Author – The Durango Herald

Hotel guests baffled by after-the-fact damage charges

After Doris Weller checked out of the Hampton Inn Parsippany, she assumed that she’d settled her bill. But the New Jersey hotel had a final surprise: a mysterious $250 charge to her Discover...

DATE: Feb 8, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Travelers bound for Britain face new Brexit uncertainty

Teri-Lee Lawler-Baack is a little nervous after a British Parliament vote on Brexit set the stage for a potentially chaotic “no deal” departure from the European Union on March 29. She’s not...

DATE: Feb 3, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

The shutdown may yet make a mess of your trip

Ask travelers about the partial government shutdown, and you may get a dismissive answer. After all, most flights are still running on time, many national parks remain open and passports are...

DATE: Jan 27, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

When alcohol fuels trouble at 36,000 feet

On a recent Delta Air Lines flight from Newark to Minneapolis, a passenger seated near Stephanie Wolkin downed five mini-bottles of vodka in rapid succession. By the time the plane landed, t...

DATE: Jan 20, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

What to expect when you travel in 2019

If you like crowds, personalized travel experiences or talking to machines, then you’re going to love traveling in 2019. That’s because “overtourism,” personalization and artific...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Readers describe their best, worst trips of 2018

Bob Tupper’s summer vacation in Bologna, Italy, was his best trip of the year. It included a visit to the famous markets in the Quadrilatero district, touring the oldest university in the we...

DATE: Dec 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Language apps help travelers – up to a point

My parents moved from New Jersey to Passau, Germany, when I was a toddler. After a few weeks of playing with the neighborhood kids, I spoke fluent, Bavarian-accented German. That’...

DATE: Dec 23, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

On social media, airlines discover the block

What can you do when your airline stops talking to you? That’s not a hypothetical question for Kate Sawma, who was recently blocked on social media by Frontier Airlines during a customer ser...

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Bigger fines might help airlines focus on service

What if airlines could do almost anything they wanted, knowing that they would probably get away with it? As 2018 comes to a close, critics say that’s already the case. The reason? Lax gover...

DATE: Dec 9, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Meteorologists share strategies for avoiding winter travel hazards

“Never check luggage.” That’s the winter travel advice of CNBC correspondent Contessa Brewer, who, coincidentally, was emailing me from a plane en route to cover a weather disaste...

DATE: Dec 2, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Holiday travel isn’t easy. Don’t make it harder

At about this time every year, radio and TV producers ask me to go on the air and dispense travel advice. They’ll ask me how to avoid the agony of holiday travel. And at about th...

DATE: Nov 24, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Before renting the car, get the real cost

When Jeremy Epstein rented a Nissan Altima from Hertz in Albuquerque recently, he couldn’t believe the car rental fees. They made the extras charged by the rest of the travel industry look l...

DATE: Nov 19, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter