Here to help
It’s not your imagination. Your consumer rights are vanishing.
Not a day seems to go by that you don’t see news of another consumer regulation being dismantled, a law coming undone, an anti-consumer executive order being signed. Read more “Your consumer rights are disappearing. Here’s how to protect yourself now.”
Donald Trump is good for consumers. Read more “Donald Trump is making American consumers great again. Here’s how”
Barbara Acosta was duped by United Airlines.
“A colleague and I traveled from Washington to Albuquerque for a conference last week,” she says. “Our tickets were already paid for, but when we went to check in online a few hours before our flight, we were told the economy seats were all taken. We were forced to pay an extra $29 each for Economy Plus seats.” Read more “Forced to “upgrade” on a United Airlines flight – is this deceptive?”
Douglas Bentele thought he lucked out when he scored two business class tickets to Paris for just $1,400 each. But now Priceline has bad news for him: He’s actually sitting in economy class. Can this be fixed?
The lowly economy-class section is getting an upgrade in 2015. Or a downgrade, depending on your point of view.
Read more “Economy class gets an upgrade – or is it a downgrade?”
When Gloria Brimley booked a flight from Chicago to El Paso on US Airways through Cheaptickets, she thought she was getting a cheap first class seat.
Read more “She says she paid for a first-class ticket, so why didn’t she get one?”
If you’re talking about the $3.5 billion-a-year “sharing” economy, which turns consumers into travel providers, you’ll often hear a “no.”
Whether you’re considering a home rental instead of a hotel or driving someone else’s car over hiring a taxi, experts warn you to beware before you share.
The poster kids for the perils of peer-to-peer travel include Airbnb, where one host recently ran afoul of New York’s law banning short-term rentals, and RelayRides, which last year had a fatality in one of its rental vehicles. Critics also point to companies such as FlightCar, a start-up that offers off-airport car rentals, which they claim are skirting taxes and government regulation.
But ask travelers if sharing is good, and you’re more likely to get a “yes.” And they have the stories to prove it.
Read more “Why sharing is good – even when the travel industry says it isn’t”
