Skipped Flight, Hired a Serbian Bodyguard—Traveler Hunts Down Stolen iPhone in Vienna [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Skipped a flight from Berlin to New York to track down an iPhone with the help of a mercenary Serbian.

  • Instacart Driver bought $1.3k in RedBull and Monster and stole it, Instacart refusing to refund.

    On Sunday we ordered $1.3k of food for a family of 5. Rather than buying what we ordered, the shopper bought Redbulls and Monsters. He delivered a bag of carrots, one thing seltzer waters, and a bag of clementines.

    Instacart is claiming he made the delivery and cancelled our account. They’re refusing to refund us. The manager of the Costco said she agreed it was obvious theft but can’t help. …Update: we filed a police report and sent it to our credit card and Instacart. About 2hr later they gave us a refund.

    Proof of delivery for $1,250 worth of not what they ordered:

    View post on imgur.com

    How is this for an egregious mandatory hotel add-on fee? The Hyattsville, Maryland Holiday Inn Express adds a $5 parking facility maintenance fee to guest reservations. There’s no plausible narrative where this belongs separately charged versus just something a hotel spends the money it takes in on. And if they are not actually spending $5 per room per night on parking facility maintenance there could be a lawsuit… if the pockets are worth suing. (HT: Joe R)

  • Flying will never be a ‘premium’ experience as long as this happens every day.

    Inevitably when your bags are confiscated, this happens:

  • Speaking of the most premium product on that self-delusionally most premium airline:

    Delta one.. really?
    byu/throwawaysf997 indelta

  • Reviews of the ‘Next Gen’ Acela trains are.. not good. I was invited to a media preview trip of the new Acela, but sounds like it was good I could not go?

    Seats are described as too hard, poorly tested ergonomically, Recline unreliable or absent. Footrest does not retract properly—snags bags and cords. Reading light is positioned awkwardly—hard plastic, passengers bang heads against it. Tray table has an overly tight latch tha tis difficult to deploy. Windows are misaligned with rows.

    The seats are horrible… It’s as if they were never actually tested by real people.”

    “The conductors… were having to pull the emergency handles… at EVERY STATION.”

    “It has no recline at all, instead the seat bottom slides forward a bit to give the illusion of a recline…”

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I copilote searched “Hyattesville MD Holiday Inn Express owner” (had to drill down a bit in the chat) and got useful information. I’ve done this before booking hotels ever since I referred a dear friend to a HIE 20 years ago and she got bedbugs. In their defense, junk fees like this are increasingly common even among non-cartel properties. In the modern era, before I contract any services, I google/copilot the provenance of the company/product not only for ethics, but also personal safety.

  2. That’s really cool you were given the option to preview the Acela, Gary. I’ve heard mixed things but I (and I’m guessing @1990 as well) certainly am disappointed to hear the negatives. Re: the seats, hopefully they just need to be broken into. Given a heads up I personally don’t mind USB-A, but doesn’t exactly scream “NextGen” does it?

    Anyway, best way to judge is to see for oneself. On my list. Choo-choo!

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