Nobody books this seat. Plenty of people end up in it. (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
🧾 Last trip — Toni Fleisher was on a family vacation in Puerto Vallarta when her husband died in their hotel room. She doesn’t speak Spanish, and the doctor on duty refused to sign the death certificate. Our featured article begins in that emergency room. It’s the trip nobody plans for.
Over on Backchannel, Jamie Gray walked away from a flight to Honduras after American Airlines employees told her that her three dogs could never come back into the United States. Eight months later, nobody at the airline will name the law. Is there one? I’ll have the answer.
Confidentially: A sweepstakes call cost a 75-year-old Florida woman $25,310, and the person who showed up at her front door was a flight attendant flying standby. How does a prize call end on your doorstep?
By the way, you’re reading half of this newsletter. The other half, including today’s Confidentially report, belongs to PRO members. Here’s how to subscribe.
— Christopher Elliott
FEATURED ARTICLE
What happens when you die on vacation?
The State Department counted 6,062 deaths of U.S. citizens abroad in a single year, and the number keeps climbing. One widow in Puerto Vallarta couldn’t get a doctor to sign her husband’s death certificate. Another paid $11,000 to bring her husband home from a cruise. What happens to the people you leave behind?
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.
📌 Here’s what you missed this week
Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report
What happens when you die on vacation?
The State Department counted 6,062 deaths of U.S. citizens abroad in 2022, nearly 10% more than the year before. Families without repatriation coverage have paid $6,000 to $20,000 to bring someone home, and in a country with weak consumer protection laws a funeral director can bill 10 to 20 times what the same service costs in North America.
Amazon locked my account after a hacker stole my gift cards. Can I get my money back?
Joanne Crissey, a senior citizen in Tinley Park, Ill., got two notices that the phone number and email address on her Amazon account had been changed, and she had requested neither. Amazon restored the email weeks later but never the phone number, which left her locked out while a hacker drained her $255 gift card balance and a delivery she never ordered showed up at her door.
A blizzard canceled my flight. Why won’t Road Scholar refund my $5,999 trip?
Karen Carano, a registered nurse from Garrison, N.Y., let Road Scholar book the airfare for a 14-day program in Chile and Argentina, then watched a historic blizzard take out her departure. The replacement flights the tour operator found would have put her in South America three or four days late, and when they disappeared, Road Scholar kept the $5,999 program fee on the grounds that she had canceled inside 24 hours.
Amazon deleted his 25-year history. Here is how he got it back.
Rafael Guimaraes, a business jet pilot based in Brazil, lost a 25-year-old Amazon account, his Prime membership and an $800 Kindle library after his bank declined a $650 purchase in Costa Rica. Amazon’s American and German operations each told him the other one owned the problem, and the password recovery page demanded a phone number he had never had.
Holiday flights are packed. Board last anyway.
Air travel is heading for its busiest holiday season on record, with the average domestic Thanksgiving round trip at $402, up 31% from last year, and most major U.S. airlines charging about $10 more for a checked bag. Frequent fliers who board last and deplane last say rushing saves them nothing, because everyone ends up waiting at the same baggage carousel.
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.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Faye Travel Insurance provides whole-trip travel coverage and care that brings out the best in each journey with industry-leading technology that enables smarter, faster, smoother assistance and claims resolutions. Our robust travel insurance covers your health, your trip, your stuff, and even your pet, via an app that provides real-time proactive solutions, quick reimbursements and 24/7 support from anywhere in the world. Wherever you go, we’re there too, taking care of the details so you can make the most of each moment, with the only travel protection that is by your side and on your side every step of the way.
💬 What you’re asking on Backchannel
She had the vet paperwork. The airline had a law nobody can find.
Jamie Gray got to Dallas-Fort Worth with her two daughters, her three dogs and a year of planning behind a permanent move to Roatán, Honduras. Three American Airlines employees and a supervisor told her that U.S. immigration law would never let the dogs back into the country, so she didn’t board. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later told her no such ban exists. Eight months on, she’s out about $40,000 and still waiting for someone at the airline to name the law. What’s her next move? Here’s our team’s advice on Backchannel.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Flying Angels provide medical transport anywhere in the world on commercial airlines with a Flight Nurse or Doctor. A Flight Coordinator handles the logistics. The client receives care during the entire transport—bedside to bedside. Visit FlyingAngels.com or call 877-265-1085 to speak with a flight coordinator.
CONFIDENTIALLY
Information and insights for Elliott Confidential PRO subscribers
Sweepstakes scams usually stay on the phone. This one booked a flight.
A flight attendant, a fake sweepstakes and a $25,000 loss
Detectives say a Brooklyn flight attendant used her standby benefits to collect in person from a 75-year-old Palm Coast woman who believed she had won Publishers Clearing House.
Sweepstakes scams usually stay on the phone. This one took a flight.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in Florida recently announced the arrest of Destiny Blake, 24, an American Airlines flight attendant from Brooklyn, New York.
The rest of this exclusive report is for members only.
Behind this line: what detectives found on the victim’s credit card after that 15-minute visit, and the note left behind in her house telling her what to say if the card company called. Plus, the five calls to make tonight if this is happening to someone in your family.
A Members Only story like this runs in every issue, along with Backchannel and the vault.
Detectives say she used her standby travel benefits to visit the home of a 75-year-old Palm Coast woman during a scheme that cost the victim about $25,310. U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested Blake when she landed at Miami International Airport on an international flight. She faces charges that include organized scheme to defraud and grand theft. She was released on a $30,000 bond, and the charges haven’t been proven in court.
According to the sheriff’s office, it started in November 2025 with a call from someone claiming to represent Publishers Clearing House. The woman was told she’d won. To collect, she mailed a $500 gift card to “Destiny Blake” in Brooklyn. Around the same time, someone took over her email account and moved it to a look-alike address. Over five days she withdrew more than $14,000. Blake received $14,220 in cash and Zelle payments.
On Nov. 18, Blake flew standby from New York to Daytona Beach and spent the night in a Palm Coast hotel. The next morning, an Uber dropped her at the victim’s house shortly before 11 a.m. She left 15 minutes later.