My wife, Eve, and I booked a trip to India and a pretrip visit to Sri Lanka with Overseas Adventure Travel, or OAT (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824), for February-March ’10. After an amount of ordinary procrastination, in early December we applied for our India visas.
After sending ITN my letter about the foreign-transaction fee (FTF) imposed when I bought tickets from Aer Lingus with my Visa card (May ’10, pg. 14), I pursued the matter with Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PFCU) and learned the following.
The information linking the FTF with a currency-conversion fee was given to me in error by a PFCU representative. The FTF has no connection to currency conversion. In fact, the FTF was and can be charged where no currency conversion has taken place.
I joined a group of 34 well-traveled people on May 14, 2009, for an 18-day trip to China with smarTours (New York, NY; 800/337-7773, www.smartours.com). It included a Yangtze river cruise and time in Hong Kong.
I highly recommend smarTours, which delivered a top-notch trip at a terrific value for the money. The cost was $3,099 per person, double occupancy, with air from JFK in New York. This included $185 for departure taxes/fees, in-country airfare and almost all meals. The single supplement ran $799-$999.
My wife, Kathy, and I took an “Ancient Kingdoms” tour to Southeast Asia with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824), Jan. 29-Feb. 21, 2009. This was an excellent trip on which to experience the four countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but I am writing about another matter that may be of interest to travelers.
During a stop in Vietnam, we purchased a decorative stone lantern and paid to have it shipped to our home in the States ($200 lantern plus $80 shipping). We put it all on a Visa card.
After booking, on Air Berlin’s website (www.airberlin.com) on Feb. 9, 2009, a round-trip flight between New York and Düsseldorf in May, I unhappily discovered that reserving two economy seats would cost an additional €60, or $86, round trip. Nevertheless, on Feb. 20 I phoned Air Berlin’s US office (866/266-5588) and paid this amount to ensure that my wife and I would have adjacent aisle and window seats.
by Ashley Mannion, Fountain Hills, AZ
ITN printed a reader’s letter titled “Sky-high Charge for Scratch” back in the May ’08 issue, page 30. It prompted another reader to send in the following account of a similar experience with the same auto rental office the year before, one with a twist. — Editor
Through Auto Europe, my husband and I rented a car from National Car Rental at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany for 36 days in April-May ’07.
I had Zierer Visa Service (multiple offices but based in San Francisco, CA; 866/788-1100, www.zvs.com) get me a visa for Brazil in September ’08, several months ahead of a Princess cruise I was about to take. I received the visa in about three weeks.
At the end of my Venice-Manaus Pacific Princess cruise, Nov. 28-Dec. 19, 2008, the ship’s purser informed me that Princess Cruises had paid a fine of $359 levied by Brazilian Immigration and before getting my passport back I had to reimburse the cruise line.
by Jay Brunhouse
Arriving at the Santiago International Airport, Dec. 18, 2008, I went through Immigration and then Customs. As a frequent traveler to less-traveled parts of South America, I am used to bringing snacks in case we miss meals. On this trip I had brought a new, unopened bag of dried peaches from Costco, an unopened bag of dried apricots from Fresh & Easy, trail mix in a baggie and unsalted almonds in another baggie.