News and notes from around the interweb:
- Avis claims a customer drove 29,000 miles in three days, charging her $8,079.76. Should’ve booked an unlimited miles rate. (HT: Paul H)
- Free trips for relatives of members of Congress
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, leads the list of frequent fliers with 45 trips since 2012. Lee has brought her grandson, spouse, sister, two daughters-in-law and two children on trips to Beijing, Berlin, two locales in Africa, as well as Istanbul, Israel and other destinations — with the family always flying business class and staying in five-star accommodations.
…U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican, took his wife Jeanne Lamborn on nearly every privately funded trip he took between 2012 and 2023.
- Airline rejects passport over small coffee stain (HT: Paul H)
- Hyatt is offering double points on stays in Europe, Africa, the Middle East & Asia Pacific between October 7 and December 20, 2024, starting with the second stay. Members can earn up to 20,000 bonus points and registration is required.
- What’s grosser than gross?
Found a surprise when I opened my table on my flight. Fortunately it wasn't fresh…. and yeah, those are chunks… @AmericanAir pic.twitter.com/aFtQ3TiIH9
— Ted Lyons (@HaaveYouMetMe) September 25, 2024
- DOT complaint that American Airlines markets ‘first checked bag free’ with its co-brand credit cards, while failing to disclose that the benefit is limited to wholly domestic trips.
AA's offer is actually even worse than what you describe: You correctly describe the actual AA offer (only on entirely domestic itineraries). But AA's marketing gets this wrong: Calls it "first checked bag free". Blue boxes below. Details at https://t.co/R7BY0TM2ad pic.twitter.com/43ZjX2LQg0
— Ben Edelman (@bgedelman) September 25, 2024
Crappy organizations like Avis (and definitely Hertz) are why we need stronger consumer protections.
The AA free bag policy has been a sore point with me for years. I never understood the limitation. What does it matter if I’m flying TPA to LAX or MIA to SJO, it isn’t like it costs more. The same policy applies to status holders. The only way to get free international bags is have at least one leg as business/first.
You really need to read the fine print .
First checked bag free
For benefit to apply, the Citi® / AAdvantage® account must be open 7 days prior to air travel, and reservation must include the primary credit cardmember’s American Airlines AAdvantage® number 7 days prior to air travel. If your credit card account is closed for any reason, these benefits will be cancelled.
Eligible Citi® / AAdvantage® primary credit cardmembers may check one bag free of charge when traveling on domestic itineraries marketed and operated by American Airlines, or on domestic itineraries marketed by American Airlines and operated as American Eagle® flights by Envoy Air Inc., Republic Airways Inc., SkyWest Airlines, Inc., Air Wisconsin Airlines, PSA Airlines, Inc., or Piedmont Airlines, Inc. All flights on the itinerary must be domestic flights marketed by American Airlines and operated by American Airlines or American Eagle. This benefit will not be available for travel on codeshare flights booked with an American Airlines flight number but operated by another airline. For the Citi® / AAdvantage® card, up to eight (8) companions traveling with the eligible primary credit cardmember will also get their first checked bag free of charge if they are listed in the same reservation. Waiver does not apply to overweight or oversized bags. This benefit cannot be combined with any existing AAdvantage® program benefits, or with First or Business class benefits, including any waiver of baggage charges. Please see aa.com/baggage » for baggage weight and size restrictions. Applicable terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.
First checked bag free
on domestic American Airlines itineraries for the primary cardmember and up to 4 companions traveling with you on the same reservation.2
2 Conditions and limitations apply. Please refer to the Introductory Bonus Offer section within the Terms and Conditions for additional information about this introductory offer. Please refer to the Reward Rules within the Terms and Conditions for additional information about the rewards program. Annual Companion Certificate may not be achievable based on the assigned credit line and ability to maintain that credit line.
It literally says “TERMS APPLY” on the AA napkin. Ben Edelman is a notorious prick who didn’t get tenure at Harvard because he complained about being charged $4 from a chinese takeout restaurant and then tried to bilk said restaurant treble damages (lol $12) for this. This loser deserves to lose!
Where does it say you can bring a free bag on a trip to SYD from DFW in Economy for you and your 16 kids?
Love it when people do not read the contact and terms and then say they got Screwed over.
Sounds like they are using AI billing (there is not intelligence in AI)
The stain story is about being careful with your passport so the airline doesn’t reject it. I think that the airline had sufficient cause to reject it. If the passenger continues to fly with that passport, they may run into trouble again.
The car rental story has incorrect conversions from kilometers to miles although the distances are still impossible to achieve in a road vehicle. It should also be noted that the charges are in CAD not USD since the airport is YYZ. I have rented cars at YYZ several times and drive them across the border.
Corruption is common with politicians. Some politicians are more adept at it than others. Few politicians are willing to put in rules that would lead to the prosecution of their most corrupt colleagues.
That Avis Reciept is from August 13 2022 to August 16 2022 . TWO years ago. Is this a Fox news joke? The Odometer was
Out 77,224
In 48,170
A Key punch error for sure. This is why you ALWAYS get a receipt when you drop the car off.
The rental car customer should ask Avis to pay them $8,000 since:
“The receipt Avis gave Giovanna Boniface reads, “Odometer Out: 77224 Odometer In: 48170”
I have the.occasional AVIS multi-thousand or multi-ten-thousand errors. Never an issue with the unlimited miles rate.
30 years ago I had 1800 miles in two weeks on a Budget car – small city desk. Only time I ever got a negative reaction when checking in. Maybe the policies/rules.were.different then and a franchisee took a hit or something.
Ahh….. So Adams’ mistake was thinking the Federal corruption perks apply to state officials. Live and learn.
@tomri- if the bag is only free for domestic marketed and operated flights, then why market it in the sales path of the international ticket purchases (and also the codeshare flights, which is how I got caught)? Also, note the marketing is pretty clear – “Get your first bag free”- no asterisks or disclosures, other than terms apply.
To me, that’s a very clear bait and switch- if they aren’t offering a free bag with the card on this purchase, they shouldn’t put it in the purchase path and claim they are offering a free bag.
Thing 1- actually, I think the Adams crime was not disclosing the perk- looks like it’s legal to take bribes, as long as people know you are taking them, or you wash it through a 3rd party company, like Kushner.
I say the person shouldn’t pay AVIS’s shady extortion and they should give AVIS the middle finger and tell them *Not Happening*
Am I missing something? Was Ben Edelman charged for his first checked bag on an international AA flight?
Or is he just complaining that he didn’t need the credit card to have his first bag checked free, because AA allows that to almost all passengers on international flights anyway?
Please disregard my previous comment, as it contains errors.
I did note that 48,170 miles is 77,522 km. If the car had 77,224 km out (though out and in are reversed), the driver did 298 km, a reasonable 3 day count.
Oops sorry. If it is miles for one and km for the other, in and out now make sense if you make both km.
I called and made a complaint with Avis recently over arguments I had with their Avis staff at Tampa Airport over their receipt policy. Stories like this just emphasize why I “insist” on getting a receipt “before” I leave with the car and also when I return it. At TPA, the staff at the Avis Preferred booth wouldn’t give me a receipt when I asked. They just lazily passed the buck and told me to get it from the guy at the gate booth on the way out. We were the only customers at the Preferred booth, no one behind us, and they still wouldn’t make the minimal effort to print one. When I get there, the guy at the gate booth rudely said he couldn’t give me a receipt. He also wouldn’t give me one of those those receipts they have for some damage I pointed out was on the car, he just told me to take a photo. After arguing with that rude jerk at the gate booth, I end up driving back to the Preferred booth. This time, miraculously, the guy who wouldn’t give me a receipt before when I asked first time I was there, now all of a sudden prints one in 2 seconds after I told him the jerk at the gate booth wouldn’t print one for me. I complained to their manager about all this and about their attitude and also to the Avis customer care. Never heard back with any follow up. Avis has really bottom of the barrel customer service,, especially at major Airports. I am not surprised at all by this story at all.
Passports are meant to take abuse.
For a time (three years) I was traveling so hard that passport was usually in my back pocket, bent and worn, with additional pages added by the local embassy.
The reality: The agents in the story were just being dicks. Unnecessarily so, but dicks nonetheless.
Now WHY would they be dicks?
Likely the worked for a company that are critically insane rule followers… who are terrified not to follow the rules because if they don’t follow them exactly, they will get fired.
You see this in Mexico, you see this in China, you see this in outsourced service provider companies.
(Example: Chinese hotels that won’t take US currency if the have a crease in them… because they have been told not to accept “worn or old” currency.)
It creates imaginary bureaucratic requirements that creates roadblocks.
Fight the power.