Passenger rights tips

Rather than making the usual predictions, this year I’m raising some of the really big questions that travelers and the travel industry are likely to face in 2018 travel. You may not see many final answers to these questions in 2018, but you can certainly expect the beginning of some important actions. Here’s what to watch out for in 2018 travel.

UPDATE: As if United weren’t already getting enough bad press from the dead-dog-in-the-overhead incident, just days later the airline mis-shipped two dogs to two different destinations. A Kansas City-bound German shepherd was flown to Japan, while the Japan-bound Great Dane landed in Kansas City. Once again, United issued an apology, and “is looking into the matter.”

Booking holiday travel usually means watching vigilantly for the lowest-possible fares of the busy season, but it turns out this should also be a time to look out for travel scams. As the holidays bring an uptick in online purchases like travel booking, the risk of online fraud rises as well, online travel fraud prevention company Forter reports. A new report by the company found that e-commerce fraud rose 13 percent in 2017, with travel-related fraud specifically rising 37 percent—and holiday travel scams comprising a large part of it.

How would you like to get home from your trip and receive a bill for $2,300—plus interest—for an $840 plane trip that you’ve already paid for? That’s the amount Lufthansa recently sued a passenger for, after the customer skipped (“skiplagged,” in industry parlance) the last leg of his flight itinerary. It’s a story that has other hack-oriented travelers wondering: Is skiplagging legal?

How much is getting off the plane a minute or two faster worth to you? United Airlines is banking on the fact that some flyers will pay more for the privilege of sitting in the front of the economy cabin—even though the seats will have the same exact amount of legroom and features as the ones in the back.

The recent attention focused on a 60 Minutes report covering Allegiant’s maintenance problems may have overshadowed another airline horror story: Sun Country canceled two return flights from Minneapolis-St Paul—one to Mazatlan, the other to Los Cabos—this weekend, leaving somewhere around 250 passengers with return reservations stranded in Mexico.

If you’ve ever experienced a lengthy flight delay, cancellation, or been bumped involuntarily from a flight in the past three years, an airline might owe you money. A lot of Americans don’t know that, but that could soon change thanks to one air rights advocacy group: AirHelp. August marks “Passenger Rights Awareness Month” thanks to the flight compensation company, which handles claims to airlines on behalf of customers for their consumer rights, one claim at a time.

Although frequent flyer point programs usually get more attention, hotel loyalty program benefits are an important element of hotel choice among lots of travelers. And if you’re not sure which program is “best,” the folks at WalletHub have calculated ratings for all the major hotel chain programs.

Most frequent travelers know that to find flash sales and other great deals on economy-class air tickets through alerts, you don’t have to look far: Our sister site AirfareWatchdog, for example, is a leader in the field. Lots of online travel agencies and metasearch systems offer up standard airfare alerts—but finding one that will flag premium airfare deals requires a little bit more insider knowledge, and some cash.

According to a stunning report by the Boston Globe, the TSA has been operating a secret airport surveillance program called Quiet Skies that tracks passengers who are not otherwise suspected to be a threat. “Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list,” the Globe reports, and is “collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.”

If you’re not already familiar with Priority Pass, you might want to be for its ability to get you out of the crowded airport terminal and into an airport lounge. Priority Pass is a membership program that provides access to more than a thousand airport lounges around the world, for an annual fee.

Three relatively new low-fare airlines have run into troubles ranging from minor to bad, with one shutting down completely and the other two cutting or delaying new air routes. Industry pundits have been saying for some time that it wouldn’t be easy for the slew of new low-fare airlines to make their business models work, given the competition from established low-fare lines and ongoing opposition from the legacy lines. And that now seems to be ringing true.

AirHelp, the online service that files complaints against airlines on behalf of passengers entitled to compensation for air delays or cancellations, knows a thing or two about air travel. Because it’s hard for the average person to understand air passenger rights and pursue a legal claim when they’ve been wronged, AirHelp is always going toe-to-toe with airlines and airports—and reveals once a year which ones that treat their passengers for the better (or worse).

Airlines insist you can’t sell frequent flyer miles or rewards, and courts in the U.S. have generally backed this claim. But a court in Sao Paulo, Brazil, just ruled that frequent flyer miles can be sold, and it ordered American Airlines to reimburse one traveler for the tickets the airline canceled after citing a violation of the airline’s rules.

Uber and Lyft simultaneously announced new reward programs this week, with both set to roll out in the coming weeks. Like the respective services themselves, both programs are similar but offer some nuanced differences—so users of both might be wondering which is more worthwhile.

On the 35th day of the U.S. partial government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a staff shortage in air traffic controllers and that flights to at least one airport were halted, causing delays. Flights through La Guardia, Newark, and Philadelphia airports were the first to be affected, around the same time that the FAA announced the sick outs.

Traveling with limited mobility can be a challenge in destinations that don’t have wheelchair accessibility standards like those established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But some of the most worthwhile tourist attractions across the globe are completely step-free, and it’s not just parks and museums. Some surprisingly precarious and unique spots should be on your to-do list if you’re traveling in a wheelchair (or with someone who is).

Wondering what the best airlines are according to the average flyer? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) gives a good idea in its Travelers’ Choice best airline rankings each year based on real travelers’ reviews. And the results are different than most trade studies that list the “best airlines.”

Come March 29, 2019, Great Britain is due to leave the European Union. So far, the opposing sides of the change—those who favor leaving without making any border or trade deals, and those hoping international partnerships are maintained—have not reached agreement on the specific terms. And time is running out.

Bookings at Southwest are way down following a fatal accident this past April. The airline announced Monday that it expects revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to fall about three percent in the current quarter. Basically, RASM goes down when more seats are empty. The airline previously estimated that this number would go down by between one and three percent—suggesting April’s incident is on travelers’ minds.

When you purchase travel insurance, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you are, well, insured for all aspects of your trip. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Travelers are frequently frustrated to find that their travel insurance coverage is full of holes—with exclusions that are typically stated in the fine print but nonetheless confusing and sometimes counterintuitive.