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Bosworth Files Round-the-World Flight Plan, Stopping in Hawaii

Chad Haber and Annette Bosworth continue to drop inscrutable hints about their upcoming overseas travel. A pathetic online fundraiser earlier this month went nowhere, earning only $50 of the $2,000 goal. Yet Dr. Bosworth has tweeted that she has medications, volunteers, and divine intervention, as well as three solar panels, for the Philippines trip. And last Friday, Haber tweeted this photo of his wife booking tickets for the trip:

Bosworth booking tix for Philippines 20131221
What do you mean you don't accept raffle tickets for payment?

"We leave flying through Newark and return from Hawaii," tweets Haber. "Around the world in 10 days."

PHS has finally gotten around to scrubbing its bogus raffle rules from its website, but the non-profit has issued no formal press release on its Philippines medical mission. That the publicity- and donation-hungry Haber and Bosworth have not mounted any organized marketing campaign to publicize their trip and reach more potential donors seems illogical unless (1) they are too broke to perform basic marketing activities (and Bosworth's financial disclosure statement seems to say just that) or (2) this sneaky-tweet campaign is a striptease strategy.

Whatever the case, let's look at Haber's tweet and the actual costs of flying to the Philippines:

  1. Travelocity tells me that the cheapest fare for a ten-day, Sioux Falls-to-Manila itinerary a month from now is $1,382.89 per person, on United and All Nippon, with hops either to Chicago or Denver before the big ocean jump to Tokyo and then Manila.
  2. Trying to fly sooner, like next week, bumps the price for the same flight up over $3,700 per person.
  3. Flying a month later, like late February, knocks maybe $100-$130 off the late-January price.
  4. Trying to piece together the itinerary Haber describes, flying to the Philippines via Newark but returning via Hawaii, makes the Travelocity ticket price explode to $7,878 per person. I am able to punch that itinerary into Kayak.com and get tickets for $1,456... though that combo has United fliers bouncing from Sioux Falls to Denver, Newark, Los Angeles, then Honolulu and Guam before arriving in the Philippines.

The Bosworth-Habers' travel agent probably has more ticket-searching resources than I do, but it appears that our medical missionaries are choosing an itinerary slightly more expensive and significantly more complicated than necessary. If we're dropping off some medical supplies for underprivileged folks in Waikiki, that's great! But if we're simply underwriting a vacation stopover in Hawaii for a couple who claims only $17,500 in income in the last two years, that's not so great. If I were a PHS donor, I'd want a little assurance from Chad and Annette that they were using my dollars as efficiently as possible.

18 Comments

  1. Steve W 2013.12.26

    Marketing this trip wouldn't have to cost much. The campaign has an email account; Press releases don't cost anything and this is not a typical campaign story, so media would pick up on it.
    And with social media, they could promote and document it on the cheap.
    Very strange.

  2. Cranky Old Dude 2013.12.26

    Very strange indeed...any stops along the way that don't have extradition treaties with US? Or is the whole story just a "flash bang"-a distraction device for something else?

  3. Nick Nemec 2013.12.26

    Mental illness defies logic and trying to reason with a mentally ill person can be an exercise in frustration. Watching the Chad and Annette train wreck simply confirms this. Rest assured it all makes perfect sense in their world.

  4. Disgusted Dakotan 2013.12.26

    Powers appears to be in a scandal blackout for Rounds, Rhoden, Bosworth, and Ravnsborg. Any chance he gets though, even to the point of ginning something up, he goes after Rep Nelson.

    How much will Rhoden, Bosworth, and Ravnsborg have to pay people to collect signatures for them? Do you think the EB5 scandal is going to dampen Rounds support?

  5. Rorschach 2013.12.26

    The folks she will help on this trip don't care if she's a senate candidate, or a scammer, or a publicity hound, or anything else as long as she's a competent doctor. If she catches a little sun on the way back, who are we to begrudge her that? My hope is that for a brief moment we can put down the knives and acknowledge the good that Dr. Bosworth does. There will be plenty of time to criticize before this campaign is over.

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.26

    My knife remains in hand if she uses one dollar of PHS donor money for anything but providing medical assistance to folks in need (and her own family doesn't count: she has chosen the poverty she asserts).

  7. Kristi 2013.12.26

    Dr. Bosworth is doing none of this for others, but for herself and her ego. I believe nothing this person says, as she has lied to me and others close to me more than once!

  8. Nick Nemec 2013.12.26

    A ten day trip to Manila would require probably 1.5 days travel both ways for a total of 3 days and maybe 7 days on the ground, depending on how long the "stopover" in Hawaii is.

    I question the good she will do once she gets to Manila, documentation from non-biased third party sources would be helpful, I don't trust anything about this woman. She could have easily volunteered for an actual charity like Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders but she decided to free lance with her personal charity which appears to be a front for the Chad and Annette get rich quick project.

    If she really wants to do the most good for people in need she could put her skills to work here in South Dakota providing free or reduced care to people without insurance.

  9. Deb Geelsdottir 2013.12.26

    Very funny Cory! You said that this enterprise "seems illogical."

    Hahahaha! B & H, illogical? Hahahahahahahaha!

  10. grudznick 2013.12.26

    There is no Rhoden scandal. He's the common sense squeaky clean and forthright what you see is what you get Republican in the race.

  11. Taunia 2013.12.26

    One last credit card-funded trip before filing bankruptcy?

    Spot on, Nick.

  12. DeejayBeejr 2013.12.26

    Funny. Last I looked, Haiti was still the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. For the money they are spending on the Philippines trip, they could be doing so much more to help people in Haiti, where, at one time, PHS had some type of infrastructure in place. I was told by someone who had been with them in the past, that they had planned to move to Haiti when things got too hot for them here. They may now be personae non grata in Haiti. Making the Philippines their next escape route…or Taunia is right, and it is an excuse to go to Hawaii before declaring bankruptcy.

  13. Joe K 2013.12.27

    Something fishy here. You would think as a medical missionary, you would want to get the most bang for every donated dollar. Cheaper tickets = more $$$ available for medicine, right? Oh, and I cant help but notice that Europe travel brochure laying on the desk. I wonder how many stops in Europe they have scheduled?

  14. Nick Nemec 2013.12.27

    Wow, good eye on spotting the Europe brochure. What are the extradition treaties with Monaco, Switzerland and Lichtenstein?

  15. Rorschach 2013.12.27

    Taunia might be on to something. Put a family vacation around the world on the credit card then declare bankruptcy. Any 10-day around the world trip requires at least a couple of days in Europe, a whistle stop in Jerusalem, a visit to the Taj Mahal, a grand campaign rally at the pyramids with her Egyptian facebook supporters, a photo on the Great Wall, and a full day and overnight in Hawaii on the way home. She might only have enough time in the Philippines to drop the medicine and see one or two patients for a photo op.

  16. Lynn G. 2013.12.27

    Will the reality TV camera crews be traveling also? I wonder what they are booked under in the airline tickets. Episode 24 "Running for Office" Episode 25 "Humanitarian" Episode 26 "Fugitive" Episode 27 "Pilgrim" then Diplomat and on and on. I'd have a heart attack living such a chaotic lifestyle going from crisis to crisis. Those poor kids.

  17. Jim 2013.12.27

    She probably had medicine that was about to expire. Not sure why they shifted focus from Haiti.

  18. Taunia 2013.12.27

    It's a presumption of bankruptcy fraud to use credit cards, spending over $600, within 90 days of filing a bankruptcy case.

    Bankruptcy in March? Bosworth/Habers don't seem to mind a little fraud, so anytime might be ok to them.

    Credit card companies pummel new bankruptcy filers w/ incredibly bad card offers. New filers cannot file another Chapter 7s for eight years, so card companies hit new debt-free filers fast and hard.

    Check PACER to see if they've filed, perhaps in years past. Helpful to have last 4 digits of one of their SSN.

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