Students destined for Acapulco, Mexico, on an ASG-organized Spring Break trip found themselves facing an extra travel expense even before the plane had taken off.
On March 16, two days before departure, trip members received an e-mail from Associated Student Government Student Services Vice President Adam Humann. The e-mail stated that each of the 178 students would have to pay an additional $30 by April 7 because of increased fuel prices.
“I was pretty mad,” said Mike Casey, a McCormick junior. “It seems to me that it should be the business of an airline to pay for gas whether it’s expensive or not.”
Speech sophomore Erin Moore said she felt that the company, Student Travel Services, was taking advantage of the students.
“Sometimes you hear rumors when companies are dealing with college students,” she said. “I felt that we were being played with.”
Humann said Student Travel Services did not even know about the additional cost and that the news had come from the airline, Trans Meridian Airlines.
Casey said he did not know of other airlines that required customers to chip in for fuel after they already had purchased tickets.
“If American Airlines tried to make customers pay, they (the customers) would say, ‘Screw you, we’re going to another airline,'” he said.
In the contract that trip members signed, there was a clause stating that students would have to cover any changes in fuel costs. Neither Casey nor Moore noticed the clause.
“I was definitely surprised,” Moore said. “I had heard that gas prices had been rising, but it had never been an issue with other airlines.”
Humann said he was not surprised by the extra expense since rising oil prices have been in the news for some time. He pointed out that the original prices were 7 percent cheaper than if the students had gone through Student Travel Services themselves. The extra $30 only decreased the amount students saved on the trip.
The added expense did not deter trip members from enjoying themselves in Acapulco. Moore, who said she expected a few glitches, was still satisfied with the overall organization of the vacation.
“It’s kind of a small price to pay for a good trip,” she said. “If that’s going to be the only thing to go wrong, then it’s a good thing to go wrong.”
