Hey Eric- some advice please- Re an in country (Africa) Safari Company – a well known one- - after we sent them an e mail , they referred us to as they called it " our represenative" in Conn. And they also had a "destination specialist" contact us. Neither of these people are employees of the African company I think. I do not know what their relationship if any is. I asked the destination specialist who I was to pay the money to if I chose to have them prepare a trip- - he said to him, 8 weeks before travel.
I called the two travel insurance companies I have used - travel Insured and Travel Guard. Both said they only insure against default or failure of the "tour operator" (in this case the African company , an airline, a cruise ship etc) in this case they said if I paid the representative personally, and the representative or the destination specialist or even a travel agent kept the money, then I was out of luck. The only way to be insured was to pay the African company directly..
I went to the caribbean this year and we used a conventional travel agent – I looked at my credit card tonite and on this trip they charged my cc so that I paid the airfare part of the package directly to the airline, and paid the travel / hotel/food part directly to the tour package company (GoGo), so in that trip’s instance I was insured as I paid the "tour operator" not the travel agent/or agency. Memory tells me maybe in the past I have paid the travel agency- I can not remember.
Travel insured said "put it on a c card" so if they default they you can dispute it and get your money back. I called an Amex. Supervisor. They would not discuss their dispute policies, and said their claims people would only respond in writing (no phone calls) and only to actual cases claims- no what ifs--. Visa was a little better but very vague saying things like- we will do all we can for you, but then got vague at the end saying -I should choose a reputable agent. Etc. Both said that you had to file/dispute within 60 days of the charge per Federal law – that’s cutting it close on the 8 weeks advance payment.
Whats the solution? Find a US based tour company that is the "tour operator". So your deposit is covered for default by the travel insurance? How/when did you pay for your Africa trip and who did you pay? These are not $500 trips
Thanks