In this issue …
» What a charge!
» Steer clear of these 4 new car rental scams
» Are external disk drives a threat to flight safety?
» A few more favorite surcharges
» Get me a knife!
» How to reach yours truly
» Support this site
» Change your subscription
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FIRST | Random thoughts about the week in travel
What a charge! During good times, when the travel industry takes its customers for granted, there’s no end to the fees and surcharges. And make no mistake, these are good times. Just yesterday, the government reported that airlines carried a record number of passengers in June. So today, we have a fee-themed newsletter, featuring outrageous extras from hotels, cruise lines and car rental companies. Be sure to weigh in on your favorite fee. There could be something in it for you.
How to score free travel gear. Thanks to our new underwriters at Skooba Design, we’re giving away a choice of a Skooba Satchel, Skooba Seventeen, or Skooba Shuttle every week through the end of the year. How? It’s easy. Just answer this week’s burning question or post a comment to the blog. The top responses, as judged by yours truly, will get
Burning question … The worst travel surcharge ever! You know that I spend a lot of time harping on fees and surcharges. Now it’s your turn. Tell me your favorite recent story about a ridiculous fee or surcharge when you were on the road. What happened? And how did you get the hotel, car rental company or cruise line to take it off your bill? Send me a note or shoot me an IM (celliottlive on AIM).
SIGHTINGS | Noted Elliott appearances online and offline
A lost reservation in the rainforest — Hotels.com confirms a rate of $140 a night at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort in Panama for Donna Katos, but when she checks in, the resort doesn’t have a reservation for her and insists she pay nearly double her rate. She pays, hoping to get things sorted out when she returns to the States, but things aren’t getting sorted out. Is she out of luck? (From The Troubleshooter)
12 things you should never post on your site — There’s plenty of advice out there about what items to post on your Web site. But what kinds of information should you never publish? Posting inappropriate, confidential, or incomplete information on your site can have negative and potentially embarrassing results. You could lose clients, employees—even your business. (From Office Live)
Hell on wheels: Steer clear of these 4 new car rental scams — Never underestimate a car rental company’s drive to make an extra buck. Amy Villa did when she rented a car from Alamo in Columbus, Ohio, recently, and she ended up paying twice as much as she expected. (From MSNBC.com)
Elliott’s E-Mail is also underwritten by Priceline.com, the leading travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers. With both Name Your Own Price and everyday fixed low prices, no other travel service gives more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises. No one does deals like Priceline.com!
BLOGGED | New posts on Elliott’s Blog
Are external disk drives a threat to flight safety? — Thanks to 9/11, we know what can bring down a plane. Box cutters and knives. Baby formula and hairspray, too. And nailclippers. Oh, no, wait — you can carry those onboard now. But just don’t pack an external hard disk drive. (From Elliott Blog)
Joe’s holiday air travel tips: it’s ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ — For air travelers, the time between Thanksgiving and New Years’ can be unbearable. Crowded terminals, full planes, frayed tempers await the average traveler. But this year, instead of writing yet another “surviving the holidays” story, I asked Joe Farrell to tell us how he makes it through the busy season. (From Elliott Blog)
Outrageous! Hotel charges $163 “car racing” fee after confirming reservation — Some hotels mess around with a $15-a-day resort fee or a $5 “tipping” charge. But the Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast doesn’t bother with piddly double-digit extras. Oh no, it socked guest Vicki Noble with a $163-per-person “car racing” fee and a bizarre $230 “building access levy after she had confirmed her four-night stay. (From Elliott Blog)
Confessions of a ticket agent: “The airline business is in a deep spiral” — Just how bad is it out there? I publish a lot a lot of stories from disgruntled passengers, hotel guests and motorists on this blog. But what about the experiences of the people who are often providing the services that they’re complaining about? (From Elliott Blog)
“Worst hotel room I’ve ever seen” — Where you book your hotel room matters. A lot. Buy directly from the property and pay the going rate, and you’ll probably end up with decent accommodations. Book online through an agent and pay a cut rate, and might find yourself in a not-so-decent quarters. But it’s unusual to find such a textbook case of the variable law of hotel booking than Scott Hall, who recently complained to me about a hotel reservation made through Orbitz in Reno, Nev. (From Elliott Blog)
Elliott’s E-Mail is also underwritten by Cheapflights.com, which lets you search and compare flights to find the lowest-priced airfare for your next
trip. Get the details at Cheapflights.com.
FLASHBACK | A retrospective from the Elliott archives
Surcharges? Here are a few of my favorites …
A fuel surcharge for my cruise — Lee Askern made a deposit for a cruise next spring, and agreed on a price. But now American West Steamboat is imposing a $40 fuel surcharge on Askern’s floating vacation. Can it do that? And what recourse does anyone have when prices change? (From The Troubleshooter)
$200 a night, bed extra — Is there an energy shortage in oil-rich Oklahoma? Well, no. But that didn’t stop the Hilton Garden Inn in Tulsa from charging business traveler Robert McAuley an extra $3-a-day energy fee to cover the cost of lighting his room. (From The Travel Critic)
Elliott’s E-Mail is also underwritten by the FirstClassFlyer.com, the only tool you need to fly first class for the price of coach — or close to it. Looking for free and purchased upgrades, two-for-ones and a fast-track to elite status strategies? Look no further than FirstClassFlyer.com
POSTCARDS | The latest from Elliott’s personal photoblog
Get me a knife! — Erysse hangs out in the pumpkin patch, waiting for her carving knife. Not gonna happen — at least not this year.
Red tractor — Iden gets behind the wheel of an antique red tractor at the petting zoo in Kissimmee, Fla.
TALKBACK | How to sound off about this site
Read something you disagree with? Got a story idea or a gripe? Here’s how to be heard:
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