Travelers' Intercom

My wife and I stayed at the Tokyo Hilton for six nights in October ’05. I am a member of the Hilton HHonors guest reward program, thus when we checked out I expected to see a note that said my HHonors account would be credited with a certain number of points. Since room rates are quite high in Japan and our bill was for $1,176, the amount of points I expected was significant.

To my surprise, I was informed at the desk that I would not receive any points since I had made my reservation through an Internet travel agency (in this case, www.asiarooms.com). I was unaware of this...

My wife, Carol, and I wanted a custom tour of Vietnam so we could include five days on our own in the Mekong Delta city of Vinh Long where I had taught English a couple of years ago. We also wanted a tour that would emphasize contact with people rather than visits to temples and monuments. Although it was already mid-November ’04, we insisted that our visit had to conclude before the Tet holiday on Feb. 9, ’05.

Responding to an ad in ITN, we turned this project over to Vietnam Orient Tours (4109 Peralta Blvd., Freemont, CA 94536; phone 510/794-8989 or visit www.vietnamorienttours....

In his July ’05 column, Rick Steves mentioned Wizz Air as a low-cost carrier out of Budapest, so when I decided to tack on a second river cruise out of Antwerp to Basel following an already-booked October-November ’05 cruise that will end in Budapest, I checked out Wizz Air in early August. The fare I found seemed a great deal, even though it used Charleroi Airport in Brussels.

Then it came time to pay, and the cost was a real eye-opener, as follows for two people (dollar equivalents from Hungarian forints): base fare, $30.62; passenger service charge, $23.24; security tax, $8.90;...