⏱️ This is your last chance to get 40 percent off a PRO subscription
Today is the last day of our Labor Day sale. You’ve already talked me into offering a deeper discount, so I knocked an extra 10 percent off our sale price.
This is your last chance to get 40 percent off a PRO subscription.
My team and I have worked overtime this summer to upgrade this newsletter. We’ve opened a new private forum, modernized the design and added new features to the newsletter site. It’s now the perfect travel companion.
Here's what you'll get:
Members only reports. An exclusive, fully researched dispatch in every issue, including today's look at who decides which cruise ship crimes ever reach the public.
A private Backchannel. Direct access to three private channels where we answer all your consumer questions.
The keys to our vault. Unrestricted access to every book and guide I've written, including How To Be The World's Smartest Traveler.
Annual access is normally $85. Take 40 percent off through midnight — that's $34 off — and get a full year for just $51. That’s less than $1 a week. — Christopher Elliott
Do you really need all of that coverage? (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
🧾 You may be insured twice — Your credit card, your health plan and your homeowner's policy already cover pieces of your trip, and travelers keep buying those pieces again at checkout. One accountant audited hers and saved lots of money. You can read the full story today.
On Backchannel, Henry Schulman lands in Munich next Tuesday and wants to know what Europe's new border checks will be like. We have an answer.
For Members Only: The government's latest cruise crime report counts 50 alleged crimes across every line, and Carnival Cruise Line accounts for 20 of them. The lines decide for themselves which incidents go into that report. So what do the numbers tell you about which ship is safe? — Christopher Elliott
FEATURED ARTICLE
How to save money on travel insurance without giving up the coverage you need
Debra Beasley has spent thousands of dollars on travel insurance and still isn't sure what all of it bought her. Travelers report premiums running 10 to 20 percent above last year, and every booking screen offers her one more policy. Insurance executives and financial advisers say most people are paying a second time for coverage they already carry. How do you cut the bill without cutting your safety net?
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
How to save money on travel insurance without giving up the coverage you need
Travelers report premiums running 10 to 20 percent above last year, and a Fort Collins accountant had spent thousands before she checked what her credit card and health plan already covered. Insurance executives and financial advisers explain where the overlap hides and when an annual policy beats buying trip by trip.
How to find $4,762 when Comcast says it’s gone
A San Francisco reader meant to pay her credit card and sent $4,762 to Comcast by mistake. The refund came back on a prepaid debit card, and by the time she checked the balance it read $82, with no transaction list anyone could produce to explain it.
Banned by JetBlue after booking through the wrong website
A caregiver who flies Hartford to Fort Lauderdale twice a month paid $468 through a site called Farehub. JetBlue’s records show the ticket was bought with someone else’s travel voucher, and an agent stopped her at the gate.
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.
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 on Backchannel
How long do you have to wait in Munich?
Wie lange muss ich warten?
Henry Schulman flies into Munich next Tuesday and can’t tell whether Europe’s entry-exit checks will cost him five minutes at the border or an hour. He’s read about long delays at German airports, and he wants to hear from members who have been through it in the past few weeks. Has the wait gotten any shorter? See what our team told him on Backchannel.
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.
Subscribe to Elliott Confidential PRO to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Elliott Confidential to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. You'll be a smarter traveler!
UpgradeA subscription gets you:
- Full access to our members-only content.
- The key to our private community on our Backchannel forum.
- All my books.