Transportation department taps brakes on proposed regulation requiring disclosure of airline fees
The U.S. Transportation Department surprised the travel world last month by suspending the creation of an important new consumer-protection regulation.
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.
Avoid the worst products ever with these insider strategies. (Trust me, you’ll want to)
If you ask me, the shoddiest products on earth are toys. I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense — as in, they advertised a computer, but instead they sold me a toy. I mean a literal toy.
How to kiss a giraffe and save a baby elephant
Editor’s note: After Thursday’s story about being delayed on our way from Nairobi to Orlando, several readers asked about our trip. Here’s my report.
Driving along the Trans-Canada Highway isn’t a road trip. It’s a family culinary tour
The Trans-Canada Highway stretches nearly 5,000 miles and crosses six time zones. If you’re in a rush, you can probably drive it in a week. But add a temperamental SUV, two working parents and three school-age kids, and it turns into a month-long adventure.
The TSA’s new pat-downs get too personal for some
When Barbara Leary went through the full-body scanner at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport recently, her hip replacements set off the alarm. She was directed to another line, where she underwent a physical search by a Transportation Security Administration agent.
How early should you arrive at the airport for your flight?
Want to start an argument? Tell your travel companion you won’t be arriving two hours before your flight. Go on, try it. I’ll be right here.
Will the long airport lines of spring break 2016 be back again this year?
If you’re already bracing for a long airport security line during the spring break travel season, then you must remember last year.
You do, don’t you? That’s when Transportation Security Administration screening wait times doubled under the weight of tighter security and swelling crowds. On just one day in mid-March, 6,800 American Airlines customers reportedly missed their flights, thanks to the lengthy TSA lines.
How failure can make you a better customer
When people say you learn more from your failures than your successes, William Seavey is the first to agree. He bought a Samsung top-loader washing machine, recommended by Consumer Reports, at Sears. “It turned out to be a lemon,” says Seavey, a consultant based in Cambria, Calif.
The real reason everyone complains about credit reporting agencies
The most complained-about financial institutions aren’t banks or credit card companies. They’re credit reporting agencies — and by a wide margin.