Author Archives: Christopher Elliott

Help, my car rental company is charging me for a burnt clutch

bumpy roadQuestion: My husband rented a car from Hertz in Madrid last summer. The car broke while he was on his way back to the airport, and he had to abandon it by the side of the road in order to make his flight back to the States.

He informed the Hertz people at the airport what had happened and they told him it was fine and the car would be retrieved. Three weeks later, we received a letter that there was 850 euro charge for a burnt clutch on our credit card. We tried to contact Hertz Spain, both before and after the bill, to ensure the car had been collected and everything was fine but they didn’t answer the phone or respond to emails.
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An Aeromexico refund runaround with a surprise ending

aeromexicoExtracting a promised refund from an airline can be hard work. At times, it can even be impossible — or close to it.

All of which makes Michael Levin’s case so remarkable. He and two friends were scheduled to fly from Sacramento, Calif., to Mexico late last year, and their flight was overbooked. Aeromexico offered them a ticket voucher or a refund, and they chose the refund.

What happened next may help you if you ever need to get a refund from an intransigent airline.
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Two live travel events you just can’t afford to miss!

IvankaNS/Shutterstock
IvankaNS/Shutterstock
This is a special Memorial Day edition of Elliott’s E-Mail, my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe by email and receive the complete edition, please sign up here.

□ SOCIAL NETWORK OF THE WEEK

Please add me to your circles on Google Plus, because there’s something truly interesting happening today, and you’re going to want to follow me in order to get it. More on that in a sec. Here’s a link to my Google Plus account. Oh, and did I mention I’m giving stuff away on my G+ account every week? Yep, I sure am. See you there!

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The mystery of the reappearing $400 cancellation fee

Traj4/Shutterstock
Traj4/Shutterstock
Question: We signed up for a two-year contract with DirecTV back in the fall of 2011. At about the same time, DirecTV released new equipment called the Genie. I called up to see if we could get the new equipment and was told we could. There was no mention of a contract extension for the new equipment.

In January of this year, we were looking to cut some costs and we looked at lowering our DirecTV package to save some money. I called customer service and asked to get switched to a less expensive package. I also asked if my new customer credits would be affected and they said they would not be affected if I changed programming. So as a result, I went through with the change.
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48 comments

Is anyone really listening to your TSA complaints?

Champion Studio/Shutterstock
Champion Studio/Shutterstock
With only a few weeks left to leave your comments about the TSA’s controversial passenger screening methods, here’s a question worth asking: Is anyone listening?

If you said, “not really,” then maybe you know Theresa Putkey, a consultant from Vancouver. She had a run-in with a TSA agent recently after trying to opt out of a full-body scan, and sent a complaint letter to the agency assigned to protect America’s transportation systems.

Here’s the form response from the TSA:
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“Let’s go out on the tarmac and deal with this, just you and I, right here, right now”

american air2Depending on your point of view, Sean Hillen’s case is either an example of an airline crewmember on a power trip or a passenger behaving badly.

Or maybe both.

Hillen wants me to mediate his case with American Airlines after he and his wife were removed from an American Airlines flight from Santo Domingo to Miami.

When the Hillens boarded American flight 662 on Feb. 27, he asked a “steward” for help stowing his bags. The crewmember refused.
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201 comments

Would you let the next big airline merger happen? Honestly, would you?

Denise Kappa / Shutterstock.com
Denise Kappa / Shutterstock.com

This is the online version of Elliott’s E-Mail, my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe by email and receive the complete edition, please sign up here.

□ SOCIAL NETWORK OF THE WEEK

You’re gonna want to follow me over on Twitter right now. Seriously. Just do it! I’ll tell you why: It’s one component of a really cool and innovative multi-media, multi-platform initiative that I’m starting soon. It’ll be fun. Promise!
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