaway ticketing. Occasionally some rental car companies offer one way drives with no surcharge, but shop carefully for day and mileage costs.
Don't Let Flight Crew Take Your Bag (7/01) ... if it contains valuables. You board the airplane and there is no space in the overhead bins for your properly sized suitcase, and also no seat in front to stick the suitcase under. Then the flight attendant comes over and takes your suitcase to be checked. That is the worst thing to have happen if you are carrying valuables. Anything, anything else you can try or do is better. Remember, the brochure that accompanies your ticket says that you should put medicine and valuables in a bag you carry on board. What you should do is get up and follow your suitcase, asking to get your medicine and valuables out of it. Also you can ask for another seat assignment. Also you can ask to have excess valuation declared and insured which they must let you pay for right then and there. If you follow your suitcase out of the plane and you have other checked baggage, they will have to hold the plane until either you get back on or your checked baggage is removed. This delay actually works to your advantage, they will be more likely to find ways to help you. (Don't remind them of this, this is standard operating procedure for them.). Actually you should not let things get that far out of hand so quickly. Lastly, don't just sit down with your suitcase in front of you against the wall (bulkhead). As soon as you can't find space for it, ask others with an empty space in front of their seats if they would like to switch seats with you. Many travellers are glad to exchange their seat for yours with the bulkhead in front. You can also find a flight attendant and ask for help including a different seat. If the airline is a stickler for not allowing people to switch seats without permission, ask the flight attendant without asking other passengers first. Next to lastly, board before your row is called. Don't try to board first, instead try to board in the middle of the boarding process. This is part of doing everything you can to safeguard your valuables so feed free to at least try it. If you are carrying valuables, try to select a seat near the back, or at least behind the wings. This way you will be called to board sooner, as well as have a nicer view out the window. Most experienced fliers avoid the last two rows since people congregate there waiting for the rest rooms, you should be able to select a seat shy of there also. If you are carrying valuables, try to select a seat that is not a bulkhead seat. Even if there is overhead bin space, it may be out of your sight and your suitcase can still be stolen. Their questions and your answers:
Q: You should have insured your baggage back at the counter.
Q: You are holding up the flight. Some of these hints courtesy of Carolyn (http://www.passportinfo.com)
Not Enough Low Fare Seats For Children Occasionally you can book the lowest cost fare for some members of the family but when you say four or five people are traveling together, the fare for all is higher. For couples with children who are daring, try this: Book as many seats as you can on one flight and book the rest on the next flight. One parent should be on each flight. (If one parent is a premier frequent flier s/he should be on the first flight, explanation later.) When you get to the airport, those on the second flight should one at a time request to standby for the first flight with the parent signing up last. Then regardless of how many standby's get on the first flight, no child will be without a parent. Note: If the parent on the second flight is also premier but the children are not, the parent's name will come up to bat first. It will then take some explaining to bequeath the seat to a child to prevent an "unaccompanied minor" situation, pointing out that there is another parent on the early flight to accompany the child. You might choose at this moment to declare that you are together with one or more children and then request to stand by together. Do not put the child on with your ticket and try to use his/hers.
Children's Seats Not Together Sometimes you can't select seats for your children to be next to yours. Don't get uptight over this, don't waste lots of time telephoning the airline. It is OK to just go to the airport and let the gate agent assign seats. Do ask quietly for seats next to each other. Airlines stop the advance seat assignments long before all the seats are really assigned, and groups of seats are held back to seat families together. If worst comes to worst, just take the seat assignments the agent gives you and walk on board when they call the row of the seat furthest back. Put as many bags as possible in the overhead bins and then ask neighboring passengers if they would like to switch seats. Most will, since they usually prefer not to sit next to children. You can also ask the flight attendant for help.
Baggage Lost, Late For Appointment A traveler wrote in Trip.com that an airline damaged his baggage but he was unable to wait in a long customer service line as he was late for an appointment. When he returned to the airport later the airline denied his claim saying that the baggage could have been damaged after it left the airport. This points out the pitfalls of scheduling trips too tightly. If you are traveling on business you might even ask the question of your company before you begin the trip. This points out a disadvantage of flying late at night. This is another reason why claiming your baggage while making a connection (not a stopover) and checking it into the next flight is very undesirable compared with checking it all the way to your destination. We recommend that you continue to press the claim. For the future, we suggest the following: (These are just ideas, we haven't tried them) 1. Call an appropriate department of the airline on a payphone before leaving the airport informing them of the damaged baggage. (A common suggestion to rebook a cancelled flight is to phone the reservations department rather than wait in the customer service line.) 2. Store the damaged baggage (minus any valuables) at the airport. (Be sure the claim check lists the time the storage period began so you can prove that the time the baggage was in your possession after the flight was very minimal.) 3. Go to an unoccupied employee of the same airline (perhaps up in the gate area) and have him witness the condition of the baggage and sign a statement that he saw it. You will have to write the statement. Describe in words what the damage was, for example "wheel broken off leaving a large hole". 4. In your letter asking for compensation state clearly that the safest way of handling the baggage was to take it with you and bring it back later to file the claim. 5. In your letter asking for compensation state clearly that (if true) waiting in line to file the claim and missing your engagement would have made the entire flight and trip useless (use the word "futile"). 6. In your letter asking for compensation state clearly that (if true) most of the other people in line were also filing damaged baggage claims, so chances are your baggage was damaged at the same time as everyone else's was, not by you after you left the airport. 7. Or you can hope that simply writing a compensation request including repeating it as necessary up to higher officers of the company is enough to receive something "as a settlement". You should argue that if the airline or its agents, employees, etc. damaged the baggage, it shouldn't expect you to incur additional expense to file the claim. For example it might be late at night and you need to catch the last limo downtown, or if you might have a rental car pickup you don't want cancelled. We do suggest that you explain that the reason you departed and then came back later to file the claim was also to save costs. You may even include what it would have cost to come back to the airport at an inopportune time. Don't go into any of this detail in your first letter, save it all for maybe the third and succeeding letters. Also don't recite numbers and expenses to a court judge unless s/he specifically asks but do have them explained on paper to hand to the bailiff if desired.
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