aniruddh77

At the risk of sounding philosophical, I'd like to point something out, hoping this remonstrance sounds and appears as dignified as it was intended to be.

As a frequent flyer, I've seen a lot of travelers in a fair bit of distress at some point or other. It may be that they're just faking it (scamming), and sometimes, the distress is genuine and/or plain to see (eg, a 1 year old girl bandaged chest down for a dislocated hip and multiple leg fractures I met three months back). I'd like to think of it as me being in that position, and if my problem was genuine, what would I be thinking if people told me I was scamming...for this reason alone, I prefer to reach out and provide aid if I can. While I'm usually a cynic, I completely buy Jenniparks' story, and even assuming she was scamming, where's the problem? If someone wants to help, they go right ahead, and if they don't want to, they should probably stop getting involved. Is there much to lose?

Am not in the habit of preaching, but in this case, I think reading about the Ethic of Reciprocity might just help.

Go Jenniparks!

ADLFO

I agree, happy JP is getting home and a big thumbs up to DL for waiving, at a minimum, the $250 international ASC. ^

MikeMpls

That's generally SOP for Americans in Europe. In Zürich they might only have done that much because they are now a Schengen country. Two years ago they opened my passport briefly, barely lifted a corner of my wife's passport and pushed them back to us. Departure examination was even more cursory, had to hand my wife's passport back to them & request a stamp as a souvenir.

In Geneva this week they were scanning and examining all passports. No questions for me but the guy at the window next to me was getting lots of them.

In Europe I think we've only been asked questions -- very briefly -- in London & Frankfurt, although a lot it is a blur by now. Part of it might be influenced by the record that comes up when they scan your passport and perhaps by the number of stamps in it -- a well stamped passport indicates there's a good chance you'll be leaving.

itsaboutthejourney

Many excellent points Robert. Again, my apologies if I'm missing unspoken information that the hubby may be incapacitated, etc.

Dovster

Her husband does not have to be incapacitated for them to have been in serious trouble.

From what I understood, her husband had one credit card with him. Do you know what the limit on that particular card is and how close it is to being maxed out? I don't.

Okay, when I travel I have at least four credit cards with me: My HHonors Amex, my American Visa, my Israeli Visa, and my German MasterCard. Unless I am in Israel or the Euro Zone, I try to put all my charges on my Amex. My American Visa (which has a much larger limit than my Amex) is for use only where Amex is not accepted.

In the past three weeks, I have:

1. Spent a week in the States and put my Biz Class ticket, my hotel, my car rental, and 90% of all other charges on my Amex.

2. Bought a r/t ticket to Italy for an upcoming trip and put that on my Amex.

3. Bought another r/t ticket to the States, also putting it on my Amex.

The only reason that my Amex is not maxed out is that I have made two advance payments during this period. Still, it only has $1500 left on it right now.

Now, let's assume that I am married and am traveling. I have that Amex in my wallet. My wife has the others in her bag. The bag is stolen, along with my computer.

Without access to that computer, I would not be able to make a transfer to my Amex so I would be stuck with the $1500 limit. I am now faced with the possibility of paying major change fees to Delta for my wife and myself (or worse -- being forced to buy new tickets at walk up prices); paying for a hotel until we can get things straightened out; renting a car to drive to a consulate to get a new passport; paying the passport fees; purchasing a prescription medicine to replace one which was stolen; paying for meals for the two of us.

Could I do all of that on the remaining $1500 available on my Amex? Maybe -- maybe not. At best, it would be a close call.

Would I be apt to be suffering from what RobertS975 calls "fuss and angst"? You bet I would!

Mr. Bean

for a 50% surcharge on each discount Y TATL, they better build me a new embassy on "off-hours" if I lose my passport

Dovster

Access to the internet does not equate to being able to access your accounts.

It is a wise idea to change your password regularly on all your financial accounts (and definitely not to keep the same password for them all).

I have bank accounts in Israel, the US, and Germany. My Israeli credit card has a different password than the account to which it is linked. My Amex account has its own password. My brokerage account in the States has a different password.

From those alone, I have 6 different passwords, all of them at least 8 digits/letters, and all changed frequently. The e-mail account to which they are linked is one which is not web-based and can only be accessed by a computer program (like Eudora). I do not use this e-mail account for anything except financial institutions.

I can not remember all of these constantly changing passwords nor can I have any of these institutions send me my password except to my own computer (or laptop).

I do, however, have all the passwords in both my laptop and computer, albeit disguised in a way that anyone finding (or stealing) the laptop would have no idea that they are passwords, much less for what account.

Yes, this means a bit more work for me but it is worth it for the protection that it provides.

However, if that laptop is stolen when I am traveling I will not be able to access my accounts.

My protection, of course, lies in the fact that I have several different credit cards and they are never all in the same place. At least one is kept out of my wallet at all times.

But if I were married, and I kept only my Amex in my wallet while the others were in my wife's bag, I could well run into problems if her bag were stolen and my Amex was close to being maxed out (as it is right now).

Incidentally, while I have no idea of whether the jenniparks who posted on a different website is the same jenniparks who posts here, it is my understanding that FT protects members by not allowing any information to be posted about them if it was not first posted, by them, on FT itself.

(Should you ever decide to google "Dovster" be aware that I have found several different people with that user name.)

Bralo20

I don't know how things work in the US but here in Belgium it would probably not possible to access your bankaccount online without the actual card and a so called Digi Pass (device which creates unique passcodes).

I have bank and savingaccounts with 3 different Belgian banks and 2 of those require me to have my debit card and a Digi Pass to access my accounts and the other bank requires me a specific Digi Pass (with the correct serialnumber) and my clientnumber.

So accessing your accounts online is nearly impossible if you don't have the Digi Passes and the cards with you.


And yes, a decent travelinsurrance is quite interessting. I used to take one with every trip at the travelagency but recently I bought an all including travelinsurance which counts for the whole year in the whole world. It does cost me about 250 USD but it's definately worth it...

Dovster

I have to wonder about that. I have been traveling for over 40 years and if I had been paying out $250 a year it would have cost me over $10,000 by now.

I do see the need for travel health insurance (but it is included in my German MasterCard). Looking back, however, I can't say that there was much chance of non-medical travel insurance coming anywhere near covering its cost.

These are the things which I might have put in claims for:

** In Taiwan, US $500 was taken out my wallet in my hotel room while I was taking a shower. (No, no hookers were involved.)

** Alitalia/Delta once delayed my checked baggage arrival by four days. I was not reimbursed.

** Air France once damaged my suitcase and two, inexpensive, items were taken out. AF paid me far more than all the damage was worth.

** SAA once damaged my suitcase and paid me a fair price for it.

Other than that, I have had nothing of a non-medical variety which could possibly have resulted in my making a claim.

I did have two instances where I needed emergency dental care and my German insurance covered them fully.

aniruddh77

A very good point. Three of the banks that I bank with (2 of them very large international banks) have an RSA secureID device that is required to access my accounts. I'd be truly up S*** creek without a paddle, if I were to lose those device tokens...

LibFlyer

Have a good flight home.

RSSrsvp

This thread is closed pending review by the moderators. If and when it is reopened let me make it extremely clear to everyone that off topic and personal remarks are not tolerated on FT.

RSSrsvp - Moderator