George's Journal: a Collection of Articles Enjoy, But Be Careful! Booking travel over the Internet has become a practise for many travellers today but it is important for you to exercise care while doing this. Yes, I am biased in this matter but I do have your best interest at heart. Stories abound of people arriving at a destination only to find that what they had previously paid for was not forthcoming. Many more have arrived at the airport only to find they did not have a reservation for their flight, and worse, had no one to contact to remedy the situation. Such are the potential problems when dealing with an online travel seller. As most of these are in a foreign country it is not easy to solve a problem situation. Fortunately these many stories are not the norm and if you don't mind spending hours researching and booking your trip, you can find it enjoyable. A registered travel agent could do this for you much faster and will more often than not save you money but I understand the desire to do it yourself. I suffer from this malaise myself at times. In order to assist those of you that want to do your own bookings and to help reduce the risks in booking online, we have added a new section on our website (www.belltours.ca) called 'U-Book-It !' containing links that we have investigated for reliability. You must understand that we do not guarantee positive results from any of these links but we have, at least, checked them out and they are as reliable as any we can find. You assume your own responsibility with booking online and your money is not protected by the B.C. Travel Assurance Fund that all B.C. registered travel agencies must pay into. Read each site's instructions very carefully and pay particular attention to the fine print and restrictions. This is most important. While our U-Book-It! section is in its infancy, you will find a number of links to airlines, hotels, cruise lines, tour companies, and more. I recommend checking back periodically as we are adding new links every week. Do keep in mind that we strongly recommend that you do your research for your vacation, decide on what you want, and then come into our office and book through us to protect your hard-earned money. So, fire up that computer of yours, go to www.belltours.ca and check
out Printed in the Peace Arch News, February 15th, 2003 George Bell, |
Bell Travel Services- Providing Custom Travel Services for
24 Years.
Toll-free: 1-800-665-8488 Vancouver: (604) 535-2587 Fax: 604-538-6646 info@belltours.com
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