Michelle Couch-Friedman

Consumer reporter and ombudsman columnist

Michelle Couch-Friedman is the founder and CEO of Consumer Rescue. She is a journalist, consumer advocate, travel writer, mediator, and former psychotherapist. Michelle is also the travel ombudsman columnist for The Points Guy, contributing author at Fodor's Travel and previously served as the executive director of the nonprofit Elliott Advocacy. During her six years managing that organization, she resolved thousands of cases for troubled travelers and other consumers. You can read hundreds of 5-star reviews Michelle earned during her service to the nonprofit on Great Nonprofits. Michelle is a public speaker, and her expert guidance has been cited in the Washington Post, MarketWatch, Consumer Reports, Travel & Leisure, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Popular Science, CNN, CNBC, Boston Globe, CBS News, National Geographic, Travel Weekly, Reader's Digest and more. You might even catch Michelle on TV reporting on a situation. :) Professionally, Michelle is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and the North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA). Today, she continues to spend as much time as possible fiercely defending consumers and traveling the world. Contact her at Michelle Couch-Friedman or on Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook. You can also check out Consumer Rescue's "What's your Problem?" Facebook group to get quick answers to your consumer questions.

Carnival Cruise Line's Dream, cruise ship at sunset, Carnival Dream

Cruise ship passengers beware: No, you don’t have an Enhanced ID!

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025

Carnival Cruise Line passengers John Harrison and his family of eleven recently learned a harsh lesson about Enhanced ID. They showed up at the cruise port in Galveston, Texas, expecting to quickly “get to the fun.” But the fun never happened for Harrison and his elderly parents. They were denied boarding Carnival Dream after presenting what they presumed to be EDLs.

Carnival employees told the surprised would-be passengers that their driver’s licenses were insufficient to take the cruise. The stunned trio was soon left behind as Dream sailed away with their other eight passport-carrying family members on board.

Nashville vacation rental problem, 1-night in Tennessee. $1000 travel fiasco

Help! Our 1 night vacation rental ended with a $1000 charge for a new bed

June 9, 2025June 9, 2025

A vacation rental management company in Nashville charged guests $1,000 for damaging a mattress after a one-night stay. Even more frustrating, the agency told the shocked travelers it didn’t need proof that they had caused the damage.

Can our advocacy team come to the rescue of these consumers?

Let’s find out.

Celebrity Cruises denied boarding pregnant passenger, Celebrity Reflection, cruise ship on the ocean, Cruise ship at sunset.

Celebrity Cruises denied boarding to a pregnant would-be cruise passenger. Here’s why

June 2, 2025June 2, 2025

First-time cruise passengers Marisa Vacca, her husband, and toddler couldn’t wait to board Celebrity Cruises Reflection last December. The family arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the night before embarkation and excitedly settled into their hotel.

But then a heavily pregnant Marisa began skimming the Celebrity Cruises pre-boarding instructions, and her heart sank.

Timeshare chaos in Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, blue sky and sea,

My timeshare company offered a $2,500 buyback but never paid me!

June 8, 2025May 31, 2025

You’ve probably heard about the couple jailed in Mexico after filing numerous credit card chargebacks over timeshare fees. They reversed nearly $120,000 in charges from their timeshare company and advised others how to do it too.

Publicly.

The couple gave their awful exit advice on a Facebook group for disgruntled timeshare owners. However, they weren’t the only ones lurking in that community.

Passenger says Frontier Airlines denied boarding to him by mistake, Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines denied boarding to my family. How much are we owed?

May 31, 2025May 12, 2025

A Frontier Airlines passenger says his family was wrongly denied boarding their recent flight and he’s demanding compensation. But what really happened, and does the airline owe him anything?

Let’s find out.

This travel insurance mistake cost me $11,000, Can anyone help me?

Here’s an $11,504 travel insurance mistake you won’t want to make

May 7, 2025May 7, 2025

Travelers beware: Sometimes a travel insurance mistake isn’t fixable – no matter how much money is at stake. But what about this one?

Bad behavior on cruise, Passengers misbehaving on cruise ship, Avoid poorly behavior passengers on your cruise, ruined cruise

Will your cruise be ruined by the bad behavior of fellow passengers?

May 1, 2025April 30, 2025

You’ve likely seen the video of the Carnival passengers brawling in the Galveston, Texas, cruise port this week. Sadly, that footage, which shows a large group of cruisers assaulting each other as they disembarked from Jubilee, is not particularly shocking in 2025. Unfortunately, egregiously bad behavior among cruise ship passengers is becoming more commonplace. Should you be worried that the bad behavior of fellow passengers will ruin your next cruise?

American Airlines aircraft change, AA agent promises refund and gives travel credit, American Airlines airplanes

American Airlines promised me an $18,349 refund. Why did I get flight credit?

April 28, 2025April 27, 2025

Several weeks before her family’s American Airlines flight to Portugal, Ashley Macus learned there had been an aircraft change. That switch left the family of six without the assigned seats together Macus had confirmed months earlier. Most disturbingly, her two little boys, ages 7 and 8, no longer had any seats at all.

Celebrity cruise, Celebrity Equinox, cruise ship on the ocean, Celebrity cruise passenger forgot passport

A Celebrity cruise passenger forgot her passport. FedEx made things even worse

June 2, 2025April 22, 2025

As Sherry Warren and her husband prepared for their upcoming Celebrity cruise, she bought a colorful passport case. The little wallet was stylish and protective, with Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) blocking features. It would be the perfect way to carry their passports, Warren thought.

And it surely would have – had she not forgotten the wallet with their passports inside when they left for the cruise.

Internet romance scams, job scams, scammers everywhere

I fell for an internet romance scam. Can anything be done now?

April 21, 2025April 19, 2025

As she searched for a new job, love suddenly was in the air — or so Karen C. thought. But behind the inappropriate emails she received from her recruiter with carefully typed romantic promises lurked a scammer weaving a web of deceit.

Karen couldn’t believe her luck. She thought she had found a dream job and a romantic partner, but the reality was much, much different.