Police check after travel agency closes

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 34

Police check after travel agency closes

PA Wellington A Western Samoan woman is angry and disappointed after paying for air tickets at a Wellington travel agency which has closed.

Mrs Maria Fainu’u paid $783 to Trans Pacific Travel in Newtown last month. Now she is concerned the deal will not be honoured. Trans Pacific Travel closed last week and the Wellington C. 1.8. is investigating the firm after a number of complaints from clients.

Normally a travel agency has to make good the business it conducts before it closes, using its bond to protect the public. However, travel sources say Trans Pacific was not a bonded agency and that the public will have little comeback.

Mrs Fainu’u paid $783 on April 26 and received a receipt for an airfare from Western Samoa to New Zealand for her sister.

The arrangement was that the ticket would be collected from a Polynesian Airline office in Western Samoa. Attempts to collect the air ticket have failed and Mrs Fainu’u said yesterday that she planned to notify the police. “My sister and brothers donated the money. I feel very angry, but I hear we are not the only ones.” Attempts to get in touch with staff at the travel agency had failed, she said. The chief controller of air services policy to the Minister of Transport, Mr John Kennedy-Good, said the matter had probably gone beyond the Ministry’s jurisdiction. “It would be a matter which I would see for the police,” he said. The Ministry can take action against a non-ap-proyed agent without a bond if the agent is receiving a commission.