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.
Now that the dust has almost settled from United Airlines’ infamous passenger-expulsion incident, travelers are left with several important and largely unanswered questions about how this kerfuffle will change air travel — if it does at all.
Donald Trump is good for consumers. And not necessarily in the way you’d think. Undoubtedly without meaning to, the new president has created a class of consumers that will be more enlightened and harder than ever to rip off. If you’re reading this, you may be among them.
The rumble of a jet engine is a comforting sound to some air travelers, making it easy to sleep on virtually any flight. For others, just the thought of being trapped in a pressurized aluminum tube is enough to send massive doses of adrenaline into their bloodstreams, ensuring alertness for days.
If you’re an experienced traveler, maybe you know about the Department of Transportation’s 24-hour rule for airline ticket purchases, or EU 261, the European consumer protection regulation for air travelers, or the Fair Credit Billing Act.
Does anyone not have a car rental horror story like Dave Dzurick’s? When Dzurick, a project manager from Tucson, Ariz., rented a car from Hertz in Milwaukee recently, a representative asked him if he wanted an upgrade. No mention of the cost.
How good are your reading comprehension skills? How patient are you? How willing are you to forgive other people’s shortcomings?
Even though Sampath Radhakrishna cancels his son’s airline ticket within 24 hours, his refund is missing in action. Now his credit card bill is due. Can the airline expedite the refund?
It’s the complainers that make travelers such as Randall Kessler complain — specifically, the folks who shuffle around the airport waiting area, griping about something over which neither they nor their airline has any control.
The U.S. Transportation Department surprised the travel world last month by suspending the creation of an important new consumer-protection regulation.
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.
