ELLIOTT’S E-MAIL First aid for travel June 20, 2007 Note: A draft version of this newsletter was inadvertently sent to some subscribers this morning, which contained information about the “What You Get For The Money: Vacations” sweepstakes. The contest has already ended. Bizarre travel tales you won’t read anywhere else. I couldn’t have made up [...]
June 2007
Nancy Kreinberg’s partner gets a check for 600 euros after the couple is bumped from a flight on Iberia, but Kreinberg doesn’t get a check. The airline says it’s because Kreinberg is “not on the list.” Is Iberia stonewalling her or is she really entitled to nothing?
No matter how J.D. Power and Associates tries to spin the results of its 2007 North America Airline Satisfaction Study one conclusion is inescapable: domestic airlines are dreadful.
It isn’t your imagination. The space between economy class seats — also called “pitch” — has slipped from a comfortable 34 inches at the end of airline regulation in the late 70s to a cozy 31 inches or less today. Now European authorities want to stop the pitch shrinkage before it gets any worse.
I love a happy ending. But you don’t always get one when there’s a problem with a so-called “opaque” Web site that doesn’t let you pick the exact hotel or airline itinerary you want. What if you end up with a room or flight you don’t like?
If you believe that the Transportation Security Administration is our last line of defense against terrorist hijackers, this story will make you proud. If you think the TSA is just another useless government agency charged with enforcing a pointless ban on liquids and gels, it’s more likely to make your blood boil.
It’s the weekend, and that means Iden skips out on his nap … until he collapses in bed, exhausted. In this photo, he gives his father a defiant gaze after climbing out of his bed for the fourth time this afternoon.
There’s a debate raging on rec.travel.usa-canada about confiscatory car rental fees. The whole thing was sparked by a user who posted his Hertz bill at San Francisco International Airport, which included an 8.60 percent airport concession recovery on flight arrivals within 12 hours, an 11 percent “customer facility charge” and a 0.65 percent vehicle licensing cost recovery fee. Ouch!
Traveling somewhere this summer? If you bought travel insurance, good for you. If you didn’t read your policy, you’re in good company. A new survey by Go Travel Insurance, a British travel insurance company, finds an astounding 78 percent of travelers hadn’t read the fine print on their insurance policies and didn’t know how much protection it offered or what it excluded.
As far as e-mails go, the one I received this morning seemed about as level-headed as could be expected. A car rental company had overcharged a reader because of an apparent clerical error, and she was asking for help. What she didn’t say — but what a subsequent call to the company revealed — is that in trying to get this resolved through normal channels, she’d turned abusive and had hung up on a phone agent.
ELLIOTT’S E-MAIL First aid for travel June 13, 2007 The big road trip issue. A few hundred years from now, when history students read today’s travel journalism, they might be forgiven for concluding that we flew everywhere. Fact is, few of us do. Most travel takes place by car. So this week’s issue of Elliott’s [...]
Molly Reinhardt returns her Alamo rental car three days early, after a death in her family. The company shows its compassion by charging her an extra $361 in early-return fees. Did it make a mistake, or is Alamo really billing Reinhardt more for less?
In an effort to gain a competitive edge over travel suppliers and offline agents, online travel agencies may be on the verge of jettisoning booking fees. That’s good news for travelers, who may save $5 or more every time they buy a trip online.
News that the State Department has modified its passport requirements for U.S. citizens traveling to several popular destinations is coming as a relief to the summer vacation crowd. But is it enough?
Even though Princess is owned by Carnival Corporation, it deserves its own file because of the high volume of complaints that I receive about it. Those included (but aren’t limited to) service failures, problems with onboard amenities and boarding denials because of passport or visa issues.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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