By ALESHA CAPONE
A GROUP of tourists have been awarded $250 each, after a holiday booked through a Werribee travel agency did not stop at their chosen town.
Last month, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) awarded six travellers $250 each in damages – because a trip they booked through Flight Centre’s Werribee office did not visit the town of Skagway, in Alaska.
VCAT heard some of the tourists attended the Flight Centre office in Werribee during August 2010, and booked a cruise which they believed would stop at Skagway.
However, instead of visiting Skagway on their trip, the group were taken to the area of Sikta – which they viewed as “a wasted day”.
After the journey last year, a group of six tourists claimed “they did not get what they paid for” in Alaska and asked VCAT to award them damages of almost $10,000.
Evidence given to support their claim included that the Flight Centre worker said the tour’s only variation could be finishing in Seattle, rather than Vancouver.
The brochure for the trip also included a stop at Skagway but included the disclaimer: “Variation to itinerary, cruise departs Seattle”.
VCAT member Anna Dea, who overheard the case, said the Flight Centre employee did not warn the tourists their trip did not include a visit to Skagway.
Ms Dea said “the exercise of due care and skill in that context required” the Flight Centre worker “be aware of any variations and advise the applicants of them, particularly where they related to Skagway”.
“On the findings made, I am satisfied that the respondent breached that implied duty,” she said.
Ms Dea awarded the group $250 each, as she ruled the day spent in Sikta amounted to a wasted day.
The Flight Centre employee who booked the trip no longer works for Flight Centre in Werribee.
