By Sarah Lombardo and Torre Peña
A travel agency in Saratoga has set up shop at 1821 Saratoga Ave. and is offering people who attend their seminars upgraded airplane travel, cheap rates at luxurious hotels and expensive vacations on a dime--for a fee. It sounds like a great deal, but the price may be more than participants bargained for.
The Fullerton-based company, which uses the names Travel Network Services International, Travel Services Inc. and Vacation Access when fielding questions, offers participants travel-agent certification for a price ranging from $2,500 to $6,000. With the certification, participants were told, they could travel at wholesale cost, just like a regular travel agent, but without having to work as a travel agent because they would become independent contractors for the company.
Saratoga resident Karen Anderson attended one of the seminars but did not purchase the certification. She said she found out about the company when she received a call from a telemarketer promising "a night on the town" or a "mini-vacation"
just for attending the eclass. Once there, however, Anderson said, she received a sales pitch and then cash, rather than the gift certificate for dinner for two or the trip to San Diego or Las Vegas.just for attending the class. Once there, however, Anderson said, she received a sales pitch and then cash, rather than the gift certificate for dinner for two or the trip to San Diego or Las Vegas.
It sounded like a good deal to Saratoga resident Marty Clevenger, who said she sat through a 45-minute sales pitch. But Clevenger said she backed away from spending $2,995 on the certification when she felt pressured. She was told she had to act immediately on the "one-time" deal.
"It was a hard-sell," Clevenger said.
Anderson, who also said she felt pressured, was quoted a different price of $2,500 for what was apparently the same certification. "I was told the price would go up if I waited and didn't act today," she said.
According to the company, the benefit of getting the certification is worth the price because for people who travel often, the certification pays for itself within a year.
Gene Meyer, a Saratoga resident who owns Baron Travel in Sunnyvale, said that many hotels and rental agencies are now only recognizing travel identification cards issued from IATAN, the International Airlines Travel Agent Network, based in Montreal, Canada.
"The only really legitimate travel agency identification card is the IATAN," Meyer said.
The IATAN card is recognized by more than 15,000 hotels and 90 airlines. To obtain the $15 card, applicants must earn $4,080 a year in salary or commission and work a minimum of 20 hours per week as a travel agent.
"Everyone who applies has to meet our standards," said Bill Vobis, general manager of sales and services for IATAN.
In the past few years, IATAN has been scrutinizing applications more closely. Vobis said IATAN regularly audits travel agencies when the network receives complaints from travel agents about people who abuse the discount system. Vobis added that special industry rates give travel agents the ability to preview travel services, and the card should not be used as a coupon.
"It is quite unethical," Vobis said.
This year IATAN has already canceled 1,877 identification cards on the basis of tips from suppliers and agents.
Though Travel Services Network does not issue IATAN cards, the business is a registered member of IATAN, customer service representative Craig O'Brien said.
"We have a watchful eye on these [Travel Services Network] people. They try to bend the system," O'Brien said. "The reason we haven't shut them down is that they have some legitimate employees."
A representative of Vacation Access, the agency in Saratoga, J.R. Graham, confirmed that participants in their program are not issued IATAN cards; and he referred to the company he represented as a club, not an agency.
"We are not in the business to make travel agents," Graham said. He added that the company's focus was to have a network of people to fill up time-shares.
Herschel Elkins, a senior assistant for the state attorney general's office, said that in spite of the fact that there is no guarantee for participants in the deal, there may not be anything illegal about it.
"Other than the fact that people would have to be unbelievably stupid to pay $6,000 for a discount, there may not be any violation," he said. Elkins did say, however, that his office has filed a number of complaints against travel agencies that have offered similar promotions.
Meyer said the question of legality is usually answered by what participants are asked to do once they are certified.
"The illegality comes when the promotion stresses and encourages people to contact their friends and sell them the travel agent membership," Meyer said. "Then that becomes, in the eyes of the government, a pyramid scheme."
Graham invited a member of the Saratoga News staff to the agency's office on Saratoga Avenue, but he declined to verify the name of the company in a phone interview.
In a letter sent to the Saratoga News, Graham explained further about the business, which he calls a "revolutionary and innovative travel program." Graham wrote, "[W]e at Vacation Access try very hard to market a quality product. Once all of the parts of our program have been reviewed, most people agree that we do."
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This article appeared in the Saratoga News, May 7, 1997.
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