Class Action Blog : Consumer Fraud, Consumer Protection, Securities and Antitrust Lawyer & Attorney : Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz

Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz P.C. is currently investigating a potential class against Travelocity, Orbitz and other internet travel vendors concerning the sale of unwanted travel insurance to commuters. As angry consumers have documented, Travelocity, Orbitz and others have pre-checked the boxes selling travel insurance on their reservation forms. As a result, consumers who fail to uncheck the insurance boxes are tricked into buying insurance that they don’t want.

If you or someone you know made travel arrangements through Travelocity, Orbitz or another internet travel vendor and you were charged for unwanted travel insurance or another unwanted expense, you may have been a victim of unfair consumer practices. Please contact us as soon as possible to discuss your legal options.
 

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In recent times travel arrangements are frequently made by the individual traveler rather than through a travel agency. Several organizations have answered the call for to facilitate individuals to make such arrangements. These organizations include, among others, Travelocity, Orbitz, and CheapTickets.com. The modern-day traveler must be very careful when making travel arrangements through such organizations as cancellations are virtually impossible, and making any changes in travel arrangements is very difficult, if not impossible.

CheapTickets.com is presented as a means designed to help individuals find deals on flights, hotels, car rentals, activities, packages, cruises, train travel, event tickets and last-minute trips. One of their advertised features is a ABest Price Guarantee@ which claims that for certain hotel reservations made through CheapTickets.com it is promised that if the customer subsequently finds the exact same deal for less money CheapTickets.com will refund the difference. Although this may appear to be a clear forthright guarantee, actually enforcing it may not be possible.

An individual reported to consumeraffairs.com that in November, 2010 he reserved two hotel rooms through CheapTickets.com for the week of March 19, 2011, and was informed that the Best Price Guarantee would be in effect for this reservation. In January, 2011, this individual found the same hotel, same dates, same rooms for $40 a night less on the CheapTickets.com website. When he sought to obtain the difference pursuant to the CheapTickets.com Best Price Guarantee he was told that, notwithstanding what he had been told at the time he made the reservation, the guarantee did not apply to the situation because of the hotel's cancellation policy.

Another individual reported to consumeraffairs.com that she had booked a flight through CheapTickets.com to fly from Madrid, Spain to Cancun on AirEuropa Airline. When she arrived at Madrid Barajas International Airport and proceeded to the check-in desk she was informed that her flight was going to be carried by Iberworld Airline. She had received no information from CheapTickets.com that there was any change in carrier. AirEuropa's policy is that each passenger is allowed one bag weighing up to 23kg/50 lbs. Checking a second bag up to 23 kg/50 lbs would involve a charge of 60 Euros. This individual had two bags and was prepared to pay the additional charge of 60 Euros. However, when she went to the Iberworld desk to check in she was told that the additional bag would cost her 10 Euros per kilogram, or 230 Euros. She was also told that because she had not originally booked her flight with Iberworld Airline she would have to pay the 230 Euros even though her reservation through CheapTickets.com with AirEuropa would have limited the charge for the second bag to 60 Euros. When she contacted CheapTickets.com seeking reimbursement for the additional charge which she had incurred because CheapTickets.com and AirEuropa had switched carriers, all she was offered was a $100 voucher for a future purchase on CheapTickets.com.

Booking your travel arrangements through CheapTickets.com may result in a situation where you find yourself far from home and, without recourse, being required to pay a significant additional charge to that which you had arranged through CheapTickets.com.

If you or someone you know has been subjected to bait and switch tactics by a travel organization, please contact us to discuss your legal rights.

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In March of this year, Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz P.C., based in White Plains, New York, filed a Complaint in federal court in Florida against Kerzner International Resorts, Inc., the general sales and marketing agent for Atlantis resorts. The Complaint alleges that Atlantis unfairly and deceptively charges its guests a daily per person “mandatory housekeeping gratuity” -- the vast majority of which is not actually paid to the housekeepers.

Atlantis does not deny that it does not pay the entire “mandatory housekeeping gratuity” to housekeepers.  Nevertheless, Atlantis improvidently moved to dismiss the case, claiming that the “mandatory housekeeping gratuity” is combined with a “utility service fee,” and that the distribution of the revenues obtained from those charges within the hotel’s operating structure is of no concern to its guests.

Federal District Court Judge Cohn of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida rejected Atlantis’ arguments, finding that:

The use of the term “gratuity” in the present action, as opposed to “fee” or “service charge,” would lead a reasonable consumer to believe that those funds are a pass-through to the housekeeping staff . . . The fact that Defendants have not disclosed the specific amounts of “housekeeping gratuity” and “utility service fee” does not immunize their conduct.

This is good news for the tens of thousands of consumers from whom Atlantis has deceptively collected the “mandatory housekeeping gratuity and utility services fee.” After some minor pleading technicalities have been addressed, this proposed class action will proceed toward trial in December 2011.

If you or someone you know has stayed at the Atlantis resort or its related hotels, please contact us to discuss your legal options.

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Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz P.C., based in White Plains, New York, recently filed a Complaint in Florida federal court against Kerzner International Resorts, Inc., the general sales and marketing agent for Atlantis resorts. The Complaint alleges that Atlantis unfairly and deceptively charges a “mandatory housekeeping gratuity” the vast majority of which is not actually paid to the housekeepers.

In the face of shrinking revenues and eroding profits in the current economic climate, hotels and resorts have turned to the practice of imposing additional fees and surcharges on consumers designed to appear as innocent expenses. One such charge is Atlantis’ imposition of a “mandatory housekeeping gratuity.”

The Complaint alleges that the imposition of the Mandatory Housekeeping Gratuity is an unfair and deceptive practice because it is not entirely a “housekeeping gratuity.” By using that term, Atlantis represents and implies that the entire fee is being collected on behalf of, and subsequently distributed to, the housekeeping staff that services travelers’ rooms.   However, Atlantis does not disclose the material fact that the housekeeping staff receives only a small, if any, percentage of that “gratuity.” By labeling an additional charge something that it is not, Atlantis is deceiving consumers into paying more for their hotel room than they bargained.

If you or someone you know has stayed at the Atlantis resort or its related hotels, please contact us to discuss your legal options.

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Vacation travel scams never seem to go out of style and we may be seeing a new outbreak of this predatory practice.

It starts with a phone call from a telemarketer who claims to be working for a cruise line.  The consumer who answers the call is immediately congratulated for winning a “contest” – very likely a contest he or she never entered in the first place.  The purported “prize” is an all-expense-paid, 4-day, 3-night cruise to the Bahamas or Mexico.   The caller says the cruise is worth $600 per person, and you can travel with a party of up to 16 people – a $9,600 value.  This supposedly free cruise offer is good for up to 18 months, and allegedly can be used on any of three major cruise lines: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian.  The purported “prize” includes your cruise ship cabin, all you can eat, activities and Las Vegas-style entertainment on board.

What’s the catch? To claim your so-called “prize,” you have to give your credit card number to a complete stranger on the phone and pay a purported “tax” of $93 per person.  Since the cabins are double occupancy, that’s a minimum charge of $186 – or $372 for a family of four.

Several aspects of this transaction are suspicious.  The callers asking for your credit card number have no good explanation for the alleged $93 “tax”.  Is it really a tax, or is it allegedly a source of profit to the cruise line, its travel agent, or the telemarketer?  Are there hidden charges despite the promise of an all-expense-paid trip?  Can the consumer book a trip when he or she wants to travel?  How many people who pay the so-called “tax” never get to take the promised cruise?

If you’ve been deceived by a sham cruise line promotion and/or lost money as a result of a cruise line scam, please contact us to discuss your legal options.

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