She had planned to fly April 27 but changed to May 16, the last valid day for her 90-day first-class ticket, which was paid for by a tour packager.

There is no quick solution to the problem of assessing the quality of tour packagers.

The agent should be asked if he has used a particular tour packager in the past and what the reaction of clients has been.

But foliage-gawking has become an $8 billion annual business in New England, with tour packagers offering journeys by bus, boat and rail, with hot chocolate included.

But many tour packagers, travel agents and vacationers now busy making reservations realize that only some of the islands were badly mauled by the storm.

Despite state regulation, price gouging has already been tried at hotels and has been attributed to unscrupulous tour packagers.

Twenty percent of tickets are to be set aside for purchase through travel agents and tour packagers worldwide.

Mr. Banford may be unusually organized, but he is not eccentric, as cruise lines, top-flight hotels and tour packagers all over the world can attest.

Even as they feel the pressure, some tour packagers and cruise lines have forced reluctant customers to travel by refusing to allow changes in plans or to give refunds.

Mountain Travel, the tour packager I used, offers a shorter Kilimanjaro package for about $140 a day.