Charter Flights

Some Common Misconceptions of charter flights are that 1) you must be a member of a larger group who is doing the chartering and 2) you had to purchase the ground package—hotels, meals, tours—to take advantage of the charter fare.

That is no longer the case. In 1987 the Civil Aeronautics Board opened charters to the public and permitted a great deal more flexibility and competitiveness than had previously existed. Now anyone can fly a public charter. You can make air-fare only arrangements, and need no longer adhere to the schedule of any group. You can fly charters into one city and return from somewhere else. You can even buy one-way tickets, known in charter-industry lingo as "half roundtrips."

The principal difference between chartered and scheduled flights is that with charters you deal directly not with airlines but with entities known as wholesale tour operators. Tour operators charter entire planes or segments of planes from airlines to fly specific routes at specific times. They set fares and sell tickets either through their own retail outlets, through travel agents (the most common form of distribution), or through discount dealerships.

Charter Advantages

The main advantage of charter flights is price. Although fares fluctuate considerably between and within seasons, charters usually cost from $50-$200 less than the lowest round-trip excursion fare on a scheduled airline. Geared to day-by-day changes in travel patterns, charter fares run slightly lower on off-days and slightly higher on holiday weekends.

Larger tour operators with many flights to different places sell half round-trips (one-way tickets) that permit you to fly to one destination and return from another. Two half round-trips cost only slightly more than one "whole" round-trip. Other large operators even allow some flexibility for altering your return trip, although this privilege cannot be counted upon on every charter. Charters often provide the only nonstop or direct service overseas from interior cities.

Charter Drawbacks

Along with the many pluses, charters also have serious drawbacks, some of which can be overcome by smart shopping, while others are subject to the luck of the draw.

  1. Charters don't go everywhere. While many charter flights take off for Europe or Southeast Asia, few are available to countries whose governments have protectionist policies toward national or state-owned airlines. Consequently, few charters are available to the Far East.
  2. Charters have limited and inflexible schedules. Tour operators typically arrange back-to-back flights on which planes fly into, for example Manila, on Saturday morning and depart on Saturday night. You can stay any number of weeks, but you cannot fly within the week or on any other day.
  3. Charter passengers must pay for the charter flight weeks and possibly months in advance. Tour operators will sell seats until the last minute, but in practice the most desirable dates fill up early. Also, passengers who alter or cancel their travel plans are subject to substantial penalties.

Rights Of Passage

Despite the drawbacks described above, charter passengers are not completely unprotected. If the tour operator cancels the trip ten days or more before the departure date, passengers must be notified in writing and receive a refund within fourteen days. Similarly, if a major change is made more than ten days before departure (i.e., an increase in the fare that exceeds 10 percent, change in the itinerary), passengers have seven days in which to cancel, and the operator has fourteen days in which to send a full refund. Tour operators can't raise fares within ten days of departure, but they are allowed to reschedule flight times by as much as forty-eight hours without penalty.

The Charter Experience

In and of itself, the charter-flight experience has caused many an otherwise intrepid traveler to vow "never again."

The worst charter planes in the sky are certain specially configured DC-10s and L-1011s with ten-across narrow seats and a pitch of only thirty-one to thirty-two inches. When seating capacity on a DC-10 or L-1011 exceeds 370 seats, get ready for a tight squeeze.

Fear Of Failure

There is a real possibility that the charter airline or tour operator will declare bankruptcy before or during your trip. It happens almost every year. Airline failure is less common and less disastrous. The tour operator probably still has the money passengers paid (he or she is obliged to keep it in an escrow account until the flight) and can make arrangements with another airline. A failure that occurs during a trip might necessitate a few days' delay while alternative arrangements are made, but it probably won't cost additional money.

TIP: Whenever you put down a big payment, ask if it's protected against operator failure--by federal law, state law, or by trade association. If there's no protection, consider buying trip-cancellation insurance (for about 5% of your payment). Or have your agent find an operator that offers adequate protection.

Tour-operator failure is more common and more serious. Tour operators are required to post performance bonds and place payments for flights in escrow accounts earmarked for air travel. If the operator fails before you depart, you should be able to get your money back. This is hardly an ironclad guarantee, because the performance bond seldom covers the entire cost of chartering the aircraft.

If the tour operator fails during your trip, you may be at least temporarily stranded. In a worst-case scenario, the charter airline refuses to carry you because the tour operator hasn't paid them. No other charter or scheduled carrier is obligated to honor the ticket or has anything to gain by doing so. You are then faced with a delay of perhaps several days, the increased expense of obtaining another ticket, and little likelihood of ever receiving a full refund. Eventually the tour operator or airline may rescue you with some alternative arrangement. But this could take several days and if you're in a hurry to get back, you may have to pay the price.

If you have qualms about a tour operator's reliability or solvency, contact your local Better Business Bureau. To find out whether any enforcement complaints have been lodged against a tour operator or charter airline, contact the Department of Transportation in Washington, DC, at 202-755-2220.

Whenever possible, pay for charter flights with charge cards. In case of problems later, you can withhold payment or try to get a refund through the charge-card company.

If you can't put it on plastic, make sure your check is made out to the escrow or trust account U.S. operators are legally required to establish for each charter program. If you make the check payable to the individual tour operator, you diminish your chances of receiving a refund in case of failure.

To protect yourself against airline or operator failure, you can buy "travel protection" or "trip interruption" insurance from a travel agent or tour operator. Insurance costs around $5 per $100 of protection, but some travel agencies offer it as a free perk for buying through them. If you're interested in buying insurance, click here for our travel insurance recommendation.

In any event, when flying a charter be sure to have the financial wherewithal-charge card, traveler's check, cash-to buy your way home in an emergency.

Choosing A Charter

Travel agents receive listings of all charter flights and can book space on any of them. But charters are not a travel agency's favorite kind of business. Because fares are lower, commissions are lower. Charter flights are not computerized, so agents must check them out through brochures and book them over the phone. Since agents must work harder to make less money booking a charter, they tend to be relatively uninformed and negative about them.

If you decide to fly a charter, your best bet is to track it down yourself and have an agent write the ticket. This is more than merely convenient. In some cases of failures by charter carriers or tour operators, tickets purchased through accredited agencies have received priority refunds.

Charters advertise widely during the months preceding flights. Check out local newspapers and the Sunday travel section of the paper in your most convenient gateway city-the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and others.

The following travel agencies handle charters and tours to Southeast Asia:

Charters flights are not the best mode of cheap travel. They must be arranged far in advance and their itineraries are relatively inflexible. And while the risk of a failure that leaves you stranded is slight, so too may be the price differential between the charter and the best advance-purchase excursion fares. Unless the charter offers truly dramatic advantages in terms of cost and convenience-and from some destinations on some charters this may well be the case-the greater security, comfort, and flexibility offered by a scheduled service is usually worth the extra money.


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