Rental customers ‘have no clue’
Xanax-popping co-workers. Overbearing managers who fire employees for not being aggressive enough. Ignorant customers. That was life behind the car-rental counter for Ute Hodges, a customer service agent for Alamo and Budget at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fla. “I had a friend who worked for a rental car company and she made good money,” says Hodges. “So I wanted to try it.” What she learned about the business serves as a cautionary tale for anyone renting a vehicle today.
More data, safe skies
When I was a summer intern in Chicago, I opened an account with the power company for an apartment I wanted to rent. But when my plans fell through, I forgot to tell Commonwealth Edison, leaving less than $1 on my bill. Not long after that I applied for a credit card and was rejected. Turns out the utility company had sent my invoice to a collection agency and had shared my delinquent status with every credit reporting company. On paper, I looked like a deadbeat. As soon as I discovered the error, I paid up and cleared my name.
No room on Travelocity
Q: I booked a one-week to Vienna, Austria, through Travelocity at the beginning of October for Christmas week. Since I’ve been burned before by the online booking process, I took extra pains to ensure that the order for the flight and hotel was completed copasetic before clicking the execution of the order through credit card [...]
Rude fliers take off
Christopher Elliot reports from Miami on the upsurge of rudeness in our nation’s airports.
5 keys to getting the right rental
To most travelers, a rental car is an afterthought - as in, “Oh, will I need a car while I’m there?” at the end of a reservation.
And that’s unfortunate.
True, the auto rental only accounts for 9% of the average corporate travel budget, according to Runzheimer International. But over several trips, that can add up to [...]
No bed in my ‘Destiny’
Q: Last fall I took a Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Destiny with my family, and I was very disappointed by it. Before the trip we decided to add another person to our cabin. I called my travel agent to make sure we would have three beds and not two beds with a cot or [...]
That’s no deal
Commentator Christopher Elliott warns those who plan to travel this winter to check the validity of those “special fares” first.
Some rental companies keep tabs on their drivers
Byungsoo Son’s recent western trip was mostly for pleasure. But the car rental bill he was hit with at the end is a cautionary tale for the business travelers who make up the bulk of the auto rental industry’s customers.
A ghost reservation on Spirit
Q: My best friend’s daughter is getting married in Detroit next week. My gift to her is to bring my daughter to the wedding. The two young ladies have not seen each other for over seven years and were inseparable for 12 years while growing up.
Here’s my problem: I bought my ticket through Spirit [...]
TSA: Security is ‘everybody’s business’
If you’re confused about the new code-orange security precautions at the airport, you’re in good company. Air travelers have wondered about the delays, cancellations and what it means to their next trip. I asked Mark Hatfield, director of communications for the Transportation Security Administration, to help sort things out.
Safe and sorry
It isn’t the machine-gun toting National Guardsmen posted at the airport or the code-orange terrorism warnings that unnerve air travelers like Mort Herman. Instead, it’s a sense that all the precautions are little more than posturing, and that if a sequel to 9/11 were to actually happen, they’d be completely useless. What exactly worries him? Security screeners rarely ask him about the sharp hypodermic needles he carries on board as a diabetic, which could be used as weapons. But it’s the government’s fallback plan that he finds truly frightening. “What’s the purpose of those fighter jets that accompany some of our airlines?” asks the New York writer. “The only answer is that if terrorists were to take over an aircraft, they can shoot it down. Now that’s comforting.” Many Americans quietly concur.
America’s worst road trips
Which U.S. roads are the most hazardous? As many travelers abandon commercial airlines - one of the safest ways to get around - in favor of autos, it’s a question worth asking.
But don’t look to the government for answers. I just spent the better part of a day calling every federal agency remotely associated with [...]
Less is more on Sixt
Q: My husband and I recently traveled to Italy to meet my brother and his wife for a week in Tuscany to celebrate everyone’s 40th Birthday. We planned to fly into Milan and rent a car large enough to handle our luggage.
We decided to reserve a van through Sixt, a large European car rental [...]