Consumerist

vacations

United Sells Family's Tickets To Someone Else, Ruins Once-In-A-Lifetime Vacation, Then Won't Admit It To Insurance Company

By cwalters 8.13.08

Holding $5,000 in tickets from a family for six months, then telling them the day before that the flight has been canceled;
When confronted with the fact that the flight hasn’t been canceled, telling the family that the reservation has been lost;
Finally admitting that they’ve bumped the family from the flight and were lying about the cancelation and the lost reservation;
Offering replacement seats on multiple planes and days, splitting the family up on different flights and depositing them at different islands;
Offering to get them there 5 days into a 7 day vacation, part of which was scheduled to spend time with a family member who was dying in a hospice in Hawaii;
Refusing to write a letter on the family’s behalf so that they can collect their insurance payment on the house they rented but never used.

With one act of disregard, United destroyed the vacation, cost the family over $10,000 in house rental fees that they can’t get back, and forced them to cancel the trip. The dying family member they didn’t get to see passed away in early June.

readers

Help, A Colony Of Ants Attacked My Enterprise Rental Car And Ruined My Vacation!

By consumeristcarey 8.2.08

Steven was enjoying his drive down the California coast in his Enterprise rental car when he noticed a few ants marching across his dashboard. Before long, he “saw a large ant colony coming out of the inside of the car door.”

should I cruise with carnival

It Shouldn't Take Three Years To Book A Carnival Cruise

By consumeristcarey 7.26.08

Leslie and her husband haven’t been able to cruise with Carnival since Hurricane Katrina rained all over their original itinerary back in 2005. Carnival promised they would be able to cruise on a “space available” basis, except Carnival won’t confirm if space is available until three days before departure, making it nearly impossible for Leslie and her husband to buy affordable plane tickets or arrange care for their sixteen-month-old daughter.

travel clubs

Careful, That Red Lobster Coupon Could Cost You $7,500

By Meg Marco 7.25.08

How do you define a scam? Does your definition include anything where you have to put down money upfront in order to get discounts later? Maybe it should. Meet Stephen and Jean Liang of Kansas City, Missouri. They went to a presentation for a travel club, and ended up joining for $7,500– with the condition that they could cancel after 3 days. Before they left, they were offered a discount for Red Lobster. They thought it was a bonus for joining the club. It wasn’t.

travel

15 Ways To Beat Jet-Lag

By JaySlatkin 7.16.08

Summer is one of the most popular times of year to take a vacation. If you have ever traveled overseas, or just across many time zones, you have probably experienced jet-lag. For the uninitiated, jet-lag is that zombie-like sensation which could be considered akin to the feeling of starting the day with no sleep. To help prevent you from turning into a zombie at your travel destination, Reader’s Digest has compiled a list of 15 ways to fight jet-lag which are excerpts from the book “Sleep to be Sexy, Smart, and Slim” by Ellen Michaud. Check out some our favorites from the list, inside…

vacations

How To Avoid Being Victimized On Vacation

By JaySlatkin 7.8.08

Whether you realize it or not, as a tourist, you are very conspicuous to would-be criminals who would like to take advantage of you. To help keep you safe, CNN and BudgetTravel have compiled a list of some common crimes at some of the most popular travel destinations. The list, inside…

travel

How To Get A Passport Fast

By Ben Popken 7.1.08

What do you do if you need a passport in less than three weeks? Don’t shell out for one of those passport expediters, call your Member of Congress. They have these things called constituent liaisons, whose whole reason for existence is prodding other executive agencies. This is the number one way to get a passport quickly. Call the district office for your Congress Critter, which is the number that doesn’t start with 202. A list of Members of Congress can be found here. Another thing to try is paying the extra $60 at the USPS for expedited passport service. The best thing to do is, of course, apply early, but if for some reason that hasn’t happened, getting a hold of a constituent liaison is the way to go.

airlines

Travelocity Stole $2,594.55 Of My Honeymoon Money!

By Meg Marco 6.26.08

James booked two flights for his honeymoon with Travelocity, but when it became obvious that their visas weren’t going to come in on time, James asked Travelocity if he could reschedule. They assured him that he could, so James followed their instructions and FedExed his tickets back to Travelocity. He then waited for them to call to complete the transaction. They called 2 days after he was originally scheduled to leave and left a message saying that he could now reschedule. When he called them back, Travelocity said that they’d neglected to inform the airline that he was going to be rescheduling, so they’d been marked as “no shows” and were out of luck… and out of $2,584.55.

charity

U.S. Airways Refunds $2200 Tickets For Recently Unemployed Man

By cwalters 6.23.08

Travel expert Christopher Elliott says US Airways refunded a couple $2200 on a pair of nonrefundable tickets to Ireland after the wife wrote to the COO and explained their situation. They tried Expedia first and were refused, and although they had travel insurance it wouldn’t cover unemployment. The wife, Jennifer Bush, says the US Airways rep who responded to their plea “told me that they all felt for my situation and decided to refund the amount of the airfare.”

travel

9 Reasons Why Trains Are Better Than Planes

By JaySlatkin 6.9.08

It may take longer to get there, a lot longer, depending on your destination, but Ecogeek has found 9 reasons why traveling on trains is better than traveling on planes. No security delays, more legroom and no baggage handlers to lose your luggage is just the beginning. Check out one of our favorite reasons, inside…

friendly reminders

Do Your Homework Before Going On Vacation Or Customs Will Seize Your Goat

By consumeristcarey 5.3.08

Customs seizes 4,300 items each day from unsuspecting travelers, so read up on their regulations before jaunting off on vacation or they’ll seize your tasty goat when you return. Customs regulations aren’t as arbitrary as they seem, but they can’t be deciphered by common sense alone.

nightmares

Royal Caribbean Tells Family To Abandon Ship

By JaySlatkin 4.27.08

There are few things in life more decadent and luxurious than a cruise vacation. Unless of course, you are on a Royal Caribbean cruise and your child gets a cold, and then a paranoid crew kicks you and your family off the ship at night in your pajamas at a foreign port where you then have to spend thousands dollars for passports and tickets to get home. It sounds like a nightmare but that’s exactly what happened to this Florida family according to WFTV. Read the details of their misadventure, inside…

panama city

Canceling A ResortQuest Reservation? It'll Cost You $190 In Taxes And $95 In Fees

By consumeristcarey 4.6.08

ResortQuest hit William’s wife with over $285 in fees when she canceled less than a day after making her reservation. Over $190 ostensibly went towards taxes, which raised William’s eyebrow and led him to fire off an Executive Email Carpet Bomb demanding an explanation.

disney world

American Airlines Refuses To Accept American Airlines Credit Card

By consumeristcarey 1.13.08

American Airlines told Justin that they could not accept his American Airlines credit card due to a bug in their spiffy new booking system. Justin wanted to charge a trip to Disney World on the card, which unlike standard credit cards, is supposed to work exclusively for purchasing tickets with American Airlines.

travel

Marriott Fails: Hotel Still Under Construction, Leaves Your Door Wide Open, No Hot Water

By Meg Marco 1.10.08

Reader Allan stays at Marriott hotels a lot. He has platinum status, meaning that he stays at Marriott hotels for more than 75 days a year. One might think this level of loyalty would mean that he’d get a response to his complaint letter.

TOP

Capital One Pockets Traveler's $6000, Ruins Vacation

By cwalters 1.2.08

Mike and his wife are backpacking their way around the world, and like a smart consumer, before they left he looked around for a credit card without a currency conversion charge. Capital One is fee free, which in theory makes it ideal for travel. In reality, there are hidden costs, and they’re called human stupidity and random interpretation of the rules. As a consequence, he’s “pre-paid” $6,000 onto a Capital One card that has been red-flagged and frozen, and Capital One refuses to budge—even though they acknowledge there are notes on the account that indicated he would do this before he did it, and even though they’re the ones who told him to pre-pay.

travel

Stressed? Grab A Last Minute Cruise Deal

By Meg Marco 12.31.07

Last minute deals are so great because they represent revenue that would otherwise be lost to the company offering it. The cruise ship will set sail with a full complement of crew and supplies regardless of the actual passenger count and an empty cabin represents a lot of lost revenue so selling it at a discount to the rack price is something they’re very much willing to do. It’s why hotels and airlines sometimes have last minute fares and discounts, an empty room or seat is lost revenue.

shopping

By cwalters 12.7.07

../../../..//2007/12/07/riot-police-had-to/

Riot police had to be called to quell 120 angry Chinese tourists in the Vegas-like resort territory of Macau. The tourists complained they were being forced to shop even though they were on vacation to gamble, and they began rioting after their tour guides took them to a cold beach and locked them out of their tour busses. [Reuters]

Welcome to the Consumerist Archives

vacations