Tales from Consumer Advocacy Land

Real stories. Real rescues. Real advice.

🌻If you celebrate, Happy Easter! If you don’t, happy springtime Sunday evening.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their outpouring of concern and encouraging words last week. It meant a lot to me. I’ll tell you more about what I am navigating next week when I have a bit more time to write. At the moment, I am in the thick of it.   😬

But today, I have a few new articles for you.

First up: Easily avoidable travel mistakes that ruin trips and cost thousands.

I’ve seen it all in my years as a consumer advocate. With spring break and summer vacation season on the horizon, I’m sharing the top disastrous mistakes I see travelers making.

Next: Over at Fodor’s Travel, I’ll tell you all the ways you can save money and protect yourself during your next car rental.

Of course, I have some other stories you may have missed the first time around as well.

😬How was my American Airlines flight on time, but I arrived on the wrong day?

✈️Surprise! You just got banned from flying. Now what?

Before I forget, I also want to mention that I was overwhelmed by the response to our new paid subscription/contribution option, which allows our readers to voluntarily support the independent journalism and consumer advocacy work we do here each week. If you missed that announcement, I’ll just give you the Reader’s Digest version.

Basically, Google is making it nearly impossible for independent publishers to remain viable through display advertising. The AI Overview and AI Mode, ChatGPT, and other similar AI programs deliver answers to almost any question directly to searchers, extracting information from existing articles published on the Internet. Back in the day (before 2022), Google would point searchers to the article itself, which would take them to the actual webpage - it was a perfect relationship between online publishers and Google. But now Google is visiting the source destination, extracting the information, and handing it over without sending traffic back to the original content, author, or website.

For organizations that depend on ad revenue to sustain themselves, like Consumer Rescue, it’s been terrible. That’s why you are seeing many organizations put their content behind paywalls and only show it to paid subscribers. As I mentioned last week, I won't be doing that. But in response to many readers asking how to support our mission, I’ve set up a system for voluntary paid subscriptions. There won’t be paywalls, hidden content, or any prizes or awards. This isn’t a gimmick; it’s simply a way to try to solve a problem all online publishers face in the age of AI.

😃If you’ve ever benefited from what we do here at Consumer Rescue and you have the urge to support our work, here’s how.

Do you have an opinion about today's articles? Want to share a suggestion? I love to hear from you.

Our site's comment section is open and ready for you to offer your thoughts. You can also add your comments under our articles on the Consumer Rescue Facebook page.

Or you can join our "Consumer Rescue: What's Your Problem?" Facebook group. It's a community where we can discuss consumer issues, solve real-time problems, chat about consumer news and our articles, and get quick answers to questions. Members can also share tips, guidance, and travel experiences.

It's a private group, so only members can see what's inside. We hope to see you there!

🤗Welcome to all our new subscribers! We're delighted to have you here with us. 

*Ps. If you've received this newsletter as a forward, here's how to subscribe. 

Friends! Don’t be shy. Sharing our newsletter with other like-minded consumers is a great way to show your support for our mission!

Until next time 😃

Don't forget! Consumer Rescue is just a click away. One of us is always here to answer your questions. 

Of course, you can always reach me at [email protected]