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BBB of Southern Arizona is receiving hundreds of inquiries from local consumers about Southwest Travel Club, www.southwesttravelclubs.com, located on 4811 E. Grant Rd. in Tucson.

According to consumers who have attended presentations hosted by Southwest Travel, the company is a private, discount travel club that promises steep discounts on an array of travel, including cruises, packages, timeshares, special events and more for a membership fee. Consumers say the up front cost of the program is $8,995; members pay an additional one-time $399 “documentation fee” and an annual membership fee of $199. Other packages for lesser prices are offered.

Consumers who have attended recent presentations hosted by the company say they received a letter in the mail from either Premier Choice Rewards or Patterson Bell. Patterson Bell is also sending letters using multiple names including: Hoffman Sims, Richardson Blake, Sutton Perry, and Swanson Carr.

The letter from Premier Choice Rewards, which features the Wal-Mart logo, states:  “Our Promotional Department has scheduled you to receive two round trip airfares to a major international airport in the continental USA. Our records indicate that by responding within 72 hours you will also receive a $300 Wal-Mart Merchandise rebate certificate.”

When consumers call the toll free number listed on either of the letters they are invited to attend a 90 minute presentation hosted by Southwest Travel.

BBB has received 152 consumer inquiries about the company since mid-December.

Consumers who receive offers for questionable travel awards can contact BBB at (520) 888-5353 or www.tucson.bbb.org. Consumers who may have complaints against Patterson Bell or Hoffman Sims regarding their airline ticket “award” program should file online at www.tucson.bbb.org and with the Arizona Attorney General at www.azag.gov.

UPDATE: BBB has learned that Southwest Travel has started doing business in Tucson under the DBA, Wholesale Travel Service. BBB has also received complaints from consumers upset about Southwest Travel’s aggressive telemarketing efforts. One Tucson consumer says she was called over 16 times in three days after she told a telemarketer she wasn’t interested in attending Southwest Travel’s sales seminar.

The deadline for filing taxes, April 15, has come and gone, but some companies are still trying to profit by taking advantage of the public’s tax-season anxiety.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is alerting consumers to mailings, closely resembling a W-2 form, being sent to Tucson consumers from a company called Travel Premium Awards Agency on behalf of local travel club, Southwest Travel.

The outside of the mailing is laid out in numbered boxes, resembling a W-2 form, with the words “personal and confidential,” in large, bold letters on the reverse side, and the words “official documents enclosed,” and “Notice Urgency: EXTREME,” on the front. In smaller print, the front of the envelope also states that, “this is not a government document.”

When opened, the letter says that enclosed is an “airline ticket voucher” good for two roundtrip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental United States, but the “voucher must be certified to be valid.”

Consumers, who have contacted BBB inquiring about the mailing, say that when they called the phone number given in the letter they’re told they must attend a sales presentation at the offices of Southwest Travel; a travel club that has garnered 7 complaints and over 700 inquires with BBB in 2010.

The return address on the Travel Premium Awards Agency mailing matches the P.O Box used by a Phoenix direct mail company that goes by several names including, Patterson Bell, Sutton Perry, Thompson Fuller, Morrison Banks, and most recently Gilbert Turner.

Since November the company, which solicits clients for Southwest Travel and other travel clubs across the nation, has changed the name under which it sends its mailings at least 12 times. In dialogue with BBB, the company has been unwilling to give a physical address or any insight into the offers in the letters being mailed to consumers, or any verification that their business is a legal entity.

BBB Tips:

• If you receive a similar form in the mail it is in no way tax related, it’s just a solicitation to attend a sales presentation.
• Sales presentations conclude with attempts to enroll consumers in travel clubs, to sell exclusive software, to sell access to a special web site, or to train consumers to become travel agents. Customers are told they can expect elaborate and extensive discounts on their travel purchases.
• In BBB experience, the upfront costs of enrollment or purchase in these programs are never recouped. Promised travel discounts rarely materialize and legitimate travel consolidators, lodgings, airlines and rental car agencies generally do not recognize credentials issued by these companies and groups.

For more information on Southwest Travel, Travel Premium Awards or another company, call (520)888-5353 or visit www.tucson.bbb.org.

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