The Navigator

The Navigator is a weekly column that focuses on being a smarter and more informed traveler, with a special emphasis on transportation policy. It appears every Sunday in the Washington Post. If you’re interested in publishing this feature, please contact Elliott directly at chris@elliott.org or (202) 370-7934.

Want to know if your travel company is about to go out of business? Then remember Amoma. And Thomas Cook. And WOW Air.

As travelers cautiously look ahead to their next trip, worried about the financial future of their chosen airline, cruise line or hotel, they’re smart to recall the lessons of past business cessations.

Eddie Morgan won’t forget Amoma, the Geneva-based online travel agency. He paid the company $1,230 for a room at the Hotel Anglo Americano Rome, a historic property near the center of the Italian capital. But when he tried to check in last September, a representative told him that he didn’t have a reservation.

“We had to pay for our rooms again,” says Morgan, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Read more “Is my travel company about to go out of business? Here’s how to tell.”