Whether for a one-time certificate or a club, you're prepaying for a trip that might never materialize. But the club they joined, Virginia-based Travel Recreation International, went out of business within two years, leaving few assets, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Since the contract had been signed in Mexico and the Knees' money went to a company there, it took Mexican consumer authorities to help them get a partial refund. Other club members weren't as lucky. No federal laws specifically govern the sellers of travel deals, and only a few states have passed such laws.
Officials instead rely on general statutes that cover consumer protection and deceptive advertising.
Even where travel-sales laws exist, they are not always enough. But that's a paltry sum for restitution if a company goes bankrupt. And Florida has jurisdiction only over companies that operate in the state or that sell to its residents. But only Californians can collect. Thomas A. Dickerson, a city judge in Yonkers, N.Y., is an expert on travel law after having been scammed himself in 1975 on a trip to Jamaica.