🌀 Do you know the drill? — Hello from Seoul, where they held a nationwide 20-minute civil defense air-raid drill. My ears are still ringing.

Speaking of being on high alert, today's featured article is about how a hurricane spinning hundreds of miles offshore can still wreak havoc on your vacation. You’ll definitely want to read it before you go anywhere in the next few weeks.

On Backchannel, we’re sharing our storm stories today. Mine involves three hurricanes that hit my part of Florida in six weeks back in 2004. I’d love to know what happened to you. Tell me your storm story.

And in our Members Only section, the FTC just staked out its clearest position yet on personalized pricing—charging you more based on what your data says about you. I'll walk through what the draft policy means the next time you shop for a flight or a hotel room. You can access the information by upgrading your subscription. — Christopher Elliott

Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report

Why a hurricane that misses you can still ruin your vacation, and what to do about it
A storm a thousand miles away can ground your flight, and a resort that reopens too fast can hide mold and rotted decking. Insurers stop covering a storm the moment it gets a name.

My Alfa Romeo’s dashboard is falling apart and the warranty won’t cover it
A 2019 Stelvio with a dashboard pulling away from the air vents, and a service contract that covers interior surfaces damaged by wear and tear. Mopar denied the claim, citing an exclusion list that appears nowhere in the policy.

Help! Delta downgraded us and refused to pay for a place to sleep
Two passengers over 75 missed their connection in Atlanta and rented a nap room in the terminal on an agent’s advice. Delta denied the reimbursement, then downgraded the Comfort+ seats they had paid for.

Avis said she smoked in her rental car, but she had an alibi
A $450 deep cleaning fee for smoke damage, backed by photos of what looked like water spots. Both women in the car are breast cancer survivors, and neither smokes.

No-service summer: Why your vacation feels so cheap (but costs so much)
A first-class cabin with no meal and a $500 hotel room with no coffee maker. Companies cut service instead of raising prices after the pandemic, then found no reason to bring it back.

A child wouldn’t buckle up, so Porter Airlines canceled the entire flight
A crew found a young child standing on a seat after the plane pushed back in Victoria, British Columbia. The airfield closed at 12:30 a.m., everyone deplaned, and the airline still hasn’t said which category it filed the cancellation under.

States are doubling down on consumer protections. But why do airlines get a pass?
Washington has stopped fining airlines, so states and cities are writing the consumer rules instead. A 1978 law keeps every one of them out of the airport.

Storm stories and a warranty with a list nobody gets to see

I’m asking members for their storm stories, and I went first. Three hurricanes hit Central Florida in six weeks in 2004: Charley, then Frances, then Jeanne. I sat through all of them while mailing a brand new Travel Troubleshooter column to newspaper editors who mostly weren’t writing back. What I want to know is what happened to you. If you were traveling when a storm hit, did the airline, hotel or cruise line do right by you, or did you end up sorting it out alone? Tell me your storm story.

Over on the Elliott Report, the Alfa Romeo dashboard case drew a lot of ire from readers. What set them off was Mopar’s internal exclusion list, the one that appears nowhere in the warranty the owner paid for. 7cats mom said a secret list like that skates close to fraud, and that the company has landed on a list of her own now. George Schulman said anyone who writes a contract is already supposed to name every exclusion in it, and this one wasn’t a close call. Should a warranty company get to keep a list you never see?