A seasoned traveler and journalist, Mike knows how to juggle his cellphones and avoid usurious charges while abroad. Before he leaves for international locales, he records a message on his phone instructing people to only call him on a second, pay-as-you-go mobile. Somehow he still ends up getting dinged.
travel
Spirit Air $8 Fares!
By 7.6.06
You don’t need Farecast to spot this great deal, Spirit Air is offering ridiculously low airfares at $8 and $44 for specific destinations during August and September. A firm defiance of Southwest’s usurious $10 fare hike, no doubt.
Gaming Frequent Flyer Miles From Your Credit Card
By 6.23.06
Making a luxury purchase like a new car, a Nokia bling-phone, a face lift, a funeral, a blackmarket baby? Why not charge it to your airline-branded credit card and get yourself some free miles to boot?
Delta Tells Ze Frank Off
By 6.21.06
Videoblogger Ze Frank was promised $600 in remuneration from Delta after some abysmally bad customer service had him not flying and staying in a hotel room with a total stranger. He got a letter in the mail today and instead of a check, he got a big fat go f*** yourself letter. The best part is Ze Frank in an adult diaper. The second best part is that in the letter, Delta refers to an online policy that outlines their responsibilities in these matters (none), and the link is dead upon arrival.
Westjet Delays, Pays Happy Traveler
By 6.20.06
7.50 worth of complimentary drinks at the airport bar. That’s the way customer service is handled in Ireland.
Travelocity Atrocity
By 6.14.06
Turns out the Travelocity Guarantee isn’t that. Think of it more as a courtesy statement of what you might expect to pay should Travelocity have all its shit together. This guy recorded a call he had with a Travelocity supervisor. He wanted them to honor the agreed-upon price. They didn’t.
Unfortunately Placed Hotel.com Ad, Isn’t
By 6.13.06
There’s a clip going around showing a hotels.com ad right before ABC Tech Watch goes into a report about hotel.com users being at risk for credit card fraud. Ostensibly, hilarity ensues. However, the gaffe isn’t as egregious as one might think; the Tech Watch report actually ran the ad within the show, as shown by the tell-tale ABC logo superimposed on the bottom right. During commercial breaks, that logo disappears.
UPDATE: Hertz Hatin’ On The Boroughs Too
By 6.13.06
Hey, it’s not just me and Dollar Rent-A-Car that hates the Boroughs and everything their denizenship of loudmouthed bozos and doofus hipsters stands for. Hertz does too!
Dollar-Rent-a-Car Hatin’ On the Boroughs
By 6.12.06
Dan thinks Dollar-Rent-A-Car is a bigot, hating jews, minorities and filthy liberals. Otherwise, how can you explain item 1.O from their rental policy?
Southwest Airlines Sues To Keep Seating Inconvenient
By 6.8.06
If you’re a Southwest Airlines flier and want the best seats, an entire cottage industry has sprung up. You enter your Southwest Airlines account and password into sites like boardfirst.com, apassonly.com or alineonline.com will automatically check you in online the second Southwest Airlines starts accepting seat reservations. It costs about $5 bucks per use… an excellent deal if you really want to get that extra leg room near the emergency exit door.
Beat Credit Card Blocking
By 6.6.06
Lifehacker’s got a pointer to an FTC article for avoiding “credit card blocking” when booking trips, whereby a hotel will stake claim for the full cost of your stay, plus the incidentals it feels you may buy, prior to checking out of the hotel.
US Airways Kills Peanuts
By 6.5.06
They still had peanuts? Well, no longer as you can now add US Airways to the list of airlines not serving bagged tributes to George Washington Carver. The airline claims it’s to stop peanut particles drifting from passenger’s gnashing maws and into the orifices of peanut allergy sufferers, a deadly disaster that also serves as the premise for last summer’s blockbuster, “Peanuts on a Plane.”
Airlines Owe Frequent Flyers 27M Free Trips
By 6.2.06
Thoroughly filed in the ‘old news’ department, there’s a USA Today article up complaining about just how gosh darn difficult it is to redeem your frequent flyers miles these days. There’s no new information in the article, except a statistic we didn’t know that makes airline stinginess seem even worse: growth in frequent flyer programs increases at a rate of about 13% per year, even as it gets harder and harder to do anything with your points.
Tip or Sign the Slip?
By 6.1.06
Tipping, a venerated system of checks and balances that rewards good service and punishes bad, is under attack, or is it evolution?
Expedia Closes Ticket Change Fee Loophole Around Customer’s Throat
By 6.1.06
All our best correspondents have alliterative names. Consumerist Grant G. decided to use Expedia to book a couple of round-trip flights from Denver to San Francisco. But when his plans changed and he needed to fly back a day later, he was told there would be a $200 extra charge to change the booking.
