We’re on our honeymoon, honestly

At the end of an impossibly long line at the Thrifty Car Rental counter in Miami, a weary agent asked us for our reservation. I handed her a copy of the itinerary. We’d booked a compact Dodge Neon for a week.

“But if you don’t have any Neons on the lot, I’d gladly take something bigger,” I said, hopefully.

“Not a chance,” the agent laughed.

Then I turned to my girlfriend and said, “Some honeymoon this is going to be.”

The comment wasn’t intended for the rental agent, at least not consciously. But when she smiled and handed me the keys to our vehicle, I suspected that I’d been overheard. It turns out our car wasn’t a car at all: we’d been upgraded to a Dodge Durango, a sexy sports utility vehicle that would have cost $300 more to rent.

Ever since I drove off the lot feeling more than a little guilty, I’ve wondered about truth and travel. Is it acceptable to lie in order to secure a lower rate? What if you misrepresent yourself? What if you’re just bending the truth?

I’m not the only one with these questions. Hundreds of thousands of travelers – you included – have probably found themselves in a similar fix. Maybe your hotel bill didn’t include a charge that should have been there, like a phone call made a few moments before you checked out. Maybe your travel agent neglected to charge a service fee. Perhaps you were offered a discount for a rental car you weren’t entitled to and never bothered to tell the agent that you didn’t belong to the American Automobile Association.

There are no surveys or academic studies about travelers and truth. But the more people look for deals in these belt-tightening times, the more they’ll be tempted to fib their way into a bargain.

It would be easy to offer an absolute answer to an ethical dilemma like this one. Lying is wrong, after all. So is misrepresenting yourself, and by golly, I ought to be ashamed of suggesting to the Thrifty agent that I was on my honeymoon.

But this isn’t a black-and-white issue. After all, hotels often overcharge customers for phone calls. You don’t see the front-desk manager following patrons into the parking lot with a handful of cash. Travel agents don’t always find the least expensive rate for you (sometimes they’re swayed by what’s known in the trade as an “override,” which is a clever booking incentive program). And car rental companies frequently quote you one low rate, but then add numerous surcharges, which inflate your final bill well beyond what you expected to pay.

Technically speaking, that’s not lying. But when an airline tells you its flight is on time when it knows it isn’t, that’s lying. When a hotel shows a room from a favorable angle in its brochure, never bothering to mention that it’s located next to a pulp mill, then that’s also lying. When a car rental agent swears your vehicle isn’t insured by your credit card without bothering to ask what kind of card you have – and insisting that you buy its insurance – then that’s lying.

Do two wrongs make a right?

My mother said it best: no. However, I’m not going to try to reset your moral compass with a long-winded sermon about right and wrong. Don’t expect a lecture about how you should never, under any circumstances, misrepresent yourself. Where other columnists see the world in black and white, I tend to notice the gray. My modus operandi has always been: Don’t lie-but don’t go out of your way to fully disclose everything about yourself.

The rental agent in Miami never asked us what we were doing in town. We never told her. She made assumptions about us that I never asked her to make, and if she’d questioned us about the honeymoon, I would have answered truthfully.

Still, if I had it to do over, would I have made that comment to my girlfriend? Probably not. I feel better about a deal when I get it the old-fashioned way-with hard work, skillful negotiation, and impeccable timing.

Honestly.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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