www.miami.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 24, 2003 MIKE SEEMUTH

Businesses employing a mobile workforce represent a major market for restricted coach-class airline fares that won't be refunded if the passenger cancels the trip.

Still, businesses are very much in the market for refund policies that make changes in travel plans less costly, especially now. Talk of a possible war with Iraq has led road warriors to take defensive action by trying to minimize the cost of delayed or canceled business trips.

Paying a premium price for a refundable, first-class airline seat is one way to minimize the cost of canceling a business trip. But buying insurance with trip-cancellation coverage often can afford the same protection at lower cost, said Scott Shadrick, president of Coral Gables travel agency TraveLeaders.

Do the math. A business-class seat on an international flight can cost thousands of dollars more than an economy-class seat. By contrast, insurance policies with trip-cancellation coverage, medical benefits and other goodies generally cost less than $250 per trip, according to InsureMyTrip.com, a Web site that compares travel-insurance policies and premiums.

For example, a $96 policy from a company called Access America provides emergency medical and dental benefits, baggage delay insurance and coverage up to $1,500 of expenses due to trip cancellation or interruption.

Covered causes include terrorist acts in the destination cities of the insured, along with ``strikes, natural disasters or bad weather resulting in the complete cessation of services by the airline, the tour operator or the cruise line for at least 24 consecutive hours.''

As with other types of coverage, travel insurance policies have exclusions, and among those in the Access America policy is the list of covered air carriers, including American Airlines and many other U.S. carriers but excluding United Airlines and all foreign airlines.

Some policies restrict their coverage geographically to exclude countries for which the U.S. Department of State has issued a travel warning, as it has for Colombia and Venezuela.

Another way to minimize the cost of last-minute changes in business travel plans is to book rooms at hotels with lenient cancellation policies.

For example, HoteLeaders.com, an online booking service partially owned by TraveLeaders of Coral Gables, allows customers to cancel reservations at any of 7,000 hotel rooms, without charge, up until 6 p.m. on the scheduled day of arrival. ''It's the most liberal cancellation policy in the industry,'' Shadrick said.

Compared with individual business travelers, business meeting planners face astronomically greater risk on the geopolitical front. Hotel charges for failure to draw adequate attendance at business meetings, conventions and trade shows can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts responded to current market conditions by eliminating cancellation and attrition charges for meetings booked by April 30, and staged by the end of the year, at one of its properties.

''We understand the increased need for face-to-face meetings during these challenging economic times,'' InterContinental said in a company statement. ``However, we also recognize the uncertainty many may have in booking meetings and committing funds.''

ECONOMY-CLASS FLEXIBILITY, UK-STYLE

Usually it takes an extraordinary event, such as the Sept. 11 attacks or the recent heavy snowstorms in the Northeast, to make airlines waive their usual customer penalties for reservation changes and cancellations.

But British Airways seems to have decided that war jitters alone are enough to bend usual rules.

British Airways has temporarily waived charges certain economy-class customers once paid to change reservations or destinations on long-haul flights. The airline's new program applies to economy class reservations booked by March 17 for travel by year-end, which passengers can alter at no charge until May 31.

The bad news is, the temporary program applies only to BA tickets purchased in Britain. And there are no current plans to extend the program to the U.S. market.

MARKET SHARE UNAFFECTED HERE

American Airlines may be losing money but it isn't losing market share in Miami. Fresh traffic data for Miami International Airport show that American and its commuter cousin, American Eagle, accounted for 55.7 percent of the Miami airport's passenger traffic in calendar year 2002, up from 53.7 percent in 2001.

Contact Mike Seemuth at humidity@aol.com.

www.intelligencer.ca By Henry Bury The Intelligencer Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 10:00

Local News - What started off as another holiday in a Central American country ended up as a living nightmare for a Consecon couple. A string of calamities befell Gudrun and Fred Schwarze — including a serious illness for Fred and many of the other guests, largely on the trip and hailing from Ontario and Quebec — during their trip last month to a resort in Honduras. The illness outbreak forced the couple and others to fly home after only completing one of their two holiday weeks. The couple is now waiting to be reimbursed for their ordeal. “The holiday surely wasn’t what we expected,” Fred Schwarze told The Intelligencer. “We have been in Third World Countries on holidays and we had an idea of what to expect. But this was way out of proportion.” He suffered severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and fever for almost three days; his wife was more fortunate, but she still felt nauseous for almost the entire time there. Many of the other guests fell sick as well to a mysterious illness and were flown home early. The Schwarzes booked their two-week holiday in early December through Sears Travel at the Quinte Mall. Over the past several winters, they had vacationed in such countries as Venezuela, Cuba, Costa Rica and Mexico, as well as Europe and never experienced any problems. So when they read a travel writeup on a holiday in Honduras, they decided to give it a try. “We prefer vacationing away from the hustle and bustle of large resorts with thousands of people,” Fred Schwarze said. They spent $3,800 for a two-week holiday offered by World of Vacations at the new four-star resort, Barcello Palma Real, on the Caribbean Sea in Honduras. Their trip was for Jan. 27 to Feb. 10. Reading the brochures, the Schwarzes knew the 161-room resort was a 90-minute bus trip from the San Pedro Sula airport. But, two days prior to their departure, they received a phone call informing them that the bus trip from the airport to their resort was more than three hours. “If we had known it was a three-hour-plus ride to the resort, we wouldn’t have gone,” he said. “But it was just too late to cancel the trip.” Things got much worse after they arrived at the resort. They had requested a room with a garden view — instead they faced a large parking lot. They said the stench of runoff water from the kitchen at the resort was so bad that it made walking on the narrow beach quite unpleasant. “The hotel itself was nice but the surrounding area was still being developed, including the water park,” he noted. Three days into their holidays, Fred Schwarze became violently ill. He suffered severe cramps and abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. The Schwarzes estimate that 75 to 80 per cent of the guests at the resort fell ill as well. It got so bad, they said, that World of Vacations, brought a doctor in every day to dispense medication to the guests. “What bothers me,” Fred Schwarze said, “is that the resort had similar problems with people being sick back in December. That was admitted to us by World of Vacations while we were there and they said they thought they had the problem solved. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t.” If they had known about the December illness affecting many vacationers at the resort, “then we would have never gone there,” he said. A Toronto newspaper quoted Brenda McInerney, Ontario general manager for World of Vacations, earlier this month as saying that her organization was cancelling vacations for about 1,700 people who had planned trips to Honduras and was arranging to bring hundreds of holidaymakers home early. She said the cut-off was due to unseasonably wet weather in the Central American country, and that the company was still looking into reports of illnesses. By Friday, Jan. 31, World of Vacations decided to move all the vacationers, including the Schwarzes, to San Pedro Sula and put them up in hotels there. They were told a plane would pick them up Saturday morning. The plane never arrived until Sunday afternoon and took vacationers to Cancun, Mexico. World of Vacations offered the travellers who were on two-week holidays a chance to stay in Cancun for their second week at no additional charge. The Schwarzes declined the offer and were eager to return home. Their plane landed in Montreal to drop off the Quebec travellers and then flew on to Toronto. They arrived Feb. 1 around midnight and began their two-hour drive home. Fred Schwarze said while they were still in Honduras, World of Vacations gave them a written agreement to give travellers who had booked a two-week holiday a full refund. “Sears Travel is still working on getting us the refund,” he said. Gudrun Schwarze did not lay the blame entirely on World of Vacations. “They did their utmost to make us comfortable,” she said. “They did their best to remedy a bad situation.” They brought in doctors to the resort to help the ill, she noted. Her husband took medication to ease his symptoms. “They even offered us a free trip to the Capan Ruins because our plane was a day late coming there,” she said. They took the trip, valued at $165 U.S. each. But Gudrun said she’s not eager to return to Honduras. “It was an eye-opener to see how people exist and have to survive...we are blessed to live in Canada.” Fred Schwarze agreed and added the couple will think twice about where they go on holiday next. “It’s just a bad memory now,” he said. Louise Crandall, communications director for the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, said in an earlier interview that Honduras is a new vacation destination and there will be problems “and growing pains” as there were for the first vacationers in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. She encouraged consumers to make detailed checks, through their agent, on every aspect of a new destination trip, including the prevailing weather patterns, state of construction of new hotels and all related facilities. They can also contact the Travel Industry Council of Ontario with their concerns.