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Socked for my friend’s single supplement

September 12, 2009

africaQuestion: I need your help getting a refund for a single supplement that I don’t think I should have to pay. With a friend, I recently booked an Africa trip through Overseas Adventure Travel. We’re both in our mid-60s, so I bought trip insurance.

My friend, with the philosophy of “if anything bad happens, I’ll pay for it,” did not. Two weeks before we were supposed to leave, I started getting back pains and my doctor recommended that I not take this trip. My insurance company reimbursed me in full.

My problem is that when I notified Overseas Adventure Travel of my cancellation, they demanded that my friend pay a $375 single supplement, and if she didn’t, they threatened to cancel her trip that day. I paid the supplement, since she was out of town.

My friend asked Overseas Adventure Travel to refund the supplement, but it refuses. What should I do? — Sue Koopman, San Francisco

Answer: It was nice of you to cover your friend’s single supplement. It was not nice of Overseas Adventure Travel to threaten to cancel her trip unless you forked over another $375.


Single supplements are a charge added to your hotel or cruise rate based on an assumption of double occupancy. From your tour operator’s perspective, a single traveler takes up a room that would ordinarily accommodate two people and needs to pay extra because it’s only getting half the money it normally would.

Overseas Adventure Travel’s policy on single supplements is clear. Where applicable, the supplement must be paid. Here’s a link to the rule.

The company offers what it calls a “roommate matching service” in case you want to double up with someone else. It has some tours that don’t charge a single supplement, and to be fair to the company, the single supplements it charges are based strictly on costs.

But what were its costs?

If you had already paid for your vacation in full, and were getting a refund from your insurance company, then Overseas Adventure Travel would have received all of the money to cover the cost of the single supplement. So it appears your friend was being charged a single supplement as a matter of policy.

If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, with a merchant insisting that you pay up right away, try to slow down the process. Ask the agent to e-mail the chapter and verse of the policy and an invoice for the price difference, and request a reasonable amount of time to settle up. Unless the company is running a scam — or unless you’re traveling that day — it should be allowed.

At my suggestion, you wrote a brief, polite letter to Overseas Adventure Travel, and it sent you an equally brief and polite reply confirming that the supplement needed to be paid. I contacted the company on your behalf, and a spokeswoman confirmed that it was well within its rights to charge a single supplement.

The company’s records don’t indicate that an agent demanded you pay the supplement immediately. “This would not be a productive course for us, nor would we ever threaten one traveler with another traveler’s trip cancellation,” the spokeswoman told me.

Overseas Adventure Travel considers this a “misunderstanding” and has reimbursed your $375 as a goodwill gesture.

(Photo: TangoPango/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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9 comments

  • sirwired

    I think we need more information here… If the trip was non-refundable by the operator, then a single supplement should not have been needed. Instead, don’t cancel, just fail to show up. I can’t imagine they would charge a single supplement on top of the whole fare they are getting for somebody not actually there.

    If the trip was refundable, things do get a bit tricky. I don’t know of any travel insurance policies that cover the single supplement for a traveling companion. On the other hand, most insurance policies do cover the illness of a travelling companion, meaning the friend could have cancelled her trip and received her money back, assuming the friend also had insurance.

  • http://www.aspendew.com AspenDew

    “Goodwill Gesture” usually translates into “We know we screwed up, but we’re not going to admit it. But since we really want you to shut up about it before it costs us any more bad publicity, here’s a little token of our desperation.”

  • KathyJ

    So Overseas Adventure Travel has a policy that a single traveler gets hit with additional fees even if they received full payment from the second person? Crazy!

  • Justin

    Anyone smell a rat at this company? How can a company expect to be paid TWICE. It was NOT refunding the money to the lady who canceled. The insurance company had that honors. So why should Overseas Adventure Travel’s be allowed to forcibly demand a person FORK OVER more money. I can fully understand it’s singles policy. It’s within their rights to do as they please. HOWEVER, a company who has been PAID IN FULL for both people cannot twist it’s policy to demand additional payment. Maybe this woman should look into reporting this company for fraud to her local attorney general. Misunderstanding? I say not. I call this a shady organization that was hoping it could milk some additional cash flow out of someone on the pretense of a threat (Pay or lose it all).

    What do others think? If I were her, I would definitely be pursuing this matter even if I got a refund. How many others has it pulled this “scam on”. It’s one thing to pay for a singles trip and be single. It’s another to be paid in full for BOTH PEOPLE, then demand more money for a single’s fee!!

    Justin

  • Monica

    The “goodwill gesture” definitely sounds like the company knows they were wrong and are trying to save face. If this was a non-refundable trip (even assuming no insurance), the company was already paid in full, so they had the money for a “double occupancy”. There should have been reason to try and charge them again. Too bad it took Chris to get things right.

  • Lisa S

    Well, I won’t be using Overseas Adventure Travel after hearing this.

  • Ernest

    Most single supplements are garbage anyway. It is not just them collecting a fair amount for the hotel room.

    I am a single traveler and most of the single rooms I get are substandard, even though I pay the suppliment. Paying a single supplement does not, in any way, promise an equal room to those couples.

    The single suppliment just gives more of a profit to those charging it.

    When I travell, I get room prices from the hotels that I stay in. Often times, their walk in rate is much less than the rate being charged my the tour company, even before the suppliment. I do not object when a company makes a fair profit but it is just like the airline baggage fees, scalp those that you can single out. Most people will not object because they are not single.

    I now travel with companies that do not charge the suppliment or who will charge me the actual room cost above what I have already paid.

    The single suppliment is just another scam to get more money. It does not cost more to put me in a single room and I use much less than most couples. Less towels for the laundry, less hot water, less sheets , ect.

    Just another scam.

  • Brian

    If the insurance company reimbursed the traveler for his monies spent for the trip, didn’t the travel company get to keep what they had already received? And if they DID get to keep the money, wouldn’t the additional $375 be a case of them “double dipping?”

  • john

    I have often seen advertisements for trips that state the rate quoted is for double-occupancy. If two people book a trip with a double-occupancy rate and then one of the people cancels, then the double-occupancy rate no longer applies and the travel company is then entitled to the difference between the double-occupancy and single-occupancy rates. I don’t see a problem here.

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