Travel Troubleshooter

I recently stayed at the Howard Johnson Oceanfront Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, Md.

My travel insurance claim has been denied, and so have my appeals. I hope you can help us.

We stayed at the Best Western Northtown Inn in Wichita Falls, Texas. I reserved the room with my Visa Check Card but paid in cash. When we got our bank statement, we noticed the card had been charged $71 for the night. We don't use that account often and didn't expect the charge, so we got hit with a $35 overdraft fee. We can't get our money back from Best Western or the bank. A hotel stay that should have cost $71 became $177.

My car-rental company has more than tripled the rate it charged me, and I don't know what to do.

I need your help getting a refund for a single supplement I don't think I should have to pay. With a friend, I booked an Africa trip through Overseas Adventure Travel. We're both in our mid-60s, so I bought trip insurance.

Kenneth Miller thought he had squirreled away more than 100,000 Delta Air Lines frequent-flier miles, which he planned to use for a 20th anniversary trip.

I have been a loyal Hilton customer for three years, staying about 200 nights a year in its hotels. I have been happy with Hilton service – until recently.

I recently bought seven plane tickets on Icelandair's Web site. The airline charged me $6,897 and my credit card company authorized the transaction.

Like just about every other airline passenger, Elizabeth Rodgers wants to avoid unnecessary fees. So on a recent flight from Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho, she tried to carry all her luggage on the plane.

Q: We rented a car from Enterprise Rent-A-Car at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, N.Y. When we picked it up, we pointed out some nicks and scratches to a representative.

Q: I need your help getting my money back for a plane ticket I had to pay for twice.

Q: I'm writing to you on behalf of my roommate, who is serving overseas in the Navy. She recently paid $1,767 for tickets from Bahrain to Atlanta for two weeks of R&R.

Q: I'm having trouble with a double billing on a rental car, and I need your help undoing one of the charges.

Q: I am writing to you over how Orbitz has misled me and now will not even admit its mistake.

Q: I'm trying to get a refund for lost train tickets. I bought two Amtrak tickets for my sister and me to travel from Osceola, Iowa, to Denver, recently. Then I discovered that my husband, thinking that the envelope contained old information from a recent Amtrak trip I'd taken to Colorado, threw the tickets away.

Q: I've been having some problems with an airline reservation and was wondering if you could help me. I recently had to cancel a reservation I had made through Travelocity.

Q: I hope you can help me persuade Marriott to live up to its commitment. My wife and I are being relocated to the Washington, D.C., area for her work.

Q: I just returned from London, where I had a reservation at the Park Hotel. I had booked the room through Hotwire.com, and was very disappointed with the way things turned out.

Q: I'm having a problem with a travel insurance claim. We went on a Celebrity cruise to the Mediterranean more than a year ago.

Q: I need your help with a Disney vacation that turned out to be a disaster. My family of four joined my sister's family and our mother at Walt Disney World recently.

Q: I'm having refund trouble with an airline. Last year I had to cancel a Lufthansa flight I had booked through Expedia because of a death in my family. The ticket cost $303.

Q: I have a car rental predicament and need your help. My friend and I recently reserved a car through Dollar Rent a Car in Austin, Texas, using Hotwire.com.

Q: We've been ripped off royally by an Internet travel agency. My husband and I took a trip to Grand Cayman a few months ago for our fifth anniversary.

Q: We bought five tickets for a family vacation in Tanzania through Cheapoair.com. A few months later, we found out our daughter would be starting a new job and couldn't make the trip.

Q: I made a huge error when I was making a reservation through Ramada Inn's Web site, and I need your help fixing it.

Q: I recently bought airline tickets to Europe on Expedia. The first leg of my flight was on US Airways, and the second leg was on Iberia.

Q: I am having a difficult time – no, make that an impossible time – collecting a claim for a trip insurance policy. My husband and I bought a policy through Access America for a trip to China. It covered trip interruption and medical expenses, among other things.

Q: I'm having a problem with an involuntary downgrade. I bought a ticket on Virgin Atlantic Airways last March to fly from New York to London in premium economy class.

Q: I'm having a problem with a hotel's valet parking service. We recently stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco. We valet-parked our rental car and didn't pick it up until the next day.

Q: My fiancé and I booked our honeymoon at the Westin Aruba through a travel agent. At the time we made our reservations, we knew the hotel was undergoing some renovations in its lobby. I spoke with our agent and e-mailed the hotel directly to find out if there would still be construction during our honeymoon several months later.

Q: I'm looking for help with what should be an easy refund. A few years ago we gave Princess Cruises a $200 deposit. The credit was valid for four years from the date of issue, and the payment was made on a Capitol One credit card.

Q: I recently found an American Express Business Gold Rewards credit card deal that promised that if I applied and spent $1,000 by a certain date, I would have enough points for a domestic airline ticket.

Q: I have a question about travel insurance that I bought online when I booked airline tickets. Actually, I didn't mean to buy the insurance.

Q: I'm having trouble with a car rental reservation that never went through. I thought I had secured a reservation through Hotwire.com for a car in St. Petersburg, Fla., using its "bill me later" option.

Q: I paid $15 for an international driving permit from AAA for a recent trip to Grenada. According to the travel agency, it should have been recognized as a valid document for driving.

Q: Can you help me get my money back for a rental car? I recently prepaid for a car in Vancouver through Priceline using my debit card.

Question: I am writing because I feel I've exhausted all my options. I recently booked two rooms at the Best Eastern Sovietsky Hotel in Moscow for three nights by phone through Expedia. The total price per room was confirmed at $839, or about $279 a night.