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This issue's Members Only section breaks down California's all-in pricing law — and why the attorney general's own hidden-fees page shows zero enforcement actions. It's one of the premium benefits you get with Elliott Confidential PRO, through Labor Day for $59.50/year (about $1 a week, down from $85).
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He did everything right, and he still came apart. (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
🧠 Ever done something really dumb on a trip? — I have. When I flew to South Korea last month, I was in such a hurry — always doing everything at the last minute — that I forgot my retainers. And that made me think of my travel IQ, and yours. You can read the full story today.
On Backchannel, a PRO member flew home early from Scandinavia with a friend who had spent four days in the hospital. He paid more than he had to so the two of them could fly the first leg together, and he's holding two travel insurance policies he hasn't filed on. Should he?
PLUS: California made the advertised price the final price two years ago. The attorney general's own hidden fees page still lists no enforcement actions. So who is making companies comply? — Christopher Elliott
Do you have a high travel IQ? Here's how you can tell
The traveler in the Tokyo departure lounge had done everything right, and he still fell apart over a gate change. Travel IQ is the gap between what you think you know and how the world works, and an airport is where that gap opens up. There are seven signs yours needs work, starting with the one scammers read from three blocks away. What separates a smart traveler from everyone else?
OUR UNDERWRITER
Southwest Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. We are committed to providing our employees with a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth.
📌 Here’s what you missed this week
Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report
Do you have a high travel IQ? Here's how you can tell
A behavioral researcher watched one traveler come apart over a gate change in Tokyo while another passenger walked away and solved it. Travel IQ is the gap between what you think you know and how the world works, and there are seven signs yours needs work.
Americans are tearing down surveillance cameras. Then they're lining up for one at the airport.
Americans spent the summer packing city council meetings and cutting down license plate cameras, and last week the company behind them rewrote its privacy rules. A lot of those same people drove to the airport, walked up to a checkpoint and let a machine photograph their face.
Can you turn tourists into conservationists? How one tour operator is trying to close the “say-do” gap
RealNZ raised $270,000 for predator control and replaced invasive pines with about 30,000 native trees across the lake from Queenstown. Its chief executive says the hard part is getting visitors to care once they start comparing prices.
The Bruno Mars ticket glitch that only affected fans with disabilities
A Chicago reader filtered Ticketmaster for ADA seating and watched every seat he selected come back unavailable. The next day the same seats were available through resellers, at a markup.
Avis charged her for returning a car early. Then things got complicated
A medic working in the North Sea cut a rental in Spain short after a family emergency, and the bill nearly doubled. Avis called the extra charge an error, refunded most of it and kept about $130.
How to get a refund when your luxury hotel stay goes to the dogs
A Westin resort on Hilton Head Island caps pets at 40 pounds, two to a room, and then let shepherds and pointers ride the elevators. A Lifetime Titanium member wrote to the general manager and got silence.
Travel is lonelier than ever. Here’s why, and what to do about it.
Kiosks, QR codes and noise-canceling headphones removed nearly every point of human contact from a trip. Group travel is down 9 percent since 2020, and the average trip now carries fewer than two people.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Surf Air Mobility is a California-based air mobility platform. With its AI-enabled SurfOS software and electrification programs, Surf Air Mobility provides technology designed to support the modernization of air operations and the adoption of next-generation aircraft. Surf Air Mobility currently operates one of the largest commuter airlines in the United States by scheduled departures, which provides operational scale and real-world operating data to validate and deploy its software.
💬 What you’re saying
Two tickets, one hospitalized friend and a claim nobody has filed
Will our insurance cover this?
On Backchannel, Jim and a good friend went to Scandinavia in May on separate tickets, because they live in different cities and only met up at the destination. Near the end of the three-week trip his friend was hospitalized for four days, and the two of them flew home two days early. Jim paid more than he needed to for his own routing so he could stay with his friend as far as London, and he's holding two policies, one through Orbitz and one with TinLeg, without having filed on either. The doctor put it in writing that his friend should go home. Nobody wrote down that he needed company. Is there a better way to insure a trip you take together but book apart?
The comments on Sunday's story on the airport camera nobody gets angry about came down to one question: whether flying counts as a choice. JFKelley says it does, and that a camera on the way to a plane isn't the same as a camera on the way to the drugstore. Heather Dolstra lands in the same place from the other direction, arguing that anything inside a closed system that matches a passenger to a government ID is worth having. GradUT opts out at every checkpoint coast to coast, stands to the side of the camera and hands over a photo ID instead, and clocks the whole refusal at about five seconds longer than his spouse spends. Elizabeth U. wanted to do the same and gave up after TSA agents made her and her son wait an extra 20 minutes for a pat-down. Gerri Hether asks what the argument is even about, since New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. all took her picture before they would issue an ETA. And box_500 points out that the picture is already on the ID the machine is reading: “The powers that be have decided they don't want to allow anonymous travel. That's a bigger conversation.” Would you say no to the camera?
OUR UNDERWRITER
Travel Leaders Group is transforming travel through its progressive approach toward each unique travel experience. Travel Leaders Group assists millions of travelers through its leisure, business and network travel operations under a variety of diversified divisions and brands, including All Aboard Travel, Andrew Harper Travel, Colletts Travel, Corporate Travel Services, CruCon Cruise Outlet, Cruise Specialists, Nexion, Protravel International, SinglesCruise.com, Travel Leaders Corporate, Travel Leaders Network and Tzell Travel Group, and its merger with ALTOUR. With more than 7,000 agency locations and 52,000 travel advisors, Travel Leaders Group ranks as one of the industry’s largest retail travel agency companies.
The rest of this newsletter names names.
Our exclusive Members Only stories go beyond the alerts and to the detail: who's running the scams, what happens to your information, and what to do if you already gave it up. PRO subscribers get one in every issue, plus Backchannel, our private forum, where you can bring me your own case. It costs about a dollar a week through Labor Day.
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