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Essential Reading

Editorial cartoon showing a confused balding middle-aged man in a white shirt and tie standing on his front lawn looking up at a small light blue mini refrigerator that has been mysteriously returned to his porch steps after being picked up by FedEx, illustrating how third-party seller returns can fail in unexpected ways

Walmart told me to donate my broken refrigerator — then things got strange

Editorial cartoon showing a worried gray-haired man at an outdoor table at a tropical resort with palm trees and ocean in the background, looking shocked at his laptop displaying "YOUR CREDIT SCORE" with a red downward-trending arrow, illustrating how a timeshare upgrade dispute caused his credit score to drop 43 points despite following the company's payment hold instructions

Help! My Hilton downgrade has left me in limbo

Watercolor editorial illustration of a father in a white shirt and red tie standing with his young son who carries a backpack at an American Airlines departure gate, with an American Airlines plane visible through the window beyond the closed gate door, illustrating how families get separated when airlines pull passengers from boarding lines and document involuntary bumping as voluntary

American Airlines claims I voluntarily gave up my seat, but that’s a lie

Editorial cartoon showing an anxious traveler in a blue polo shirt grimacing as he stuffs a large purple roller suitcase into an open green airport trash can, with empty seating areas and large glass windows visible in the background, illustrating the increasing trend of travelers abandoning their luggage at airports to avoid baggage fees

The great luggage abandonment: Why travelers are ditching their bags at the airport

Editorial cartoon showing a man with glasses standing in front of a store shelf filled with bottles, looking up at a digital sign that displays "YOUR PRICE: $5.99" in red LED letters with a green arrow, illustrating how surveillance pricing creates personalized prices based on consumer data

Don’t ban surveillance pricing. Here’s how to fix it.

Cartoon of a frustrated traveler with arms crossed standing between two suitcases in an empty airport gate area, beneath a large red departures sign reading "FLIGHT DOES NOT EXIST."

Booking.com said my flight was confirmed, but the airline says it never existed

Lindley Kinerk’s last morning in Dresden seemed routine. She and her companions packed up, checked out, and headed to the airport for their 8:25 a.m. flight home to Boston. They had even gotten a friendly check-in reminder from Booking.com the night before. Then they reached the counter and learned something that would cost them nearly $6,000: their flight did not exist. Not that morning, not any morning. It had been off the airline’s schedule for months. Booking.com, it seems, had quietly rebooked them on an earlier flight and never said a word, and the airline insisted the whole thing was not its problem. With a third ticketing agency tangled into the booking and every company pointing at the others, Kinerk had to buy new tickets on the spot just to get home. What she did next, and what Booking.com eventually said about her money, is where this case turns.