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Fiascos and Fixes
The Consumer Rescue advocacy team resolves problems between consumers and the businesses that they patronize. We do this via direct mediation with companies — always free of charge.
These articles are the highlighted tales of our efforts to defend, protect, and educate consumers. Michelle Couch-Friedman is a consumer advocate, reporter and ombudsman columnist. She is also the founder of Consumer Rescue.
Gabriele Fehr and her husband planned to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in the Caribbean aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Spirit. But in the end, they missed that special Carnival cruise and only their luggage took the $2,402 voyage.
Over the years, I’ve mediated hundreds of requests for help from distressed cruise line passengers. Many of these cruise fiascos were the result of passenger mistakes and could have been avoided by following some simple guidelines. With wave season just beginning, now is the perfect time to review Consumer Rescue’s ultimate guide to planning a cruise.
Here’s all the information you need to know about planning and taking a cruise.
Consumer Rescue had a bonanza of wins for Vantage Travel customers as we sprinted to this year’s finish line. Since early November, our advocacy team has retrieved nearly $100,000 for victims of the Vantage Travel bankruptcy.
Here’s some good consumer news to end 2023.
United Airlines surprised one family after it canceled their flight – an automatic switch to another airline. But the new itinerary on the new carrier didn’t resemble the original, and the passengers didn’t want it. So why did UA make the option of a refund seem impossible?
A Delta Air Lines passenger believed she could fly to China with an expired passport, but was denied boarding. She says Delta made a mistake rejecting her documents and should have allowed her to take the flight to China.
Now she’s hoping for a refund and additional compensation for her troubles.
What’s going on here?
Mary Bradley says she was billed hundreds of dollars extra for a United Airlines Travel Bundle on a self-booked ticket. She doesn’t know what these fees are, but she wants a refund. Can our advocacy team help?
Sherry Ramhit says a Norwegian Cruise Line consultant made a mistake that cost her family over $12,000 — and ruined a dream vacation. She insists the agent assured her that visas were optional for their Alaska cruise aboard NCL’s Encore last August. Unfortunately, they definitely were not optional.
Airbnb guests Elizabeth Knox and her husband recently discovered bed bugs aren’t the only pests making accommodations uninhabitable in Paris. Soon after arriving at their cute rental in the City of Lights, they found another family already enjoying the apartment.
United Airlines repeatedly changed Joseph Baloun’s flight to Hawaii so significantly that it bore little resemblance to his original schedule. After he returned home, he wasn’t sure what he was owed for the extended flight delay so he made a wild guess. A really wild guess. He calculated the airline owed him $10,000 for the unpleasant 16-hour delay.
But does United Airlines owe him anything at all?
Could you be accused of causing costly damage to your next rental car even if you didn’t do it? Several hours after returning his Budget rental car Derek Melber found out the answer to that question. That’s when an employee emailed him with the surprising news that the driver’s side window of the vehicle was shattered.
Despite Melber’s best efforts to convince Budget that he didn’t damage the rental car, the company charged him for repairing it.
Melber says it wasn’t him who shattered that window, but he thinks he knows who did. He’s hoping Consumer Rescue can prove the rental agency has wrongly accused him. And of course, he wants Budget to refund the nearly $500 repair charge it billed to his credit card.
But without any proof of what the rental car looked like when Melber returned it, that might be impossible.
Or maybe not. Let’s break this case down.
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© 2025 Consumer Rescue / Michelle Couch-Friedman
