Is there more to Trip Assured than meets the eye? That’s the intriguing question raised by two readers who are involved in a dispute with Vacation Protection Services, a company that offers “affordable protection against trip cancellation” that is suspiciously similar to Trip Assured’s.
October 2006
Attention, parents! Are you tired of paying sky-high prices to fly the whole family up to Grandma’s for the holidays? Well, now your kids can score free tickets. There’s just one catch: Your children have to be born on a plane.
Kris Barraca spends a few quiet hours at the Grand Hyatt DFW before his flight leaves for Los Angeles. But when his credit card statement arrives, the bill is more than twice the nightly rate he was quoted. The reason? There’s an “excessive cleaning” fee tacked on to it. Barraca says he didn’t do it. Should he still have to pay?
Finally the cruise industry has a smart answer to all those prying reporters who ask questions about the crime wave on cruise ships. Who’s to blame for it? Why, journalists are, of course.
Last week, I wrote about the troubles of Trip Assured, the unlicensed Tennessee travel “insurance” company that had denied several readers’ claims. Yesterday, Airbus sank into deeper trouble when its chief executive, Christian Streiff, resigned from theailing airframe manufacturer after just three months on the job. Both companies may be looking at the end, one way or another.
From time to time, I hear business travelers complain about how unexciting their trips are. This is nonsense, for the most part. Business travel can be great adventure if you’re curious.
As any Disney insider worth his pin collection will tell you, October is the nadir of the low season at the Magic Kingdom. Yeah, there’s an occasional wave of British tourists at the Orlando theme parks, but it’s tame compared with the onslaught of visitors that come during peak periods such as Christmas, Spring Break and, of course, summertime.
People often ask me where I find the travel news that becomes the grist for this blog’s metaphorical mill. The short answer: primary sources. For example, instead of riffing off a Reuters or AP story about airline baggage statistics, I like to link straight to the Department of Transportation Web site — the same source used by the wire-service reporters.
Do it right — or don’t do it at all. That’s what readers said when I asked how to fix airport security. And while I’m sure Søren Kierkegaard would be fascinated by this modern-day “either/or” proposition, I think there’s something in it for our friends at the TSA, too.
Kristen Dietz reserves a car through Advantage Rent-A-Car. But when she arrives at the airport rental counter, she’s offered a 15-passenger van instead. Her only other option is to take a train to her destination, but Advantage refuses to pay her fare. Should it? And is a van an acceptable substitute for a car?
Beginning today the Transportation Security Administration will allow you to carry limited amounts of liquids and gels in your carry-on luggage. This is the second revision of the ban on liquids. The restrictions followed a foiled plot to blow up airlines headed to the U.S. from Britain. Commentator Christopher Elliott thinks the ban should dropped completely.
In a public radio commentary last week, I pointed out that the TSA’s new liquids and gels policy had a serious flaw: passengers who bought something past in a secure area could have the item confiscated on a stopover.
Did she jump or was she pushed? That’s what passengers on the Carnival Conquest must have wondered after a woman fell off of an upper deck and landed on the balcony of a cabin several decks below over the weekend.
I’m always paying attention to design when I go places. I can’t help but look at each hotel, each aircraft interior, each terminal, with a critical eye.
Here’s a question United Airlines shareholders — and maybe a passenger or two — are probably asking themselves: Does United Airlines’ chief executive Glenn F. Tilton deserve his new $850,000-a-year salary?
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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