On vacation without adversity: problems faced by tourists

A vacation away from home can be overshadowed by serious challenges. Below are some of the most common of these problems and how to deal with them.

Refusal to issue visas

You have already bought air tickets, booked a hotel, submitted documents for visa processing and look forward to a carefree vacation. But something goes wrong with visas. In a travel agency that has undertaken to help with their registration, every day they feed you with promises: "There will definitely be tomorrow", "Oh, you know, there are such queues. The consulate cannot cope. So there are no passports with visas yet, but they will definitely be on Friday. , three hours before departure. We'll drop them off at the airport. " You will be very lucky if your passports with visas are still handed over to you on time. But what if you don't get a visa? And how can you avoid such stressful situations?

What to do:

1. If you apply for a visa through a special agency that supposedly specializes only in visas and promises to help you, know that you are at great risk. Often, such agencies resort to semi-legal or illegal schemes, in particular, fake hotel reservations. As a result, the consulate may suspect something was wrong and give you a refusal stamp. Such a refusal is very expensive for the tourist. For example, entry into the Schengen area can result in a 5-year imprisonment for falsifying documents. In addition, among such visa agencies there are often scammers who take money from tourists for preparing documents, but in fact do not even send them to the consulate.

2. If the travel company prepares the documents for visa processing (and this is spelled out in the agreement that you have entered into) and the consulate for any reason refused to issue a visa, this refusal is regarded as a failure to fulfill the agreement by the travel company. According to the Law "On Tourism", if a tourist cannot use the service (in this case, he cannot enter the country), then he has the right to demand from the tour operator to return the full cost of the tour. If the travel agency in this situation does not return all the money and motivates it, for example, by the expenses incurred when buying tickets, it is breaking the law. If the travel company refuses to reimburse you for losses at all, go to court with a claim.

3. Regardless of how you apply for a visa (on your own or with the help of a travel agency), you can get travel cancellation insurance. Usually its cost is 5-8% of the total cost of the tour.

Flight delays

This is the most common problem that holidaymakers face every holiday when the number of tourists increases dramatically. While waiting for their flight, people are forced to spend hours, and sometimes days, at airports. At the same time, airlines do not always comply with the requirements of the Federal Aviation Regulations and provide tourists with food and hotel accommodation in case of delays.

What to do:

1. In the event of a flight delay, the airline, in accordance with the Federal Aviation Rules, is obliged to provide the tourist with:

• 2 phone calls or 2 e-mails when waiting for the departure of the flight for more than 2 hours
• Soft drinks when waiting for the departure of the flight for more than 2 hours
• Hot meals if the departure of the flight is delayed by more than 4 hours and then every 6 hours in the daytime and every 8 hours at night
• Accommodate passengers in a hotel if the flight is delayed by more than 8 hours during the daytime or more than 6 hours at night
• Provide a mother and child room for a passenger with a child under the age of 7 years

[ ! ] All services must be provided free of charge.

If the airline refuses to do its job, and you have to spend money on food or hotel accommodation, keep any documents proving this: receipts from the airport hotel or restaurant, receipts for telephone calls, taxi rides, etc. Do not forget to take a certificate / put a mark on the ticket at the check-in counter or from the representative of the airline about what time your flight was actually departed. You can also make videos, photographs and film passengers waiting for their flight at the airport.

To recover any losses incurred in connection with flight delays, you can file a claim with the carrier within 6 months, or in court within 3 years. Be sure to attach to the claim all documents reflecting your expenses and confirming the fact of the delay.

2. If you are late for a connecting flight due to a delay in your first flight, the airline that caused this to happen, according to the current Federal Aviation Regulations, is obliged to assist you and ensure that documents are reissued for the connecting flight.

If the airline refuses to do this, there is only one way out - to purchase tickets at their own expense.

Subsequently, you can file a claim with the carrier or go to court. As proof, attach to the statement of claim documents confirming the delay of your first flight, as well as a "burned-out" connecting flight ticket.

Overbooking: double sales of hotel rooms

This is most often encountered by tourists choosing popular budget destinations. As a rule, a tourist buys a tour, comes to the resort and learns that the hotel room he has paid for is already occupied by other guests, and on completely legal grounds. Tour operators in such a situation usually offer tourists other options for settling, often worse, or compensate with additional excursions.

What to do:

1. It is imperative to conclude an agreement with a travel agency and prescribe in it the key conditions that are regulated by the law "On Tourism". These conditions include, in particular:

• Information about the program of stay, itinerary and travel conditions, including information about accommodation facilities, living conditions (location of the accommodation facility, its category) and meals
• Rights, obligations and responsibilities of the parties
• Conditions for amendment and termination of the contract
• Information on the procedure and timing for the tourist to present claims to the tour operator in case of violation by the tour operator of the terms of the contract

Read the contract carefully before signing. Do not sign a contract that calls for a replacement hotel.

2. Find on the Internet reviews about the hotel that the travel agency offers you. If they scold him, complain about cases of overbooking in it, it is better not to risk it and ask the travel agency to find you another hotel.

3. Do not forget to write down all contact numbers: tour operator, consulate, host. In case of overbooking, first of all contact the host's guide. If he refuses to help you, call the tour operator's representative. If he doesn't answer, call the consulate.

If they do not help you there, you will have to pay for a room in the hotel of your choice, or agree to a replacement offered by the travel agency.

In this case, after returning from the trip, you can demand from the tour operator a refund of the money spent. To confirm the fact of overbooking, be sure to take a certificate of accommodation in the hotel in which you ended up. Also keep all travel and travel documents until the end of the trip, including the contract, vouchers, receipts, documents confirming additional expenses not provided under the contract, if any.

If the tour operator does not agree to pay voluntarily, go to court. You can submit a claim to the court within 2 years from the date of the incident.

Tour operator bankruptcy

In the event of the bankruptcy of a travel company, tourists who have only managed to pay for vouchers and those who have already left for a vacation get into an unpleasant situation. Often, representatives of a bankrupt travel agency stop answering calls, their offices are closed, and tourists cannot receive paid vouchers / tickets / visas, or any advice on further actions.

The worst is for those who find out about sudden problems while on vacation. Often, hotels refuse to accommodate such tourists due to the fact that the bankrupt tour operator did not pay for the accommodation.

As practice shows, even large tour operators are not insured against bankruptcy. And for this, even a crisis is not needed.

What to do:

1. If you are afraid of the bankruptcy of travel companies, it is better to refuse their services and organize your vacation yourself. To do this, it is enough to study information about your chosen country, in particular, about hotels, transfers, attractions, prices for products and various services. You can book a hotel room, as well as order a transfer by phone or the Internet. Buying plane tickets will also be easy.

2. If you nevertheless decide to use the services of a travel agency, before buying a tour, make sure that this travel agency is in the Unified Register in the field of tourism, which is posted on the official website of the authorized state body. According to Article 24 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Tourism", information about each tour operator operating in the territory of Uzbekistan must be entered into the Unified Register in the field of tourism. Each of these tour operators has a guarantor - an insurance company or a bank, which, in the event of financial problems with a travel company, pays compensation to its clients for not rendered services. If your tour operator is not on the list, cancel their services.

3. If you have not left yet, but found out that your tour operator is bankrupt, it is better to refuse the trip. Unfortunately, in this case, you will not have to think about rest, but about how to get your money back. First of all, for this you need to send by fax or by registered mail with notification a request by phone and the address of the travel company with a request to confirm your readiness to fulfill the obligations under this agreement. If there is no response confirming the fulfillment of obligations under the service agreement within 7 days, you have the right to contact the guarantor of the bankrupt tour operator (insurance company or bank) with a demand to compensate for the cost of services not provided by the tour operator. Note that the law does not provide for compensation for moral damage for a disrupted vacation.

4. If you find out about the problems of the tour operator upon arrival in the country of rest, you will have to choose: either re-pay for the rest yourself, or return home and sue the tour operator.

At the same time, going on vacation, you should take a certain amount of money with you in case you have to re-pay for hotel accommodation and return tickets.

Upon returning home, you have the right to claim compensation from the guarantor of the bankrupt tour operator. To do this, the guarantor must submit documents confirming all unplanned expenses. The documents must prove that you did not receive the services guaranteed by the contract, or received them in an improper form. The documents, in particular, include: a certificate of hotel accommodation, various checks, receipts, transfer costs, etc.

Theft

Not only money and personal belongings are stolen from tourists, but also documents. Being left without return tickets or passports is much more dangerous than being left without money that can be borrowed or received by transfer from relatives.

What to do:

1. Going on vacation, be sure to take with you in several copies copies of documents of your passport, insurance policy, agreement on the sale of a tourist product. Also, just in case, leave one copy of all documents to relatives staying at home.

You must have with you a list of contacts of your tour operator, travel agent, host, as well as phone numbers and postal addresses of consulates in the country where you are going.

It is best to keep this list separate from money and documents. In case of theft of the latter, you can use emergency phones and report the incident.

2. At the hotel, carefully follow the internal regulations (the tour operator must warn you about them when concluding the contract). In many countries, according to these rules, the hotel management is responsible for the belongings of tourists stored in special individual safes, which are usually placed either in your room or under the control of the hotel administration. In case of loss of things from the safe, contact the hotel management, which is obliged to reimburse you for losses.

3. If things are stolen from outside the safe or the hotel management refuses to reimburse the losses, you need to contact the police. In some countries there is a special tourist police. It would be nice, going on vacation, to know her phones. If you find the loss, also inform the representative of the travel company about the incident, or send the information by fax to the Uzbek branch of the tour operator.

If at the same time you are left without documents, be sure to contact the Uzbek consulate.

In this situation, you also need to contact the internal affairs bodies of the Republic of Uzbekistan, notify your relatives and ask them to fax you copies of the documents left at home. If you do not have such copies at home, the identification procedure will be delayed.

4. If your travel insurance includes insurance against theft, you can seek the help of an insurer, who will reimburse the costs as soon as possible.

Illness, childbirth, accident, traffic accident

Unfortunately, no one is insured against accidents, even on vacation. With an unenviable regularity, tourists get into numerous accidents (especially often accidents occur in Egypt), face poisoning, illness and other troubles. It is almost impossible to prevent such situations. The only advice is to be careful and, if possible, avoid unnecessary risks.

What to do:

1. Going on vacation, take care of insurance that can help in difficult situations. The law does not establish the minimum amount of insurance. Its size depends on the choice of the tourist, who in most cases prefers to save money and thinks that nothing will ever happen to him. When taking out insurance, remember that there are usually a huge number of exceptions in the minimum insurance.

According to experts, the minimum insurance coverage for a tourist who goes on vacation to developing countries should be at least $ 15,000, and to European countries - at least € 30,000.

At the same time, it is not so much the availability of insurance that is important as the content of the services that it includes. Unambiguously, it should include access to the insurer's dispatch service within 24 hours, delivery of emergency messages, medical, medical and transport services, emergency medical assistance. It is good if the insurance also includes emergency dental care, payment for prescription medications, transportation of remains in case of death, expenses for a third party, expenses for evacuating the sick children.

When taking out insurance, please note that a deductible is not included in it. This is the cost that the tourist, according to the contract, must in any case pay independently, regardless of the compensation of the insurer.

2. If you have an accident, first of all you should contact the insurer's dispatch service, provide your insurance policy number and get advice. Ideally, all services should be provided to you at no additional cost.

If your insurance does not cover the necessary expenses, and the insurance company claims that the case is not insured, there is only one option - pay out of your own pocket.

If there is no money, you will have to seek help from relatives or borrow from someone. It is also worth trying to contact the tour operator's representative and the consulate for help.

Unsatisfactory level or services not provided

The hotel may not be at all the paradise that the travel agency told you about, and the travel agency itself will provide you with low-quality services or will not provide them at all. The Internet is littered with stories of terrible hotel rooms, rudeness and cheating of staff. Not all of them are objective, but often the level of services provided to tourists really leaves much to be desired.

What to do:

1. If the hotel does not provide you with paid services, draw up a protocol and clearly state in it what exactly does not suit you in the hotel service, what services are not provided to you and for what reasons. This document must be signed by the hotel representative. If the hotel employee refuses to sign the document, you can resort to video and photography of any evidence confirming your innocence. You can photograph, for example, leaking seams in your room, moldy yogurt in a hotel restaurant, record on camera how an employee refuses to certify your protocol, how you are treated incorrectly, etc.

Lawyers also advise to enlist the support of 2-3 vacationers who will be ready to confirm this information in court.

2. Do not forget that written requests for correction of deficiencies in the service or for damages must be submitted in a timely manner. According to the law, you have the right to make a claim to the travel company that issued the tour. If this measure does not work, you should apply to the court.

Emergencies: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, coups

Emergencies (force majeure) are something that does not depend on either tourists or tour operators. It is impossible to predict and protect yourself from terrorist attacks, riots and many other situations in which tourists become participants. But it's better to know what to do in such cases.

What to do:

1. If an emergency occurred on the eve of your trip and the vacation had to be canceled, you can expect to receive a full refund of the tour price. In all situations where there is a threat to the safety of life and health, which is confirmed by decisions of the authorities, you have the right to terminate the contract with the tour operator and return the money.

2. If the elements caught you during your vacation, you must first of all take care of your own safety, contact the consulate and the representative of the tour operator and leave the dangerous region as soon as possible. The tour operator must subsequently compensate for all services not provided.

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In conclusion, I would like to note that despite the fact that all the above-described misfortunes often bring tangible troubles to tourists, they should not refuse to travel and stay at home. Be careful and don't take risks. And if you do that, nothing bad will happen to you.

Enjoy your trip!