travel agent

Cartoon of a shocked older couple sitting on a couch staring at a phone showing the Princess Cruises app, reacting to news that their booking has gone wrong.

He paid $2,369 for his cruise, but Princess canceled the reservation anyway

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Robert Battaglia paid $2,369 for a Panama Canal cruise with Princess, booked through a travel agent, and he and his wife Norma paid the final balance a day before it was due. Two days later, he opened the Princess app and the reservation was gone. When his travel agent called, a representative said the couple were in default for nonpayment and owed roughly $2,000 more, though no one could say where the charge came from. It eventually traced back to a Princess Plus upgrade his wife had tried to add online, only for the website to report that the purchase failed and tell her to handle it later. Princess canceled the booking anyway and kept $1,298 as a cancellation fee, even though the account showed no balance due and the agent could see no pending charge. Here is the principle worth holding onto before you accept a cancellation like this: when a customer pays on time and the company’s own statement shows nothing owed, the burden is on the company to explain any later charge before it takes punitive action, not after.

Soft pastel digital illustration of a young teenage girl with a messy brown bun and large worried eyes standing alone with her arms crossed and a small brown shoulder bag, beside her dark blue rolling suitcase, in the middle of a busy blurred airport terminal with other travelers and luggage in the background, illustrating a 13-year-old unaccompanied minor stranded at LAX after United Airlines denied boarding for a connecting flight the airline itself had authorized

United authorized my teen’s connecting flight, then left her stranded at LAX

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Shiri Willcot’s travel agent tried to book her 13-year-old daughter Ryan on a connecting flight from Los Angeles to Costa Rica via Houston, but United Airlines policy prohibits unaccompanied minors ages 5 to 14 on connecting flights. A United supervisor overrode the system, approved the reservation, and charged Willcot’s credit card the $300 unaccompanied minor fee. The travel agent reconfirmed the booking twice before departure, and a United representative on a recorded call two days before the flight confirmed Ryan could board without issue. At LAX, United agents refused to let Ryan board. For a month afterward, United claimed no record of the original flight existed despite confirmation emails, the credit card charge, and the recorded call. The airline gave three contradicting explanations before settling on its final narrative blaming the travel agency.

Editorial illustration of a couple standing on a dark airport tarmac with two orange roller suitcases, watching from a distance as a fiery orange and yellow explosion cloud rises into the blue sky beyond, with a small white airplane visible on the horizon, illustrating the uncertainty of booking summer vacation travel during an active geopolitical conflict in the Middle East

Is it safe to book a summer vacation yet?

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The U.S. and Iran are reportedly close to a deal that would end the war, lift sanctions, release frozen Iranian funds, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Travel companies say the worst is priced in. Airbnb expects second-quarter bookings to drop one percentage point across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. Booking Holdings cut its full-year revenue forecast through June. Iranian lawmakers called the U.S. proposal a wish list. Before booking, check State Department advisories at Level 3 or Level 4, examine flight routes for airspace closures, buy cancel-for-any-reason insurance, and pay only with a credit card.