Christian personal finance blogger Peter chose not to turn the other cheek when he says National Car Rental tried to take away an unlimited mileage deal he and his wife signed up for when they went on vacation.
vacations
Rent Someone's Home On Your Next Vacation
By 10.30.09
The next time you travel to another city, it might be cheaper, or at least more interesting, to rent directly from a local homeowner. Cool Tools says Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO.com) is a great way to find rental opportunities when you travel.
National Car Rental Nixes Visa Discount With 'Concession Recovery Fee'
By 10.12.09
An anonymous reader thought he would use his Visa Signature card to snag a $37 discount on his National car rental, but found that the rental company took back $36.99 of the savings with a “concession recovery fee.”
Royal Caribbean Sees No Problem With Twin Beds For Anniversary Trip
By 10.8.09
Wes and his girlfriend took a Royal Caribbean Cruise for their anniversary, but the experience was more stressful than blissful. Apparently, according to the cruise line, an appropriate stateroom for a couple is an L-shaped room with twin beds. Where the beds are bolted to opposite walls. While appropriate for a ’50s sitcom, this was not what Wes had in mind for a romantic vacation.
Las Vegas Builders Say No More New Casinos For The Next Decade
By 10.6.09
We hope you like the current casinos in Las Vegas, because that’s what you can look forward to for the next 10 years or so. No newly built Mount Rushmore facade, no Mini Grand Canyon indoor shopping avenue, no Godzilla-shaped hotel—nothing new to delight the vulgar parts of your optic nerve. The Wall Street Journal says after a decade in which casinos spent more than $30 billion on expansions, they’re now going to pay off debt and focus on “branding, marketing and customer loyalty.”
Do Something Nice, Go To Disneyland
By 10.1.09
Disney’s gone and done something admirable again. We get it, Disney: you don’t want our golden poop. Fine.
Vacationer Says Universal Studios Stripped Away Premium Membership Benefits
By 9.29.09
Frequent Universal Studios Florida vacationer Victor bought a premier annual pass for $300, which gave him free kennel service and $50 upgrades from regular rooms to suites.
Don't Bother Visiting The Grand Canyon Skywalk
By 8.27.09
Update: We asked the Skywalk to confirm that they have a “no-refunds” policy. Their answer is at the bottom of this post.
Delta Doesn't Care About Your Honeymoon
By 8.14.09
[Note: Sandals has already responded to the post, expressed sympathy, and reached out to Autumn. We’ve removed their name from the headline to more accurately focus the blame on Delta, which is the company really behind the problems.] We get that Delta employees just flat out hate their jobs at this point—that would explain the surly flight attendants on my last Delta flight, at any rate—but why would you take that out on newlyweds, who have their whole lives to be disappointed and deserve that one week of happiness at the start? The least you could do, angry Delta employees, is try to help out after your employer utterly fails to deliver the passengers anywhere near their destination. No, a dingy one-night stay in a hotel room in NYC is not the same as a week in Antigua.
Complaining Via Twitter Works When Comfort Inn Won't Listen
By 7.20.09
Kristy and her husband were dissatisfied with their recent Comfort Inn stay while on vacation in southern Utah. The hotel manager resolved their cleanliness concerns, but then threatened to revoke their discount if they complained to corporate. Kristy tried to get her message across to the people in charge through the usual channels, and it seemed that nobody wanted to listen, Finally, she posted about the situation on Twitter and got the resolution she was looking for.
Delta Screws Man Out Of Family Trip, Business Conference, WSJ Interview, And Two Flights
By 7.15.09
Wow, the folks at Delta really must hate the creative director behind and star of those UPS whiteboard commercials, Andy Azula. On the open letter he published today, he notes that he’s a frequent-flyer with Platinum status on Delta, and until this past June one of their “biggest fans.” Then Delta forced him, his wife, and his twin seven-year-olds to wait 13 hours in the Richmond, VA airport, while their luggage remained trapped on a plane that was forever “almost fixed.”
This Subway Shop In Virginia Promotes Timeshares
By 6.17.09
Tim thought he was entering an innocent giveaway at his local Subway in Warrenton, Virginia earlier this month. Nope. It was just timeshare bait. We wish the Subway would have known better than to allow the dropbox in their store to begin with, but after reading Tim’s story you’ll know what to watch out for should you run into a similar contest.
Six Flags Over Bankruptcy Court
By 6.15.09
Those home ticket-printing fees just weren’t enough to help Six Flags pay down their $2.4 billion debt load. The economy and bad weather have taken their toll, and the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the weekend.
By 6.5.09
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The next time you’re looking at hotels online, try www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com. Our readers recommend both sites for helping you figure out which hotels you’re being offered on Priceline or Hotwire. (Thanks to bohemian and picantel!)
The Staycation Is Soooo 2008
By 5.13.09
Roll on, Summer of 09! Staying at home is sooo last year. According to a recent travel survey, America is on the move again! 95% of respondents said they are planning to get away this summer. No more navel gazing and lawn mowing. It’s on to brighter things such as cruises, the Caribbean, and even Europe. Plus, with “historically low airfares” and gas prices down a buck fifty per gallon from a year ago, you can even visit *gasp* other parts of America!
Orbitz Can't Deliver On Tickets It Sold, But Can't Deliver The Refund Either
By 5.7.09
Austin bought two tickets to Aruba last December. By the end of February, Orbitz had changed his itinerary so many times that now they were only flying him as far as Atlanta, and 11 days later were flying him back from Aruba—it was apparently up to him to get from Atlanta to Aruba in the first place. At this point, the only option was to request a refund, which Orbitz said would take 60 days. Two months later, Orbitz told Austin that they’ll give him his money back in 60 days. We’re pretty sure that’s 120 days total, and there’s still no guarantee Austin will see his money.
Memo To Cruise Lines: Seattle Is Not Cozumel
By 5.1.09
A few different cruise lines took initiative and changed the itineraries of ships heading to Mexico in the near future. However, they won’t let customers who are uninterested in sailing to the tropical paradise of San Francisco rebook or get full refunds.
On Costa Cruises, Your "Waiter" Will Take Your Bread Basket Away And Give It To Another Table
By 4.10.09
There were lots of problems on the recent Costa Cruise vacation that Krista and her friends took, including lukewarm hot tubs, closed buffets, and missing towels. But the biggest surprise was when their waiter was replaced on the second day with a newly promoted, untrained busboy who abandoned them nightly. Well, when he wasn’t taking their sugar or stealing their basket of bread.
