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E L L I O T T' S TRAVEL NOTES
Travel news, opinion and analysis

March 1, 2004

Visa Offers Rental Coverage on Cards
Visa USA announced that it will provide car rental insurance to all of its credit card holders, effective today. The company, based in San Francisco, said the insurance - also known as collision damage waiver coverage - previously was available only for select cards. "As a result of these changes, an additional 75 million Visa card holders, and more than 185 million in total, will now benefit," said Al Banisch, senior vice president for Visa's consumer credit products. To get the coverage, consumers must use their Visa card when renting a car and decline the rental car company's offer of collision damage coverage. Visa estimates consumers will save $10 a day on insurance costs when they rent cars. AP | Posted 6:20 a.m.
-- LA Times: Do you need car rental insurance?
-- BBC: Avis Europe profits cut in half

• This is likely to hurt car rental companies. Insurance is one of the most profitable extras that customers are sold, and Visa's decision will just force more customers to say "no" to an offer of insurance. It's probably just as well. Send us your comments.

Jury Sides With Continental Employee
A federal court jury has awarded $250,000 to a former Continental Airlines worker, agreeing the Middle Eastern-born man was harassed because of his national origin. Nizar Kamal, who loaded and unloaded planes at the airline's hub at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport from 1990 through 2002, said his co-workers and supervisors used ethnic and racial slurs, posted demeaning cartoons and once locked him in a port-a-potty. Kamal, 48, was born in Lebanon to Jordanian parents and was raised in Kuwait before moving to the United States 30 years ago. He first complained about his working conditions to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in 1998. He sued Continental in 2001. PD | Posted 6:30 a.m.
<-- IO: Wants to be rehired (second item)

Bogus Insurance Claims 'Common'
Nearly eight million vacationers have tried to make a bogus claim on their travel insurance, a survey has found. The study, by Direct Line Travel Insurance, found 15% of respondents had made a fraudulent claim. The fraud is often in the form of extra items being added to a genuine claim, or the values of lost items are inflated, the survey found. Direct Line warned that dishonest claims could mean honest policyholders would end up paying more. BBC | Posted 6:40 a.m.
<-- Scotsman: Sunglasses tops list of fraud claims

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• And finally ... if you haven't already checked out the latest issue of Elliott's E-Mail this morning, you really should. The "all-controversy" edition is the most-read transmission of then newsletter, ever. Speaking of controversy, you won't want to miss my essay on weighing passengers that aired yesterday on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. Posted 6:50 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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