Michael Finney of “7 On Your Side,” a consumer advocacy program on the television station KGO in San Francisco, recently reported on the woes of a Travelocity customer. Scott Stanton of Willits, California shoots video around the world. About a year ago Stanton used Travelocity.com to book a flight on Air China. When he checked in for the flight, things got weird. The clerk at the counter told him he had two seats on the same flight, and that he had paid for both, even though he was traveling alone. Immediately, Stanton called Travelocity. The travel agency told him it would credit his account back, and not to worry about it. Then, post-trip, his bank statement showed not only a charge for two Air China tickets — $1,079 each — but also a double charge of the $24 Travelocity booking fee. This time Travelocity told Stanton that it wouldn’t reimburse him until Air China paid it back, and that it could take up to 90 days to process the refund. More than a little ticked off, Stanton contacted the consumer advocacy television program “7 On Your Side.” Program staff investigated the issue, and Travelocity said it would give Stanton a refund. But then Stanton encountered another hitch: Travelocity would refund his money only by crediting the same debit card he had used to purchase the airline ticket… a debit card account he no longer had. “7 On Your Side” staff stepped in again, and Travelocity sent Stanton a refund check. So, a happy ending at last for Stanton. And for the rest of us? How do we keep from being double-charged? By keeping careful records, according to KGO’s website:

Travelocity … was still looking into why the system did not catch Stanton’s double-booking. … [It] regrets the delay in refunding the money. If you ever find yourself with two tickets, keep all receipts and both ticket numbers, so you can quickly prove that you didn’t buy or use both seats.

As ever, caveat emptor… buyer beware!

A recent Financial Times article quotes Bruce Flynn, a UK native who has operated restaurants in New York and Florida: “This has been a problem for a long time.” Flynn is referring to a cultural difference between Europe and the US. European waiters get paid salaries — as much as US$1,750 per month in Rome — while their American counterparts live off a combination of low hourly pay and tips. European tourists, lured to the US by a favorable exchange rate — more than US$1.50 to one euro — are tipping as if they’re still in Europe — 10 percent tops, instead of 15 to 20 percent.

What to do? Some less-tony restaurants in the US are printing reminders at the bottom of the bill, with a suggested gratuity. Others are replacing the dollar symbol with a euro symbol, after the bill has been totaled up.

It’s not clear whether the stingy tips are a product of ignorance or, well, stinginess. European tourists are coming to the US in record numbers. Will awareness of US tipping practices increase, along with the number of transatlantic visits? So far, indications are “mais non.”

4 Ways To Be A Traveler, Not A Tourist (Vagabondish.com)

But if you want to be a traveler rather than a tourist – to me, that means experiencing a country and its culture from the inside, rather than simply taking pictures of it as it passes by your tour bus window – it just takes a little bit of effort.

Alternately, there’s this thought from Paul Bowles (via his novel “The Sheltering Sky”) that I use in my e-mail signature:

“He did not think of himself as a tourist; he was a traveler. The difference is partly one of time, he would explain. Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another.”