Free stays, new friends: What’s not to love about home exchanges?
Home exchanges may be the oldest trend in lodging. Older, even, than the modern hotel. They’re also the newest thing, to hear some travelers talk about it.
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.
You need to know these legal concepts now
Attention consumers: You need to know these legal concepts. But you probably don’t.
Consumers don’t always understand the law — and that can hurt them.
Never use these five cringeworthy phrases when you ask for help
Was it something you said? Is that the reason a company is ignoring your otherwise reasonable request for assistance? If you have to ask, the answer is probably “yes.”
No Expedia refund after his neighbor’s sudden death. Is this fair?
A death certificate can be a trump card for travelers who want a refund. Whether you’re locked into a nonrefundable hotel room or a consolidator ticket, proof of a relative’s death can loosen the rules — if not get them waived entirely.
What to do if you get into legal trouble abroad
Oh, the legal trouble Americans get themselves into when they’re abroad.
But there are ways to stay out of trouble, and steps you can take to help yourself if you should fall into it.
Airline offering a voucher? Just say no!
Beware of funny money, fellow travelers. Airlines, hotels and cruise lines are quicker than ever to push vouchers into your unhappy hands when something goes wrong and you’re owed a refund or apology. But think twice before you say “yes,” because you might be forking over your hard-earned money without even realizing it.
These “truly evil” charity scams follow every storm. Don’t get taken by them
If 2017 was a record year for national disasters, then it was a disastrous year for charity scams.
It’s difficult to estimate the size of these swindles. The site Charity Navigator says total giving to charitable organizations hit $390 billion in 2016, an increase of 2.7 percent. A separate UK study estimates that charity fraud amounted to $3.1 billion in 2017.
The worst hotel ever? This traveler thinks he found it
Myron Schuur thought he’d found a deal through Orbitz to stay at the American Inn Benton Harbor in Michigan. And he had — but it wasn’t the deal he expected.
“The first thing we noticed was a terrible odor in the halls,” he says. “It was like a mixture of cigarette smoke, dust and stale air. The walls had been poorly patched and painted over.”
A Southwest schedule change that I didn’t want — do I have to pay for it?
When Tracy Rubin tried to check in online for her 4 p.m. flight from Boston to Chicago, she discovered she was going nowhere. A Southwest schedule change meant she’d need to depart at 2 p.m., a flight she didn’t want.
United Airlines holds plane so passenger can say goodbye to his dying mother
Kerry Drake’s mother was dying. She’d suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for decades and the drugs used to treat her condition had decimated her immune system. One morning his brother called him to say her time had come. Drake caught the next United Airlines flight from San Francisco, where he works for the federal government, to Lubbock, Texas, via Houston.