Groupon For Travel?

The Club Med resort chain has vexed travel agents in Britain by offering a discount on the British Groupon site, Travel Weekly reports.

The deal, a £250 voucher toward a Club Med vacation at select resorts for £20, was available only through direct sales on the Groupon site. Club Med seemed unmoved by the travel agents’ complaints that they were cut out of the deal and described it to Travel Weekly as a test.

Groupon also recently announced a partnership with Expedia in the United States and Canada called Groupon Getaways. I just signed up for email alerts, but so far I can’t tell what is being or will be offered.

This could get interesting.

Momondo Adds Hotel Search

Momondo has added a hotel search function to its site, already home to an excellent airfare meta-search engine.

Momondo says the hotel search covers 450,000 hotels around the world and seeks out price comparisons across various hotel booking sites. Tnooz reviews it here.

I have used Momondo mainly to find air fares outside the United States, where it seems to do a better job than some of the U.S.-based search sites in finding good fares on small, regional airlines.  It will be interesting to see if the hotel search delivers the same advantage on foreign hotels.

‘Miracle on the Hudson’ Jet Heads South

The A320 that U.S. Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditched in the Hudson River in January 2009 has been dried off and the fuselage is being transported by truck to the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, NC. My friends at Patch have fun photos.

Beware of Orlando’s Rip-Off Gas Stations

The Orlando Sentinel reports that two gas stations near Orlando International Airport have refused to comply with a local ordinance requiring them to post gas prices that are visible to passing drivers. The story says:

Even though it’s been a year since Orlando passed a law to force the two notoriously high gas stations closest to the airport to post their prices, there’s still no way for potential customers to know the cost of a gallon of gas without pulling up to the pump.

The price the stations were charging on Friday: $5.79 a gallon, in an area where the lowest prices are now around $3.50. Of course, travelers returning to the airport with rental cars need are the ones getting ripped off.

The stations face fines of $250 a day for non-compliance with the sign ordinance. But since they’re charging more than $2 a gallon above the going rate, it’s probably a whole lot more lucrative to continue violating the ordinance. The city says it could shut down the stations by putting liens on them and foreclosing, but it’s not clear how likely or how speedy a resolution that might be.

Here’s hoping there’s punishment in Hell or the next life for the people who abuse travelers like this, but meanwhile let’s keep calling them out and warning each other on the Internet.

Megabus Returns To Hartford

Megabus is returning to Hartford more than year after it dropped the city from its route between Boston and New York. When Megabus resumes service on Dec. 15, it will offer five trips daily to New York and two to Amherst, Mass., Don Stacom reports in The Hartford Courant. (Disclosure: Don and I go way back.)

Check Your Hotel Bill For Overcharges

I was looking yesterday at one of my credit card accounts online and I noticed a $24 charge from a nice boutique hotel in New York where I stayed recently on business.

My employer paid for the room, but as usual I had to hand over my own credit card at check-in for incidentals. Trouble is, there were no incidentals.

When I called to ask about the charge, the desk clerk told me it was for dry cleaning and put me through to the hotel accounting office, at which point I solemnly swore that I had ordered no dry cleaning. (Have a look at my wardrobe. It’s true.) The accounting representative said it might have been a mistake with the room number, and the hotel refunded the charge.

Maybe it was a mistake. And maybe it was a mistake when my husband was charged for parking at a hotel where he had arrived by taxi.  One hears so many similar stories that one must conclude the hotel industry has become rather mistake-prone of late.

The lesson here: check your hotel bill for overcharges, both accidental and otherwise.

Carnival Cruise Debacle Puts Focus On Fire At Sea

The cruise industry took its worst public relations hit in years when a fire disabled the Carnival Splendor at sea this week. Three days at sea without electricity is not what the passengers signed up for, but the unflushable toilets and the cold food may not be the most relevant point here. While the movie “Titanic” conditioned us to worry about ships foundering and sinking, fires have been a much greater danger, as maritime lawyer Jim Walker points out on his Cruise Law News site.

Hertz Apologizes, Promises Refund

Dear Ms. LeBlanc:

Your inquiry regarding damage to the Hertz vehicle which was rented on September 1, 2010 out of our Barajas Airport, has been sent to my attention for further review. Thank you for the opportunity to review your concerns in greater detail, I appreciate your patience in this matter.

Ms. LeBlanc, we apologize for any discrepancies regarding the damages to the vehicle. We have already reached out to our European Operations Manager directly regarding this matter. Your comments have provided us an opportunity to identify where improvements are necessary. We will ensure that our locations are providing full and accurate documentation to support any damage charges.

Due to the circumstances that transpired, a credit of 386.60 EUR is being issued and will be processed to the account billed. The adjustment is being made at this time, but may not appear on the next monthly statement due to billing cut-off dates.

Ms. LeBlanc, we assure you every effort will be made to prevent a situation of this kind in the future. Your business is valued, and we hope you continue to use Hertz for your rental needs.

Sincerely,

Lawanda Huff
Senior Team Performance Leader, Customer Services
The Hertz Corporation
P.O. Box 26120
10401 N. Pennsylvania Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73120
U.S.A

Spain Is For Wine Lovers

I was just looking at the photos from my recent trip to Spain and this one made me want to go right back.

Yes, that’s a wine rack in a supermarket with Freixenet cava at 5.25 euros and decent red wines from the area for less than 1 euro a bottle.

And all I managed to get back in my suitcase was a bottle of wine from the Bierzo region and a big chunk of the Galician cheese called tetilla — both long gone now. Adios.

Hertz Investigation Determines Hertz Is Right

The central irony of my dispute with Hertz over its bogus claim of damage to a car I rented in Spain is that I chose Hertz because I considered it more reputable than its competition.

Sadly, not so much.

Yesterday, I received an email at 9:39 a.m. informing me that “Hertz Claims Risk Management in Spain is being asked to make an investigation” of my allegation that the $500 damage claim is false. Today, at 10:34 a.m. I got another email informing me that “We regret, the office in Spain has advised the damage charges are valid and the correct vehicle was rented and shows damages to the vehicle.” (Perhaps it’s more grammatical in Spanish.)

Anyway, that was a quick investigation. But then it saved a lot of time that the investigators would not talk to me or correspond with me directly. And when I called Hertz customer service about this most rapid investigation, I was told that I have no further recourse with Hertz and I will get no further explanation. The customer service representative told me (a tad impatiently because I keep asking all these pesky questions) that I can dispute the charge with my credit card company, which of course I have already done.

So, just to summarize:

Hertz won’t tell me how the photos it provided of the “damage” were time-stamped six hours before I returned the car — as confirmed by the time of return noted on Hertz’s own invoice.

Hertz won’t tell me why it has no photo of the car’s hood, although the company claims there was 196 euros worth of damage to the hood.

Hertz won’t tell me why its photo of a side mirror that it claims I damaged shows a mirror that is shaped differently than the mirror on the car I rented, as I can prove with my own photographs of the car.

Hertz won’t tell me why someone added a description of the alleged damage to a document I had already signed, as I can prove with my own carbon of the original document.

Hertz won’t tell me why its investigators don’t want to see the 16-page refutation of the damage claim that I sent to American Express.

Hertz won’t tell me why its investigators won’t talk to me, confirm that they’ve even seen the evidence I gave customer service or answer my questions.

Oh, Hertz. Can’t you just pretend you made a mistake and that you really weren’t trying to steal from me? Nobody would believe it, but we’d all feel a little better.