Taking a break
Late plans more expensive
by Jennifer Corser Kansan staff writer
Like a stock broker, Dorothy Pogge spends hours on the computer searching for the hottest Spring Break commodity. Cheap airline tickets.
Dorothy Pogge spends the final days before Spring Break helping students who have not yet made travel arrangements.
For Pogge, a travel consultant at Sunflower Travel, 704 Massachusetts St. This is the most frustrating part of Spring Break—you're so tired and you need students who call at the last minute.
who can tell you "You spend time looking and looking for the lowest fare and then they tell you you'll call back," she said.
Lawrence travel agents have been busy making last minute travel arrangements for students who have just decided to go somewhere. Although the big rush is gone, a small stream of students is still calling most, mostly asking about ways to travel.
Students waited later than usual to make travel arrangements this year. Pogge said.
The past two weeks have been hectic because of students calling about going to warm, cheap places, she said. However because most of the cheap air fares already are gone, she spends a great deal of time
trying to find any flight left that is cheap And often after that, students still are not ready to make a commitment and decide to call back later, only to find the flight Pogge found has been taken.
Ruth Hughes, owner of Holiday Travel, 2112 W. 25th St., said the agents at Holiday Travel dealt daily with students wanting to find cheap air fares.
and cheap on them.
"I don't think the public realizes they have to make early commitments," Hughes said.
Hughes said she had to cancel the agency's package trips because students were shopping around at different agencies without making commitments.
out making contributions,
Although Holiday Travel did not lose any
money from the cancellations, it also did not
make a profit, she said.
make a prey
Anita Amalst, manager of Sunflower
said she had problems with paper-
work when people waited to make arrange-
ments. It takes a certain amount of time to complete the documents and if mistakes are made, there is only a small amount of time to get them fixed so the customer can get to his or her destination on time.
Walters said another problem she must deal with was caused when students assumed agents could find the low air rates advertised by airlines Travel agencies
have no control over rate changes or whether the rates are booked.
wrote, "It's not that we don't care, it's just that it gets frustrating to find what they want," she said.
salt.
For Pogge, making travel arrangements for Spring Break sometimes is not the only thing she does for students.
Four girls called her, wanting to be near the action at South Padre Island, Texas, but not in the middle of everything. Pogge said. So they had decided to stay in Corpus Christi and drive to Padre every day. Pogge had to give them a geography lesson, telling them Padre would be a four hour drive away
"I write that."
"A lot of times we're not just travel agents," she said. "Sometimes we're a lot more."
Despite the late decisions of students wanting to go somewhere for Spring Break, Nancy Renro, manager of Adventure Travel, 544 Columbia Dr., said she enjoyed helping students make travel arrangements.
"I think it is a blast," Renfro said. "I have
nofriend sending on Spring Break."
for setting up a business.
Renfro said she had fun finding alternatives for students who were too late to get cheap rates to traditional destinations.
she said.
"That just makes it a challenge for us," she
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24 KANSAN Taking a break/March 1, 1989