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Delta Trips Up Legitimate Passenger Not Allowed to Check-In Overseas

Herb and Deb WeisbaumVeteran consumer reporter Herb Weisbaum, known as the ConsumerMan, recently was coming back from a vacation in London with his wife when they had difficulty checking in for the Delta flight home.

The check-in kiosk at Heathrow airport asked him to swipe the credit card with which he purchased the tickets. Being a cautious international traveler, Herb left most of his credit cards at home including the one used to buy the tickets.

A Delta supervisor said she could not issue boarding passes without his card to help prevent credit card fraud. Having a passport was not good enough. He was given several options, one worse than the next:

  • Buy two new tickets for about $6,000,
  • Somehow get a picture of the card used to purchase the tickets, or
  • Have someone go to his hometown airport in Seattle with his card.

    • Herb decided to call his next door neighbor at 3 a.m. Seattle time, give him instructions on how to get into his house, and have him text a picture of the credit card to London.

    Why in the world were passengers like my friend not explicitly told they needed to fly with the credit card that was used to purchase the tickets? A Delta spokesperson pointed to a link on the Delta website:

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    “To safeguard against credit/debit card fraud, the purchaser may have to show us the credit/debit card along with a valid photo ID. The time varies based on the billing address of the credit/debit card or the country of travel. If the purchaser is not traveling, they can show us their credit/debit card and ID at an airport ticket counter or another ticket office location, whichever is most convenient.”

    Poking around online, MrConsumer found complaints dating back as many as 14 years about Delta’s surprise policy.

    One would hope by now the airline would have figured out how to better communicate this unexpected and potentially costly policy to customers. What do you think?

    You can read Herb’s full story here.

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    Hotel Charged Our Reader $566 Falsely Claiming They Caught Him Smoking

    This past summer, we told you about a travel writer who was falsely accused of smoking in his hotel room and was charged $500 for doing so. The hotel used a supposedly sophisticated smoke detection system in guest rooms.

    One of our readers posted a comment that the same thing had just happened to him and his wife at a big Las Vegas hotel:

    Las Vegas Venetian Scam! Yeah don’t stay at the Venetian. Was there 4 days for our anniversary trip.

    Everything was going perfect until checkout July, 17th. They charged us $566.90 for smoking in a room because they received an alert on their so called “100% accurate sensor Freshair. Funny thing is wife and I have never smoked a day in our life or smoked that one night they said it went off. Tried to be diplomatic upon check out only to be kicked down the road. What an insult. How stupid do they think people are? Being non smokers we support non smoking hotels and don’t even think about the sensors. But to accuse someone without any kind of investigation or show a print out of the alarm is unbelievable. Only a verbal time of approximately 11:52pm given. Tried to ask valid questions but they could not be answered.

    We followed up with our reader to get more details. When he got home he did two things — he filed a dispute with his bank and he and his wife went to get a nicotine and drug test. They passed the tests which was no surprise because they are very careful in their home because their son was born with a lung disease.

    I also directed him to Seth Kugel at the New York Times who writes the “Tripped Up” travel help column. Seth followed up with the hotel, but they refused to provide the proof that their monitoring system caught the Turners smoking.

    All was not lost, however, because after a three-month investigation, the Turners’ bank, Hancock Whitney, sided with them, and reversed the hotel’s charge:

    smoking fee reversal

    Congratulations to our consumer who fought hard and won. And hat’s off to his bank for taking an interest in his case. Unlike credit cards, debit cards like the one used by this consumer don’t have traditional chargeback rights by law, but the bank put through a claim anyway to Visa, perhaps as a fraudulent or unauthorized charge.

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    Thanks for Nothing – Fall 2025

    Every few months we spotlight offers from companies that are real head-scratchers, are actually less generous than they appear, are just plain outrageous, or may simply elicit a chuckle. Here’s the latest crop.

    T-Mobile Free iPhone 17 Offer

    Those of us of a certain age remember the FEDEX commercials where John Moshitta rapid-talked his way to stardom. It seems that T-Mobile found their own new rapid-talker to disclose all the catches involved in their offer for a free iPhone Pro 17.

    Listen to the last 17 seconds of this commercial — mostly unintelligible for the average person.

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    Thanks for nothing, T-Mobile.

    High Beef Prices

    MrConsumer did a double-take a few weeks ago when he saw this $38 price tag on a three-pound chuck steak at his local supermarket.

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    Chuck Steak $11.99 /lb

    When I was a kid, chuck steak was 39-cents a pound on sale! Now it’s $11.99. High demand and shrinking supplies they say is to blame. With prices like that for the cheapest type of steak, demand is sure to fall.

    But perhaps we should be thankful for the relative bargain that chuck steak is compared to three pounds of Wagyu steak at Costco at ten times the price:

    Wagyu steak

    Thanks for nothing, Stop & Shop, Costco, and all the other grocery stories charging outrageous prices for beef.

    Home Depot Free Tool Offer

    An email from Home Depot made a tempting offer right in the subject line promising a free Milwaukee expansion tool (whatever that is). When you open the email, the recipient is probably surprised to learn there is a $3,000 minimum purchase necessary!

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    Free tool

    Thanks to David B. for this submission, but thanks for nothing, Home Depot.

    Gizmodo Charger Offer

    On Gizmodo’s deal page recently they promoted a three-port phone charger as “almost free.”

    Almost free charger

    However, when you scroll down, you learn the charger isn’t anywhere near “almost free.”

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    Not almost free

    Thanks for nothing, Gizmodo.

    Walmart Mayonnaise Price Rollback

    Everyone knows when you see a rollback sign at Walmart, that signals a price drop.

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    Walmart rollback

    This must be the new math. Thanks for nothing, Walmart.

    Groupon Deal at AMC Theatres

    It looked like quite a deal at AMC to get a movie ticket and a snack for only $5.03 with a Groupon discount.

    Groupon AMC deal

    *MOUSE PRINT:

    It turns out that only the drink was $5.03. The movie was an additional $12.

    Groupon discounted drink

    Groupon discounted movie ticket

    Thanks for nothing, Groupon.

    If you find an offer suitable to be called out here, please send a copy of it to Edgar(at symbol)MousePrint.org . Thanks.

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