Throughout the week, our team shares articles they’ve stumbled upon that may interest our readers, even if they might not otherwise merit a full post. Here are some of the posts we found interesting this week: we’ll talk about TSA Agents scoring free meals in Priority Pass lounges, we’ll find more reasons to hate Hertz’s AI damage detection system, we’ll hear about how Joby Aviation is buying a piece of Blade, Trademark disputes, and devastating floods in India.
We all know there are extreme travel-hacker types who take things to the maximum level, so we kind of expect to hear a few stories about one person practically living in an airport lounge for weeks on end, or another person bringing in dozens of guests. But somehow it feels surprising to find out there are others outside of our community exploiting these benefits too. For example, it appears some enterprising TSA employees have been using Priority Pass benefits for free meals at the airport. Officially, you’re supposed to have a same-day boarding pass in order to get into a Priority Pass lounge, but this is not always enforced, and a refundable ticket would do the trick as well.
Hertz Customers Say AI Falsely Flags Damage to Rental Cars With No Way to Dispute Charges
Just as you all predicted, more bad experiences are surfacing thanks to Hertz’s AI damage inspection system. When we first wrote about this Hertz “solution” to damage assessment in a previous Saturday Selection, 78% of you predicted this was going to cost renters more. Then, in a later Saturday Selection, we started seeing cases of exaggerated damage detections with absurd fees that were hard to dispute. Indeed, it seems that AI is drastically more sensitive about little knicks and dings than human eyes were, and other times completely blind to it, falsely detecting pre-existing damage as “new”. One renter was charged for “new” damage, but the pictures within the system itself demonstrated that the damage was already there when he first picked up the car. And another user got charged for a ding that simply wasn’t there at all, which they could have demonstrated with video evidence if there had been any system whatsoever for disputing these damages. Unfortunately, the system does not have a built-in option for disputes. And Hertz isn’t necessarily known for their great customer service…so this kind of makes a bad situation worse. Now there are just more reasons to get yourself tangled in an unsatisfactory customer service communication because hundreds of dollars in faulty damage fees may be on the line. (Unless, of course, you follow the droves of people swearing off Hertz rentals altogether.)
Joby Aviation Buys Blade’s Air Mobility Passenger Business: Implications?
A little more than a year ago, Greg reviewed his experience using Blade’s helicopter transfer service from JFK to Manhattan. He was able to experience this thanks to top-tier JetBlue status (Mosiac 4), which his wife was able to get through a status match from Delta Diamond status. The status gave them 4 Blade helicopter transfers. (He used one of these transfers to help wow the audience and steal the win for our Million Mile Madness challenge last year.) Blade’s passenger division was just sold to “Joby Aviation”, a company with a large focus on building and operating eVOTLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft). In other words, the long-term implications of this purchase could mean a bit of an equipment shift, though it’s hard to say if anything else about the Blade transfers will change at this point.
Messy Alaska & Virgin Trademark Dispute Now Involves Delta
Ah yes – the exciting world of trademark disputes has entered the points and miles arena with a confusing tangle involving Alaska, Virgin, and now Delta. The original dispute is already kind of complicated, but goes something like this: In 2014, Virgin America entered a licensing agreement with Virgin Group to pay $8 million a year (until 2039) for the use of the Virgin brand. Then in 2018, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America merged, with Alaska choosing not to adopt the Virgin America brand. Alaska Airlines believed this would relieve them of the responsibility to continue paying that $8 million a year since Virgin America essentially ceased to exist as a name or a company. Virgin Group disagreed with this for the better part of 5 years until a judge decided in 2023 that Alaska Airlines was indeed still responsible for paying for those brand rights, even if they chose not to use them. Alaska then decided, if that’s the case, they have reason to take issue with Virgin Atlantic selling domestic US flights on Delta, arguing that this encroaches on the Virgin branding they have an exclusive right to. This all sounds like an episode of some high-intensity HBO show to me, but I’ll be interested to see how it pans out.
More than 100 missing after flash floods in India
A flash flood that swept through Dharali village on Tuesday (narrowly missing acquaintances of mine who live there along the banks of the river), killing 4 and leaving 100 others still missing.
One of the inevitable side effects of travel is that you begin to accumulate more and more places where you feel a personal connection, with some places sticking in your brain more than others. This feels especially pronounced now that, just a few weeks after writing about the fires at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I’m now writing about deadly floods in Uttarakhand in the Himalayan region of India. The Dharali floods are very close to the village of Raithal I wrote about several years ago, and I passed through the village on my way to the popular pilgrimage site of Gangotri. These news stories should compel us simply by our shared humanity, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit the chemistry of my feelings seems to fire a little differently when memory has a mental picture to offer up into the equation. It’s an extra amplification. Perhaps that’s one of the great benefits of travel, making our connection to people on the other side of the globe a little more fathomable.
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Really Caroline, an article about TSA agents getting a free meal? Are we supposed to disapprove and be total hypocrites?
Hm – why was that your assumption, I wonder? I think if you re-read my summary, you’ll find it doesn’t strongly make that implication, though if it did, it wasn’t my intent. (Maybe the term “exploit” feels negative, even if I’m relating to it instead of calling it out? I guess I could see that.)
This may be helpful context: for these Saturday Selection posts, I collect links from the rest of the team for posts they’ve flagged as potentially interesting for the community. I try to include a mixture of articles I’ve found interesting and articles the team has found interesting to round out the post. This particular post came from the group pot, so I tried to keep the summary pretty commentary-free, as I didn’t have much to add of my own here. But I could see why that might leave someone wondering why it was included. (I’ve added a note about the kind of collective nature of this post to the intro, in case that’s helpful context for others as well!)
I am hertz presidents circle and have a CDP code that makes rentals $35/ day. I hate the AI thing but don’t know what company to switch to. What would you recommend ?
No matter who you rent from, thoroughly document the condition of your vehicle at pick-up and drop-off. It feels like a waste of time when you’re doing it, but it can save you a huge hassle later.
Also, use a credit card that offers primary rental insurance. That won’t spare you from dealing with falsely reported damage, but at least you won’t have to pay for it.
Finally, this may be a long shot, but see if you can convince your employer to switch to another company.
Yes I do all of that. Was still curious what company may be best to switch to via a status match
Nice summary and thanks for the coverage. But I’m confused why the blog isn’t covering the huge AC loyalty changes. The blog has promoted the card in the past
We simply haven’t gotten to it yet. It’s definitely on our to-do list.
To be fair, for most of the FM audience, which is mostly outside of Canada, the Aeroplan fiasco is pretty minor. The Chase credit card might even be improved as long as you don’t already have AC’s Canadian cards as well. There will be a few that it is huge for (including me), but not so much a big deal for most.
I do wonder though about the Aeroplan card PYB feature. Used to be unlimited, then I am pretty sure it changed to 200,000 per calendar year, then the wording was changed to 200,000 without mention of calendar year and now it is 200,000 and payment of annual fee, so maybe it is now based on renewal date?