As a solo traveller myself I get very annoyed, very quickly, when a fellow solo traveller has to pay a single person supplement and then is put into a single room, it’s should be stopped. I am sure they think because we are travelling alone we will put up with the lowest standard of accommodation. Single room, but charged single supplement When I travelled on my own for the first time on a package holiday to Benidorm, the same happened to... 

The ‘ask Mr Rants’ feature has been incredibly popular and in the last couple of months I have published a number of travel consumer guides based on the number of emails that I receive from consumers. I wanted to share a few of those guides with you so you can bookmark for future use. Here are five of the popular guides published. » Driving abroad advice and car hire tips » How to protect your holiday » How to make a travel complaint... 

Today I decided I would get my act together and start to research the prices for my flight to New York in June, so I fired up the browser and started to use a number of comparison sites including Kayak , Travel Supermarket and newcomer Zugu to see what my options are. No unique flight comparison site What I realised as I was using these sites is that all of them use the same partners and the experience of searching for a flight is the same.... 

The airlines are having a laugh at our expense. Last week I booked a flight from Leeds & Bradford airport to Paris and was charged by the airline, Jet2, a rip off free of £2.00 to check-in online. My other alternative was to pay £6.00 to check-in at the airport. Travel light to reduce airline charges I always travel light with just my hand luggage, but if I had decided to take one…  Read More →

Over the weekend online travel agency, Expedia received some rather negative attention by one of the writers on high profile technology site, TechCrunch. To cut a long story short, the hotel he had booked had not received his reservation from Expedia and was fully booked up. Check with the hotel after booking It isn’t the first time that I have heard about this type of issue and it’s the reason why when I book a hotel on a third party website,... 

The second episode of the Travel Rants Podcast is now available. Podcasting is a whole new platform for me to get to grips with, but I am enjoying expressing my views on consumer issues in audio, it’s a change from writing a blog post. I hope you enjoy it too and please do leave feedback. Travel consumer issues discussed » Nasty holiday selling tricks » How the iPad doesn’t change how we travel » The debate on obese passengers and flying... 

I have been writing about travel consumer issues for five years in April and I enjoy sharing my opinions on the travel industry from a consumer’s perspective. I understand that not everyone is going to agree with what I have to say, but then discussions are created and readers can share their opinion. Useful learning / content inspiration resources I read a number of travel industry sites and newsletters, like Travel Weekly , TTG and Travelmole;... 

The nasty weather in the UK through Christmas and the New Year meant many travellers plans were disrupted, with flights delayed or cancelled. There’s not a great deal you can do about the weather but I wish our airports and public transport in general could cope with the bad weather; it is winter after all. Airline tricks and unhelpful customer support As you can imagine my inbox was full of stories from consumers, many asking if they were... 

Most of us have been guilty of rushing to the airport to catch our flight, or worst still, arrived at the wrong airport. I remember reading a story about a group of Newcastle football fans who had arrived in the city where the team was playing a day early, and were flying home the day of the game. I am always giving out travel advice, yet, sometimes, I fall foul of my own stupid travel mistakes. Checked into the wrong hotel This incident happened... 

I have just heard that accommodation only company Apartments abroad has today ceased trading. The company sold accommodation all over the world including popular tourist destinations in Europe and the US. They do not appear to be ABTA members, I thought they were though. Independent traveller protection issues I am not sure at this point how many consumers will be affected. Consumers were able to book accommodation via the website but I understand... 

I can’t imagine what the residents of Haiti are going through and when I watch the news I wish I could do more to help. I wasn’t going to write this post but felt I needed to get it off my chest. When disasters such as Haiti we have to come together and help, and it is great that…  Read More →

One of my least favourite parts of flying is queuing and going through airport security. It never seems organised. Airport security has been in the news a lot recently and with the introduction of full body scanners in British airports, sometime in 2010, I don’t think it’ll get any better. Baggage searched at Schiphol airport This year I will be taking my first jaunt over to…  Read More →

I recently had a credit card copied while holidaying in China. Blissfully unaware of the problem until the card company contacted me on my return I was equally surprised several months later when the cancelled card was used again. Second time, I was billed and successfully contested the transactions. Here are some lessons I learnt from the experience. Watch your credit card Be aware of where you credit card is and what people are doing with... 

Tonight I was reading an article on Tnooz , asking if PricewaterhouseCoopers can sell FlyGlobespan customer data? I am absolutely gobsmacked that they are selling off consumers data as part of the administration, would you be happy knowing that your data is going to be sold to another company? Privacy poliicy exempt in administration When a company goes into administration does this mean that the data that the company has for each consumer can... 

Tonight a friend asked me what I thought about booking a holiday off eBay. It had me wondering if many people use auction sites to book any aspects of their holiday and is it safe. I think you are protected if you make a payment on eBay with PayPal but how safe is it. Anyone can create an advert For a start there’s so little information on most of the ads to identify if the seller is a genuine seller. I was browsing and found one ad for a...