Encore

If your hotel price drops by $1,000, this is how to get a refund

By Michelle Couch-Friedman |

What happens if your hotel price drops after booking your room — by $1,000? That’s what Jackie Ng wants to know. She booked a hotel in Singapore that dramatically reduced its rates after Ng prepaid for her nonrefundable stay. She thought that the Hotels.Com best rate guarantee would protect her. But the online booking agent swiftly rejected her $1,000 price reduction refund request.

The surprising reason why might leave you as bewildered as Ng. Read more “If your hotel price drops by $1,000, this is how to get a refund”

This is what happens when you hate your cruise and get off the ship early

By Michelle Couch-Friedman |

Should you receive a refund if you hate your cruise so much that you get off the ship early? What if you leave the cruise before it even sets sail?

Lori Rutt and her husband maintain that if intolerable conditions push you to leave the cruise, a refund is owed. The couple recently boarded their first cruise ever. But only hours later they disembarked — never to return. Read more “This is what happens when you hate your cruise and get off the ship early”

What is the best camera for a family vacation?

By Christopher Elliott |

Because I spent 16 years at National Geographic, people often ask me: What’s the best camera for a family vacation?

Then I have to deliver the good news and the bad news. The bad news? I wasn’t a photographer for the Society. (That’s what everyone in the building calls it, as if it’s some kind of secret society.) I wasn’t even at the Yellow Book (more NatGeo-speak for National Geographic Magazine). I was just the reader advocate for National Geographic Traveler.

The good news is: I didn’t waste any opportunity to learn from the photographers I met. And I met plenty of them. They taught me a lot about photography and then sent me on my way to document the last 17 years of family travel. Read more “What is the best camera for a family vacation?”

This is what happens when you try to fly internationally with a passport card

By Michelle Couch-Friedman |

You can’t fly internationally with a passport card — and neither can your children. Kim Rosser wishes the travel agent she used to book her family’s dream vacation had told her this information. But when the family tried to check in for their flight, Delta Air Lines quickly broke the bad news. Without passports, Rosser’s children weren’t going to be flying to Turks and Caicos that day.

Now Rosser is blaming her travel agent for their ruined vacation and wants reimbursed for their additional expenses. But is that a fair place to put the blame for her children’s lack of passports? Read more “This is what happens when you try to fly internationally with a passport card”