What’s missing from your hotel room?
If you’ve stayed in a hotel recently, you’ve probably noticed some missing amenities from your room. For me, it was bathroom doors.
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.
Screen addiction is destroying travel. Here’s how to stop it
Have you noticed the travel zombies suffering from screen addiction yet? They’ve overrun the Orlando theme park where Lisa Ann Schreier works. “I’ve seen entire families walking around completely oblivious to their surroundings, which is pretty sad,” she says. “To say nothing of people literally walking into other people.”
You don’t need this: How to say “no” to a sales pitch — and mean it
You can do it. You can say no to that sales pitch. We live in a world of “yes” men and women programmed to accept almost every offer in front of us.
What you don’t know about billing cycles will blow your mind
Billing cycles can really mess with your head.
Don’t take my word for it. Consider what happened to Michael Dearing, a registered nurse from Chicago, when Comcast adjusted — or in his words “played with” — his billing cycles recently.
Why you’ll leave a tip — whether you want to or not
David Mitroff’s favorite restaurants in New York and San Francisco now quietly add an 18 percent tip to his final bill — before he even has a chance to consider a gratuity.
Automatic tips have also appeared on his hotel bills and when he checks his luggage with the airport skycap. It’s almost as if everyone assumes he wants to tack a few extra dollars onto the final tab, even when he doesn’t.
TSA PreCheck members fume as their lines get longer
It happened to Andy Lundberg when he was flying recently from Kansas City to Baltimore on Southwest Airlines. A Transportation Security Administration screener pointed him to the PreCheck line, where he waited behind a dozen other frequent travelers with the agency’s trusted traveler designation.
6 times when you’re better off without travel insurance
Even though Jon Look is a frequent traveler, he always leaves home without one thing.
“I have never purchased a travel insurance policy,” admits Look, a retired photographer. “It adds expense and complications and rarely pays off.”
Traveling without insurance? Yep, most Americans still do it, and some of them with good reason. Because not everyone needs insurance and some people wouldn’t be able to use it even if they bought it.
As it turns out, there are times when you’ll want to skip that insurance policy. It may not be as often as you think, but it happens.
Did your low airfare disappear? Blame dynamic pricing
You probably know what Melanie Frazier felt like when she recently tried to book a flight from Portland, Maine, to Atlanta.
Rudeness runs rampant for travelers. Is it your fault?
It was a random thought at the end of a recent column about unfriendly TSA agents. “I wonder if the rude agent is a reflection of an even ruder traveler,” mused David Kazarian, a pharmacist from Tampa.
It started a debate with a real purpose.
What’s ahead for hotel guests in 2018?
When it comes to fees and surcharges, hotel guests are wondering: What’s next?
Mandatory “resort fees” mushroomed last year, even as hotels added new charges for all kinds of things, including cancellations and late checkouts. With pressure to squeeze even more profit from customers, you don’t have to be an industry insider to see where this is going.