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Bethanne spent 8 months trapped between United and Turkish Airlines after a baggage fee dispute — even after United admitted in writing her ticket included 30kg free baggage, the airline’s frontline team still denied her claim.

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Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report

Have we forgotten the lessons of 9/11?
Gateside by TSA PreCheck lets vetted travelers without tickets clear the checkpoint at 13 airports, and it arrives alongside the end of the shoe rule and a review of the liquids limit. A 2019 GAO audit found that none of nine vulnerabilities identified through covert testing had been formally resolved.

Pace the frontier? In travel, AI is already making our lives miserable
Air Canada’s chatbot told Jake Moffatt he could claim a bereavement discount after he flew, which wasn’t the airline’s policy, and the airline argued to a tribunal that the chatbot answered for itself. Algorithms already set your airfare and rank who gets the last seat out of a meltdown, and nothing requires anyone to tell you where you stand.

Is travel insurance useless in a crisis? Here’s what you need to know
Janice Lintz filed a claim after civil unrest in Nepal closed the airspace and canceled her flights, and her credit card policy denied it because no one had classified the protests as terrorism. Security memberships are absorbing the demand that insurance won’t, with one provider reporting nonmedical evacuation requests up 31% in a year.

Rover left my dog home alone for 17 hours, and now it refuses to pay the vet bill
Luke Gilbertson’s Ring camera caught his Rover sitter shut into another room for 17 of the 24 hours she was booked, while his dog, Stewie, vomited and later needed care for a swallowed object. Rover denied the $5,272 claim as an illness of undetermined cause and sent him $276 for the sitting.

Can Princess Cruises charge you more after you paid in full?
Deborah Keck paid $1,449 to upgrade to a suite on the Star Princess and got a confirmation marked paid in full with a zero balance. Princess added $3,967 to the booking months later, then told her to pay it, give up the cabin or lose the cruise.

Frontier Airlines baggage fees: When the sizer says yes but the agent says no
Benjamin Khoury measured his carry-on before a Frontier Airlines flight from Dallas to Phoenix and photographed it sitting inside the gate sizer. Frontier charged him $99 for an oversized personal item, then spent three months not answering questions about the photo.

Analog travel: why film cameras and paper maps are back
Bob Gourley shot a trip to Muscat, Oman, on 36 frames of film and hired a travel advisor instead of booking it himself. New research from ALG Vacations found that among travelers who use AI to plan a trip, about 77% still want a human making the final call.

Amy Robinson booked a San Antonio to San Jose trip through Priceline, and weather over Denver sent her plane to Grand Junction, Colorado, where the crew timed out and the passengers slept on the floor by the gate. The rebooking she was offered would have landed her a full day late, so she paid at the counter for a seat to San Francisco and flew home without her luggage. Who owes her the money — the airline or Priceline? Here’s our team’s advice on Backchannel.