The jet bridge isn’t going anywhere. Neither is your seat. (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
🐢 Let ‘em run — This holiday season is on track to be the busiest on record for air travel. It’s also the priciest in a decade, and higher bag fees mean more carry-ons fighting for the same overhead bins. Some of the most seasoned travelers I know have quit the scrum. Our featured article explains why they board last.
On Backchannel, Hamdan Muhammad has four receipts for his Google Play gift cards and two cards that still won’t work.
Confidentially: One collector’s text to a borrower in British Columbia ended with “Financial annihilation imminent.” A Canadian regulator has now made the company pay. An American borrower facing the same threat might have less protection than you’d expect. The details are exclusive to paid subscribers. — Christopher Elliott
FEATURED ARTICLE
Holiday flights are packed. Board last anyway.
The average domestic Thanksgiving fare is up 31% from last year, and pricier checked bags will push more luggage into the cabin. On a recent flight from Queenstown, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, I watched an elderly passenger shove the woman in front of him and curse at her to move. A growing number of frequent fliers want no part of that scene. What do the last-on, last-off travelers know?
OUR UNDERWRITER
EMBARK Beyond is a luxury travel advisory dedicated to creating thoughtfully designed experiences that go beyond a destination. Focused first on client needs, we have built (and continue to build!) relationships with the world’s most sought-after lifestyle and fashion brands to open the world - beyond imagination - to our clients. Find out more at EMBARK Beyond.
FORBES EXCLUSIVE
Safari travelers face new insurance requirements, but are they enough?
Government insurance in Tanzania and Kenya cost around $44 per person, yet they exclude trip cancellation, trip interruption, and high evacuation limits. Here’s what you need for your next safari.
📌 Here’s what you missed this week
Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report
Look who decided your airline seat is big enough
The Federal Aviation Administration told Congress this summer that it sees no reason to set a minimum seat size, closing out a fight that ran through two congressional mandates, a federal appeals court and 26,100 public comments. Its own peer reviewers at the National Academies had already found that the research behind that answer can’t establish whether cramped seating slows an evacuation.
Let’s end the gotcha clause that’s making your hotel room more expensive
Hilary Azzaretti found the same rate on a Croatian hotel’s own website and on Expedia, with better cancellation terms from the booking site, so she handed her reservation to the middleman. A lawsuit filed in Seattle says Expedia’s lodging contract bars a hotel from selling for less on its own site, which builds a commission of 15% or more into the rate you pay everywhere.
Secret tunnels, breathing lamps: How Capella created a sustainable resort in Sydney
Anthony Metcalfe runs a 192-room hotel inside Sydney’s restored 1915 Department of Education building, where a shared tunnel between two heritage landmarks let the developer avoid a new excavation and the turndown gift comes from a female-owned business on Groote Eylandt. Seven years of restoration produced a luxury hotel that hands guests a QR code pointing them to somebody else’s coffee shop.
Samsung sent my broken projector back and called the case completed. Is there a way out?
William Hunt bought a $365 Samsung Freestyle projector that stopped working eight months into its one-year warranty. The authorized repair center found the unit defective and couldn’t source the parts, so Samsung closed the ticket, mailed the broken projector back and marked the service completed. Two months of calls, emails and an executive complaint produced nothing until he sent a demand letter citing the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
American Airlines promised me a $650 refund for bumping me. Why did it only give me a $250 credit?
Nicholle Acciarri was denied boarding on an oversold flight from New York to Cleveland, and a gate agent promised her a $650 check or reimbursement for a rental car. She rented the car, drove home and received a $250 flight credit that expires in a year. American Airlines now says an equipment downgrade disqualifies her, even after one supervisor found records showing she was eligible for $353.
UPS broke my flowerpots and now it’s stonewalling my refund. Can the A-Team help?
Linda Takvorian paid $377 to have two ceramic planters packed, insured and shipped from Massachusetts to California. One arrived shattered. A UPS Store employee promised a full refund within eight weeks, then was fired for giving bad information, leaving the store to offer $100 because the claim window had closed.
OUR UNDERWRITER
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💬 What you’re asking on Backchannel
He kept every receipt. Google still won’t say what’s wrong.
Hamdan Muhammad bought several Google Play gift cards from the reseller Dundle, sent Google four receipts and still can’t use two of them. Google says it found “inconsistencies” on his account but won’t say what they are, because that would expose its fraud-detection methods. Who owes him his money, Google or the company that sold him the cards? Here’s our team’s advice on Backchannel.
OUR UNDERWRITER
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CONFIDENTIALLY
Information and insights for Elliott Confidential PRO subscribers
Most collection texts are boring. This one promised exile.
Canadian regulator fines debt collector that threatened “financial annihilation”
British Columbia ordered Toledo Credit to pay $34,000 in penalties over texts that threatened borrowers with police, blacklisting and “reputational destruction.” Here’s how far the same protections reach in the U.S.
I’ve read a lot of collection letters over the years. I’ve never seen anything like the messages Toledo Credit sent to borrowers in British Columbia.
One text warned that a borrower’s file would go to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canada Revenue Agency and provincial crime units unless the person paid. It ended with “Financial annihilation imminent.” Other messages promised “financial exile” and “reputational destruction.”
The rest of this exclusive report is for members only.
Behind this line: whether U.S. law would stop a lender that talks like Toledo Credit, and how the calling rules differ on each side of the border. Plus, six things to do if a debt collector harasses you.
A Members Only story like this runs in every issue, along with Backchannel and the vault.