⛵ I guess August didn’t get the memo — This is supposed to be the slow month, when the case files thin out and I catch up on my summer reading. Not this year. The complaints are landing faster than they did in June. Here’s how to send us yours.

Iden and I are still laughing about the podcast we released yesterday on the Avis hotbox case. If you missed it, here’s how to get in on the fun.

Today's featured article is about a couple in their 70s who missed a Delta connection in Atlanta after a storm. An agent sent them to a nap room in the terminal and said the airline might pay. Delta turned down the room and the seat refund. Over on Backchannel, a reader gets foiled by a robo-checkin machine at a hotel and then surprised by a $20 charge.

In our Members Only section, a bill payment company is paying $2.1 million to settle federal charges over payment pages dressed up to look official. The same trick is pointed at travelers every day. I'll have all the details over the wall. You can access the information by upgrading your subscription. — Christopher Elliott

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Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report

Help! Delta downgraded us and refused to pay for a place to sleep
Two passengers over 75 missed their connection in Atlanta and rented a nap room in the terminal on an agent's advice. Delta denied the reimbursement, then downgraded the Comfort+ seats they had paid for.

Avis said she smoked in her rental car, but she had an alibi
A $450 deep cleaning fee for smoke damage, backed by photos of what looked like water spots. Both women in the car are breast cancer survivors, and neither smokes.

No-service summer: Why your vacation feels so cheap (but costs so much)
A first-class cabin with no meal and a $500 hotel room with no coffee maker. Companies cut service instead of raising prices after the pandemic, then found no reason to bring it back.

A child wouldn't buckle up, so Porter Airlines canceled the entire flight
A crew found a young child standing on a seat after the plane pushed back in Victoria, British Columbia. The airfield closed at 12:30 a.m., everyone deplaned, and the airline still hasn't said which category it filed the cancellation under.

States are doubling down on consumer protections. But why do airlines get a pass?
Washington has stopped fining airlines, so states and cities are writing the consumer rules instead. A 1978 law keeps every one of them out of the airport.

In Queenstown, tourism sustainability comes down to earth
Hotel food waste from 95 percent of the town's luxury properties becomes 1,200 tons of soil a year. The produce goes back into resort kitchens, and the surplus sells from a roadside stand that runs on the honor system.

StubHub says the Rick Springfield concert was postponed, but it wasn't. Can I get a refund?
A rescheduled date never made it into StubHub's system, so his tickets stayed locked on the night of the show. The venue confirmed the concert went ahead, but the company's records still list it as pending.

Robo-checkins at hotels are infuriating our readers (and me, too). So is a $450 smoking charge.

John deCastro checked into a Ramada by Wyndham in Eureka, Calif., and found a kiosk where the front desk used to be. There was no call button, no agent, and a manager who could explain the machine but couldn't complete the check-in. The next morning the kiosk billed him $20 for a stained pillowcase and towel. Valerie Montgomery says a setup like that would keep her away from the property altogether. Would you let a machine check you in?

Yesterday's Avis story sure got a lot of comments. James Sherrard says an Avis location at the Las Vegas airport hit him with a $300 smoking charge five years ago, and that the deep cleaning amounted to a can of Lysol. Chris Johnson wonders whether one franchisee is running up charges on its own and thinks corporate ought to look into it. Plenty of readers noticed the part where she worked the case herself using the contacts on our site. Should a rental company have to inspect the car while you're standing there?