So how big a lie would you tell for a discount on travel?
Americans love a bargain. And the vagaries of travel pricing certainly don’t discourage anyone from doing what they can to save money.
Many discount hunting strategies are legal, others are gray areas and some are flat out dishonest. But how far is too far over the line?
Many lies involve children. For examples, sneaking a child into Disney who is a couple months over the age limit for children’s tickets, putting three small children in a hotel room that has a maximum of two children, bringing a two-and-a-half-year old as a lap baby on a plane. (As most flight attendants will tell you, some parents will insist a child who looks ready for kindergarten is a baby.).
Other truth-stretching strategies involve asking for corporate rates on a vacation trip, booking a single room for two people, or booking senior rates for clients who are under the required age. (One client once told me “Any young kid at the check-in desk thinks anyone over 30 is ancient.”)
There’s also the particularly obnoxious (to those of us in the industry) scam of pretending to be a travel agent, or a travel writer, though hotels have been cracking down in recent years by asking for serious identification.
This week I had a relatively wealthy client whose daughter was joining friends on a graduation trip to Hawaii. The girls wanted a nice, if not deluxe, hotel right on the beach and the package rates were actually significantly discounted. (Plus they were planning to sneak a third or fourth into the room to cut costs.) But the mother wanted something lower.
I suggested some options a few blocks from the beach and the mother said she would think about it and get back to me. Over the weekend I got a cheerful email, apparently a friend of the family had been able to book a room at “Kamaaina rates” (rates for Hawaii residents only) and it was a great deal.
The resident friend who made the booking is not staying in the room, and I didn’t find out for sure if the room was booked in that person’s name. But the net result is that they are expecting to pay about half the discounted rate of $200 including tax, not to mention saving the $50 per extra person rate.
So is this a great example of bargain hunting? Or an over-the-line tactic that hurts hotels and travel agents alike. Or both?
Photo: Desktopnexus.com/wallpaper
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
