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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Here’s a question that’s crossed every airline passenger’s mind at least once: Why is it so hard to get the airline seat assignment you want?
Beth Shadur wants to know. She doesn’t like the aisle seat. So when she flew from Chicago to New York recently, her husband, an elite-level frequent flier, tried to find her a window seat.
Rob Katz is always on the move. When I met him, he seemed to be in perpetual motion. “Hi, nice to meet you — see you later,” he said in a single breath. I hardly had a chance to respond.
After Hurricane Harvey ripped through Texas and Louisiana last August, inflicting a record $125 billion in damages, residents braced for a second storm: a wave of disaster insurance scams.
And now, as they say, for something completely different. Since we’ve been talking about travel and manners recently, one reader has brought up one of the most controversial subjects in the travel industry: diapers in pools.
Did a United Airlines flight attendant kill a passenger’s dog? After the latest airline animal incident, which involved a puppy thoughtlessly stuffed into an overhead compartment, that’s what our readers are asking.
Where’s the best place to drive? Dave Fortney loves to drive in Greensboro, N.C. The roads are impeccably maintained, uncrowded and, well, fun.
