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E
L L I O T T' S TRAVEL
NOTES
Travel news, opinion and analysis
April 28, 2004
Beware
of Hidden Car Rental Charges
My jaw dropped
when the car rental attendant told me that my final rental bill was almost
$100 over the estimated rental cost. We had rented one of those giant
SUVs for a weeklong family vacation in Phoenix. (I won’t even begin to
talk about how much gas we had to feed that beast of a car over the week.)
The rental agent showed me a list of fees and taxes, which added up to
the total as he explained that estimates often don’t consider average
fees and taxes. I left Phoenix feeling like the car rental company
had pulled one over on me. It turns out that several U.S. cities really
do rack up the fees and taxes. According to a study issued by Travelocity,
the average car renter pays an extra 24.4 percent when renting a car
at a major US airport. About.com
| Posted 7 a.m.
-- Centre
Daily: Car rental companies fight taxes
-- Pioneer
Press: Rental companies in it for profit
• The fees aren't new. But the fervency with which they're applied, is, as I recently reported. Send us your comments.
Credit
Card Pursues Travel Agent
A credit card company filed new papers in Northampton County Court
to force travel agent Ronni Spoll to pay a $43,000 credit card debt.
Prosecutors say Spoll, 55, of Palmer Township, took at least $668,000
from her clients to book trips between January 2003 and January 2004
and never made the reservations. Investigators have said this figure could
surpass $1 million as more victims come forward with complaints. MBNA
America of Delaware filed papers Feb. 23 to collect the $42,000 debt.
According to papers filed Monday, the credit card company won an arbitration
hearing awarding the $42,000 but Spoll has yet to pay off the debt. Express
Times | Posted 7:10 a.m.
Money-Losing
US Airways De-Hubs
As part
of a new plan to cut costs and counter its low-fare rivals, US Airways
is planning a "de-emphasis" in markets, such as Pittsburgh and Charlotte,
that depend on connecting passengers. That disclosure, made for the first
time yesterday, came as the nation's seventh-largest airline reported
a net loss of $177 million for the first quarter of 2004, improving
on its numbers from a year ago but still far from the company's goal of
sustained profitability. A week after replacing David Siegel with Wall
Street veteran Bruce Lakefield as chief executive officer, the Arlington,
Va.-based carrier has embarked on a recovery plan involving unspecified,
across-the-board cost cuts and an increase in East Coast operations, especially
in high-traffic areas such as New York, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia,
where low-fare rival Southwest Airlines begins service next month. Post-Gazette
| Posted 7:25 a.m.
-- Tribune-Review:
Without cuts, US Airways will default
-----------------------------------
• And finally ... here's a cool travel site that "shows" you where you are, based on satellite maps. It also gives you relevant demographic data. My only complaint about Terrafly is that it's terribly slow. Posted 7:30 a.m. | Send us your comments.
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