TSA: Enhanced pat-downs coming nationwide Oct. 31?
When it comes to the Transportation Security Administration’s new security measures, it’s hard to know who to believe anymore.
Commentary
Elliott Advocacy is a nonprofit organization that mediates cases between consumers and businesses. These are commentary articles that detail our efforts and provide educational information for consumers.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Are car rental employees rewarded for finding dings and dents on your vehicle?
The allegation that car rental companies have turned the damage claims process into a profit center is so common, I could probably write an entire blog on it.
Airline declines credit card, then hires collection agency to extract $510 “cancellation” fee
Kalevi Ruuska contacted me with an urgent problem recently. One of his friends was being asked to pay an odd cancellation fee by Air Berlin, and would not take “no” for an answer. The airline had hired a collection agency to pursue its claim.