An act of kindness could be worth $10,000

By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contributor

Sometimes bad things happen to good travelers.

On a hike during a medical mission in Vietnam, Dr. Gary Feldman stepped aside to relieve himself when the cliff he was standing on gave way. Feldman broke both legs in the fall. He then endured a 14-hour ambulance ride, an airlift and surgery requiring screws to repair his legs.

Bad luck for Feldman, right?

Well, yes. But not all was lost: Last year, Feldman was named the "World’s Unluckiest Traveler" and won a $10,000 vacation prize. Thousands of other unlucky travelers submitted stories about everything from food poisoning to trips ruined by delays and canceled flights as a result of volcanic ash, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Travel Guard, the travel insurance company that put on the contest, is back with another $10,000 vacation prize. This year, however, there's a twist: each tale of woe must have a happy ending.

For the “World’s Unluckiest Traveler 2: The Rescue,” travelers are being asked to share stories about how a good deed or a random act of kindness saved a trip.

Entries will be accepted through Labor Day, and on World Tourism Day, September 27, ten stories chosen by a panel of travel experts will be announced. The public will then have a month to vote for which travel “hero” deserves the $10,000 vacation prize.

“We know travel is really difficult sometimes,” said Carol Mueller, Vice President of Travel Guard North America. “So even if you witnessed someone saving someone else’s trip, send the story in. It helps if you got the person’s name, but we can try to track them down.”

And since this is a contest about kindness, the traveler who nominates the winning hero gets a prize too: a pair of round-trip plane tickets to any U.S. destination.

The contest begins today. Click here for more information.

Other stories you might enjoy

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter.