While thousands of Boston University students are gearing up to jet set
to lush destinations, ready to release their stresses through daiquiris
by the pool during their week-long hiatus from the trying pressures of
college life, students may be unaware that they have made themselves
the prime target of financial exploitation.
OPEN FUN, HIDDEN FEES
The
lavish, bikini-clad sand adventures filled with wrist bracelets,
non-stop partying and wet T-shirt contests may prove to be more
problematic than the typical worry of later seeing yourself in a
compromising position on the Internet.
Students expecting to
enjoy a relaxing time off from exams and classes have returned after
traveling to tropical exotic getaways like Acapulco, Cancun or Jamaica
reporting that they have been hit hard with hidden fees from their
one-price-travel package, according to a March 2004 report released by
Massachusetts Student Public Interest Research Group titled "Spring
Broke: How to Avoid a Spring Break Ripoff."
According to the
results of the report, thousands of students each year opt to purchase
a one-price-travel package from companies like Student City, where all
the arrangements for their trip are made on their behalf. While these
packages may initially be an enticing option for students by offering
competitive prices on necessary arrangements such as airfare, hotel
accommodations, and providing the necessary wrist bands to get into
nightclubs, these travel packages often have hidden fees and have
proven to be worth more hassle and loss than the extra money they
initially saved.
The 2004 report by MassPIRG, which surveyed
Spring Break travel advertisements and flyers circulating around twelve
colleges across the country, found that every single advertisement
examined was marked with "hidden, confusing and misleading fees."
Through
their research at college campuses across the country in winter 2004,
MassPIRG found advertisements for 17 different travel companies that
presented students with trips across the country and outside of the
country. In its report, MassPIRG looked at the company prices for a
one-week Spring Break package to Acapulco departing in mid-March,
taking into consideration the price-per-person with a four-person hotel
room.
The report found that "hidden fees" for each advertised trip were only
marked in "very fine print and totaled an average of up to $367,"
causing a resulting price for the Spring Break trip to be, on average,
up to 62 percent higher than the prices initially advertised.
The
largest percentage difference between an advertised price on a travel
company flyer and the actual price including the fine-print hidden fees
was for the company Paradise Parties, where the actual price of the
entire package was $1016, which equaled over double the initial
advertised rate of $499, according to the report.
ParadiseParties.com
states the average price for a trip to Acapulco, including hotel and
airfare accommodations for a trip from March 10 to March 17 leaving
from Logan Airport, starts at $899.
Paradise Parties Spring
Break Vacations website includes a frequently asked questions section,
which is only available after searching the fine-print where it states
the initially advertised price does not include an added departure tax
"that currently ranges from $47-$48 and a $10 processing fee." The
fees, however, are included in the total package price and a breakdown
of the fees can be provided only after contacting Paradise Parties
Spring Break Vacations.
WARM WEATHER WARNINGS
MassPIRG,
in their report, warns that in addition to providing deceptive
marketing tactics, student-traveler companies also often require
students to give up many of their rights such as reserving the right to
"change travel and accommodation" plans at their discretion. These
travel companies also require travelers to sign a contract where they
waive their legal right to later file a dispute with the travel company
if something goes wrong with their trip.
MassPIRG Consumer
Advocate Eric Bourassa said certain travel companies exploit unknowing
students by gauging them with hidden fees and "confusing terms because
they know students are less experienced at negotiating a deal, and that
students are eager to book Spring Break plans."
Bourassa said he does not foresee the exploitation and travel scams by
travel companies that target students ending in the near future.
"As
long as there is Spring Break I'm sure there will be travel scams
targeting students," Bourassa said. "It's just important that students
are aware of these scams, ask a lot of questions and shop around."
Bourassa
recommended students shopping around for one-price Spring Break travel
packages should be cognizant of the fact that fine-print hidden fees
and confusing terms and conditions are routine practices for travel
companies.
"They should read any flyers on campus with a critical eye," Bourassa said.
Bourassa
also said travel companies that advertise for Spring Break packages
should advertise all fees including any necessary mandatory fees, such
as departure taxes and processing fees. He added, "Potential fees and
price increases should be listed in readable type next to the base
price."
He also recommended that travel companies revoke the
practice of contracts requiring travelers give up their legal rights.
Bourassa said, all websites and flyers should legibly display a
company's terms and conditions, including their privacy policies.
RISKY BUSINESS
The
rush of thoughts about warm afternoons on the beach may lead students
to gloss over the very fine print of travel packages, but there may be
a hard-wired reason students throw caution to the ocean wind.
Alya
Guseva, BU assistant professor of sociology, students who are embarking
on Spring Break believe they are taking risks but in actuality, they
are racked with uncertainty.
"Risk is a probabilistic notion,
and students certainly do not know statistical odds of positive [or]
negative outcomes," Guseva said in an email. "Risk judgments are made
based on analysis of past observations of a similar kind . . . A fairly
large number of similar students taking same trips in the past -- their
experience, whether negative or positive, could indicate the likelihood
of making it back home safely.
"Uncertainty is the situation
when there is no possibility of making such probabilistic judgments,"
she continued. "In general, individuals are not very good at making
risk judgments, since they usually lack data and processing capacities."
College
of Arts and Sciences senior Arlyn Depagter said she and her friends
encountered problems during her 2005 Spring Break to Acapulco after
using Student City.
"After we paid for the trip, they tacked
on an additional fuel charge to the airplane price," Depagter said.
"They provided us with horrible flight times. When we arrived at the
airport, we sat on a cramped plane because they did not have enough
flight attendants."
Depagter said she and her friends took a
different route in planning their Spring Break this year. "We avoided
all of those companies this year and went through a travel agent who
was a relative," Depager said. "There was security of knowing that they
were doing what was right for us."
