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Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report

An air travel watchdog woke up after three years. It wants to bark at posters.
A federal advisory committee that hasn’t met since January 2023 returns on Sept. 22 with three items on its agenda, all of them disclosure documents Congress already ordered. It won’t vote on a single recommendation, and none of the consumer protections the Transportation Department rolled back while the committee was dark made the list.

These New Zealand eco-lodges are redefining sustainability (and reaching for the stars)
Two lodges at the head of Lake Whakatipu on New Zealand’s South Island have pushed sustainability well past recycled materials and refillable soap dispensers. One generates more power over a year than it uses and sends all of its profit to a community trust, and the other is wiring an 1868 pioneer tavern into a 500-kilowatt solar microgrid.

Help! Amazon said “yes” to a $179 refund—and then it said “no”
Andrew Greenman bought $179 sneakers from a third-party seller on Amazon and injured his ankle before he had worn them out. An Amazon agent emailed him a written promise of the money back within 48 hours, and the company’s executive customer relations office later ruled that its own agent’s promise didn’t comply with policy.

Why did Dollar charge me $1,858 for a car they didn’t have?
Dennis Drake returned a Jeep Compass to Dollar at the Albuquerque airport and flew home to Texas the same afternoon. Dollar’s system logged the car as still out, and the bill that followed came to $1,858 on top of insurance he had declined at the counter.

Help! Budget says I smoked in my car — but these photos prove nothing!
Ray Oswald and his wife returned their rental to Budget at O’Hare after a family funeral and left with a clean receipt for $312. The company billed them $450 for smoke residue five days later, citing photos of a cup holder that could have been taken in any white Mazda.

How AI bots are deceiving travelers—and what to do about it
A Baltimore engineer booked a Hershey, Pa., hotel on reviews praising its upscale amenities and attentive service, then found a broken air conditioner and dirty sheets. He checked the timestamps and saw the reviews had all posted in the same week.

Why I turned down a $15,000 case
A Pennsylvania carpenter says a fraudulent Western Union transfer cost him $15,000, and my team couldn’t take the case. It’s also the peg for our relaunched podcast, which opens on another file we lost and the twist that brought it back two years later.

Tara Cannon is heading to Europe and wants to pay for restaurants, cafés and museum tickets with a Wise account instead of the Canadian credit card that charges her a 2.5 percent foreign transaction fee. She’d give up the points, and she’s asking what the downside is. Does Wise still come out ahead once she needs cash? Here’s our team’s advice on Backchannel.