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Phyllis Stoller has a BA from Tufts University, an MA from New York University and a Finance Degree from the University of the South Bank, London England. Phyllis Stoller founded and managed for 16 years, the largest tour operator for women in North America. She was voted top in women’s travel by Travel & Leisure Magazine,the first to receive this honor. Phyllis has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, Lifetime TV for Women and others. She is a consultant on marketing to women.
Phyllis now resides in New York City and London, England and is affiliated with ECPS Consulting Corporation in New York. She prides herself on her family: husband, Eric, a ‘keeper’, sons Nick (comedy writer and director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Matt , a progressive political strategist who works with liberal Democratic candidates. Phyllis can be reached at Phyllisnycity@gmail.com.
Past Articles
TRAVEL TIPS FOR TOMATOES
For more great tips, visit Phyllis at the Examiner.
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Doomsday for travel companies happens seasonally, which might seem strange to the average female traveler but it is true. By Doomsday, I am talking about bankruptcy or what we in the travel industry call supplier financial default. If Fannie Mae, AIG, Wachovia and Macys can go bust, your chosen airline and tour company can also. Much of this happens either in October or February. These are each 60 days after peak seasons, the first Summer and the second obviously Christmas. A few tips on how to protect your ‘investment’ in a trip might be timely. None are fool proof, so don’t call me from the airport or your hotel in Paris, but here goes.
Everyone knows that paying by credit card is a must. Most credit cards will protect charges to a tour company, cruise line or airline. In my experience, a company that accepts many credit cards usually has wider banking relationships than one which accepts only one or offers only Pay Pal. A company that has an on-line banking facility where you can pay via their bank, and NOT THROUGH PAY PAL OR GOOGLE PAYMENTS has a stronger banking relationship. Nothing against Pay Pal or Google but these are facilitators, which do not have credit exposure to a travel provider. They just pass money around the system. Don’t worry if your travel provider will not take debit cards, the reason is probably that the bank charges them more for debit card processing.
Buy travel insurance that covers default. When your agent or provider offers you insurance , which most do, you see in writing if default is part of the package. PS they will be surprised that you are asking, as most people zero in on cancellation terms. Cruise line insurance almost never includes the cruise’s own financial default. Some of the companies that offer this insurance will actually post a list of who they will not insure. Two of these are Travel Guard and Access America. Scanning their bad boy and good boy lists is quite interesting . Access America has a long list of companies they will insure for financial default, look it over.
Divide up your payments by paying the cruise line and tour company separately from the airline. At least you divide up your risks. Cruise lines and tour companies will not like this as they want to sell you both components but if you are concerned at all, pay your airfare yourself and get to the ship or starting point by buying a transfer or just taking a taxi.
Check if they are insured by Berkeley Insurance for travel companies. The last time my former company was insured by Berkeley we had to provide ten pages of updated information to get our policy renewed. Berkeley turns away weaker companies.
Everything above applies to US companies only. But in these days of globalization, you will again need to do a lot of checking to find out if your vendor is actually US based and liable to our regulations. Don’t get blown away by travel and the fantasy of it, be smart about where your spend your money.
Phyllis
@phyllisnycity (Twitter)
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Proctect from Vacation from Bankruptcy
