A PERSONAL NOTE FROM CHRIS

I would give away every issue of this newsletter for free if I could. Actually, that’s what I did for almost 30 years. But all the media outlets I used to work for have either gone out of business or handed the keys to their newsroom to Google, and this kind of journalism is too important to let go extinct.

That’s why I created Elliott Confidential PRO. I wanted to give you more for your money. You’ll find exclusive information in every issue that will help you save money, like today’s story about sleazy car dealerships that quote you a fake price.

There’s still a section with free information and stories, and my website and forum will always be free. But if you want to read everything, I’ve cut the subscription price by 30%. A full year for $59.50 instead of $85 — about $1.14 a week.

Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report

Are holiday flights too expensive?
Thanksgiving round trips average $402 and Christmas fares $452, both the highest in a decade. Jet fuel is up almost 70% this year, which is the industry’s explanation, but Delta’s chief executive told analysts in October that he sees limited resistance from passengers.

No, your pet doesn’t want to go on vacation with you
I’ve never heard a pet ask to go on vacation, and unless you’ve been taking hallucinogenic drugs, neither have you.

Is your hotel room safe? The mistake you’re making right now
Nala Fox left a balcony door cracked at a five-star resort in Negril, Jamaica, and woke from a nap to find her carry-on and passport gone, with the security desk telling her this sometimes happens. Hotel security consultants call the condition resort security amnesia, and it shows up in cloned key cards, key sleeves with the room number printed on them and balconies an intruder can cross at night.

Holland America canceled my cruise because of a pricing error. Can it do that?
Cindy Woodring booked a 10-day Zuiderdam sailing at $479 a person, applied a $200 credit and paid the $758 balance in full. Three days later Holland America called the fare a pricing error and billed her $1,530 more, then offered a complimentary stateroom upgrade to anyone willing to pay it.

Hells bells! How did these AC/DC tickets go from front stage to the worst seats in the house?
Jerry Auer paid $506 for AC/DC tickets at Notre Dame Stadium after StubHub’s seating chart showed Section 121 beside the stage, and the official venue map put those seats behind it. StubHub fixed the flipped map the day after he reported it, then used the corrected version to tell him he had bought precisely what he ordered.

Triple-stacking and high-low tracking: New strategies for preventing luggage loss
Virgin Australia scanned my son’s purple Peak Design rollaboard in Queenstown and again in Melbourne, then lost track of it for almost 48 hours. Travel experts now recommend stacking trackers on separate networks, adding a battery-free QR tag and photographing the 10-digit barcode on your bag tag at check-in.

Resort fees have been “dead” for a year. Did anyone notice?
The FTC’s fee rule has required hotels and booking sites to put the full price in the first number an American traveler sees, with taxes and optional add-ons the only things allowed to appear later. It stops at the border, so a room booked on a non-U.S. site sits outside the whole system.

Matthew Bosman’s Instagram account was hacked on Sept. 1, and whoever took it ran a dating-site profile through it until the platform disabled the account. One in-app appeal came back denied. His linked Facebook account is suspended now too, so his family and friends can’t find him anywhere. Can he get any of it back? Here’s our team’s advice on Backchannel.