Pay for Overhead Storage? No!

Traveling is a nightmare as it is.

My upcoming trip had flight changes both outbound and return resulting in an 8 hour layover each way. I decided to keep the outbound but change to another airline on the return. Even though they were one way prices when I booked it, American wouldn’t let me keep the outbound and refund the return. They made me cancel and refund the whole ticket and book a new one way that was now $100 more than when I first booked it. This is crazy.

Should I just buy one way tickets from now on?

United Airlines rolls out new seats to try to avoid the reclining seat back in my lap complaint. This new seat configuration slides your bottom cushion forward when you want to recline, and the back cushion pivots about midway up so that the intrusion on the passenger behind you is reduced, but your legroom is also reduced substantially. These new seats are not only in coach, but also first class, and they are ungodly uncomfortable. My understanding is that Alaska has also adopted this revised seating configuration, but contacts at Southwest told me that they have chosen not to go this route.

Apparently, United is trying to get in front of the complaints about a reclining seat in front of a passenger, smashing their food on their plate or dropping into their lap, which is of course hog wash. The top of the seat in coach on a normal United aircraft reclines only between three and 4 inches, not nearly enough to even come close to the passenger behind you, but there are some passengers who deeply resent that anyway -and those passengers, of course, are the self entitled passengers who feel that the entire world revolves around them. Shame on United for going with a seat configuration that is uncomfortable for everyone and favors the self -entitled few who have raised the fuss.

Looking for best way to get yo our hotel in downtown Seoul. We will have 2 large rolling bags. Thanks

My wife and I have started to use Premium Coach (or whatever your favorite airline calls it) for our flights. It's generally about $50-$200 more than regular coach (depending on the flight) and, we feel, gives you some advantages; (a) about 4"-6" more leg room; (b) it's just behind business/first class so getting off the plane doesn't require a 20 minute wait from the back of the bus; (c) boarding is usually right after first class so no fighting for overhead space, and; (d) depending on the flight/airline the food selection is generally better than coach.

I'd be interested in the views of other travelers.

Kim Calla has a superpower. According to her credit card issuer, she can sit in two airline seats at the same time.

I'm working on a story about the fees travelers pay to avoid discomfort, and whether those fees are worth it. Airlines and hotels have built a business around anxiety: pay now to avoid the middle seat, pay to sit with your family, pay to skip the room by the elevator or the ice machine. I want to look at what happens when travelers decline these upsells and take their chances instead.

I'd love to hear from anyone who simply stopped paying to avoid discomfort. Did you skip the seat assignment and still end up where you wanted? Did you book the basic fare and get moved anyway, for better or worse? What did you do with the money you saved?

I'm researching a story about how travelers are rethinking their plans as extreme heat, wildfire smoke and related weather events disrupt destinations that were once considered reliable. I want to look at how people decide whether to cancel, postpone or push ahead, and what they do to protect themselves when they go anyway.

I'd love to hear from anyone who faced this call. Did you cancel a trip because of a heat wave, wildfire smoke or a weather warning, and how did you make that decision? If you decided to go, what did you do to prepare, and did your insurance cover any of it? What do you wish you'd known before you left?

Has anyone had a refund problem with this company?

Has anyone taken a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti recently?

Three airlines already decided for you.

A man bought his robot a ticket to Dallas on Southwest. The robot walked through the terminal, passengers took pictures, and within days Southwest had rewritten its rules to keep human-like and animal-like machines off its planes "regardless of size or purpose."

Delta followed on June 18. United on July 23. American Airlines hasn't said anything yet, though I expect it will.

All three point to lithium batteries, and that argument has merit. A full-size humanoid carries far more power than a laptop. The FAA already caps cabin batteries at 100 watt-hours without carrier approval and 160 with it, and any airline is free to enforce those numbers hard.

Here's what bothers me. The policies don't stop at watt-hours. Delta's covers anything built to imitate a human or animal in appearance, size, movement or behavior. United's internal guidance reportedly reaches machines that mimic how a person thinks and speaks. And every one of these carriers has declared in advance that such devices can't qualify as assistive equipment, which is a category federal law defines by what a device does for a passenger with a disability. Paro, the seal-shaped robot used in dementia and palliative care, is sold as a medical device.

Nobody has defined a toy, either. So a gate agent decides in real time whether your child's robot dog stays or goes while 40 people wait behind you.

Aviation has done the fast ban before. Laptops from certain airports, lighters, e-readers below 10,000 feet, shoes at the checkpoint. All of them came back.

I've laid out the rules, the precedents, the survey numbers and where I come down on it.

There's a poll at the end of the piece, and the comments are open. Tell me whether you'd take the seat next to a robot or whether you want that seat to stay human. I read every response, and the ones that change my mind are the ones I quote later.

Elliott ReportShould airlines ban robots?Southwest, Delta and United have barred humanoid robots from the cabin. The reason given is battery safety, but the rules describe what a machine looks like.

The Consumer Federation of America just asked the FTC and state attorneys general to investigate Speechify, one of the bigger AI voice-cloning platforms. The complaint says the company makes it easy to clone someone's voice from a few seconds of audio while doing almost nothing to confirm the person actually agreed to it.

It matters because impersonation scams are exploding. The FTC says consumers lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, close to three times what they lost in 2020, and older Americans are getting hit the hardest.

I want to hear from you. Has someone cloned your voice, or used a fake version of it to try to fool your family, your bank, or your coworkers? Maybe you got the call that sounded exactly like your kid or your mother, and something felt off.

Tell me what happened, how you caught it, and whether anyone, the platform, the FTC, or your state AG, did a thing about it. I'm collecting these for a future story, and Backchannel is the first place I'm asking.

consumerfed.orgArticle - Consumer Federation of America Urges FTC and State Attorneys General to Investigate Speechify Over AI Voice-Cloning Practices | Consumer Federation of AmericaCFA in partnership with students from UCLA Law School’s Information Policy Lab, filed a complaint with the FTC and Attorneys General of the United States alleging that Speechify, an AI voice-cloning platform, engages in unfair, deceptive, and abusive trade practices by making it remarkably easy for bad actors to create convincing voice impersonations with virtually no meaningful safeguards to prevent fraud.

Elliott ReportThis summer's biggest points swindleTravel sites want you to write Congress about credit card fees. Who pays for those campaigns, what the bill does, and whether your rewards are really at risk.

Travel sites spent this summer asking readers to write to Congress about credit card swipe fees. Not to lower them, but to keep the current Visa-Mastercard duopoly in place.

The petitions come with a prewritten letter and a warning that a bill before Congress will wipe out your points. Running alongside them are two lobbying campaigns, one from the banks' trade group and one funded by Airlines for America. The travel sites supply the readers.

Here's what those newsletters leave out: Many card-review sites earn a commission every time someone is approved for a card through their links, and that money traces back to the same fees the bill targets.

I went through the numbers both sides are quoting, including the $80 billion rewards figure that keeps turning up, and looked at where it started.

There is another Back Channel app in the Apple Store that is not from Chris Elliott.

Wanna know a secret about consumer journalism? Most of it starts behind the scenes.

It's in comments no editor will run, in tips that don't fit a column, in "call me, don't email me" conversations. ("Chris, you wouldn't BELIEVE what just happened to me!")

In other words, it happens in the Backchannel. And that, my friends, is where you are right now.

Here's what you'll find.

General — The main stage. Story teasers, hot takes, and the occasional argument about whether a cruise passenger deserves a lifetime ban for bad table manners.

Newsletters — Every Elliott Confidential post, landing here so you can comment without digging through your inbox.

Off the Record — Where we say the things that don't make it into print, because either the lawyers or my own better judgment said no.

On The Road — Dispatches from wherever you are this week. I travel 330-plus days a year, so this fills up fast. I'd love to get your trip reports, too!

Travel Tips — Actual, usable advice, not the "pack a scarf" variety.

Ask Elliott — Bring me your consumer problem. I've spent 30 years learning which phone number actually works.

Get Help — Where a complaint turns into a fix. Sometimes the company wins. I'll tell you that too.

Insiders Only — The stuff I'm not ready to publish anywhere else yet.

What you can expect from the moderators—and me:

• We focus on solutions, not problems.

• We won't sugarcoat anything. Life is too short!

• Nothing here is sponsored or paid for, so all the advice is genuine and given with only one purpose: to make you a smarter consumer.

If you've ever wanted to get behind the scenes at a consumer advocacy organization, or you need someone in your corner when a company stonewalls you, this is the place. Pull up a chair.