Celia Dunlap paid $805 for travel insurance before her Southeast Asia tour. When the operator cut a 40-day itinerary to 10, she was left holding a nonrefundable $4,500 airline ticket. Her policy did not cover the cancellation. It was worthless.
Step into the TSA PreCheck lane at a big airport and the person ahead of you may not be flying anywhere. Since early September, vetted visitors without tickets can clear the checkpoint and reach a gate. It is called Gateside.
An algorithm sets your airfare. Another sets the hotel’s rate. A third answers your complaint with a non-answer, hoping you give up. AI arrived in travel years ago, and travelers are paying more and getting worse service because of it.
Janice Lintz thought her credit card’s travel insurance covered her. Then civil unrest in Nepal closed the airspace, canceled her flights, and left her stranded. Her claim was denied. The policy covered security events only if officially classified as terrorism.
Luke Gilbertson’s dog Stewie was healthy when he booked a Rover sitter. Ring footage, he says, shows the sitter shut away for 17 of the 24 hours while Stewie swallowed something and vomited repeatedly. The vet bill came to $5,272.
Deborah Keck upgraded to a suite on the Star Princess, paid the $1,449 she was quoted, and got a confirmation reading paid in full. Months later Princess added $3,967 to her booking and said pay, downgrade, or lose the cruise.
Benjamin Khoury measured his backpack before his Frontier flight and it fit the airline’s own sizer. The gate agent charged him $99 for an oversized item anyway. Khoury photographed the bag sitting inside the box. Frontier’s customer care said no.
Bob Gourley works with technology every day. But for a recent trip to Oman, he left the phone in his pocket and shot with a 35 mm film camera instead. Thirty-six frames. “I stopped more,” he says. “I observed more.”
The government is about to let airlines off the hook for some flight delays. The change, which takes effect Oct. 19, moves 10 categories of delay and cancellation out of the airline’s column in federal reporting.
A federal committee created to give air travelers a voice inside the government meets this month for the first time in three years. It has four members, one of them for consumers, and an agenda limited to three disclosure documents.
