Tarmac-delay rule gives air travelers more respect
Tarmac-delay rule gives air travelers more respect
Christopher Elliott
Hotel calls mandatory room safe fee a tax, requires you to opt out when checking in
Next time you check into the Fairfield Inn in Sandusky, Ohio, mind the safe in your room. They’ll add a $1.07 fee to your confirmed rate for having one — whether you want it or not.
Spirit Airlines — risks: “Negative publicity” on customer service could hurt business
Spirit Airlines, as you might have heard, is trying to raise $300 million in a public stock offering. Here’s the Form S-1it filed last Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
You get what you pay for revisited — oops, there goes my journalistic objectivity
What does “You get what you pay for” mean?
Paris for 10 euros a night — uh, make that 100 euros
Patrick Kerr books a hotel in Paris for the unbelievable rate of 10 euros a night. Turns out it’s a mistake – the rate is off by a decimal point. His online agency promises a refund, but sends him a voucher, instead. What should Kerr do?
Can this trip be saved? There was a meeting in the ladies room
Mark Gross was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Specifically, it was a room at the Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel in Tampa that no man should ever enter. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Are loyalty programs worth it?
Quitting a frequent-flier loyalty program looks easy: You cut up your card and donate the miles to charity.
Gotcha! 5 new airline fees and how to avoid paying them
The airline industry is profitable again, thanks in no small part to the billions of dollars in fees it collects from passengers every year. And it’s not just reservation change fees ($2.3 billion), checked baggage ($2.7 billion) and “miscellaneous” fees (almost $3 billion) that air travelers shelled out in 2009; now carriers are getting even more creative with their charges, imposing them for everything from redeeming frequent flier miles to carrying a bag on the plane.
Oops, you missed a scratch on the roof
When an Enterprise employee points to a scratch on the roof of Sandy Lamke’s rental car, she’s assured the company won’t charge her for the damage. But it does. Now, despite her efforts to have the bill withdrawn, Enterprise insists she pay up. Should she?
Playing the media card in a resort fee dispute
When Dennis Kavanagh booked two nights by phone at the Resort at Squaw Creek in Squaw Valley, Calif., the agent quoted him a rate that didn’t include a small surprise: a $16-a-day “resort fee” that covered “free” local calls, a newspaper delivery, in-room coffee and teas, Internet access and use of the health club.