The “Navigator” column in the travel section (Herald, May 8) described subcompact cars being rented as midsize and ever-shrinking economy airline seats. As a frequent traveler, I am well aware of the many misrepresentations and reductions in service in the travel industry. While there may be nothing we can do about uninhabitable coach airline seats – except spring for first or business class, or stay in beautiful Durango – there is something that can be done about the misrepresentation by rental car companies.
Terms that describe car size have a legal meaning, as the Environmental Protection Agency rates each car make and model with terms like subcompact, compact midsize and large, based on passenger volume. As these terms are thus “legal terms of art,” a rental company describing a car as something it clearly and legally isn’t is fraud that should be reported to the Consumer Fraud Division of the attorney general’s office in the state where the fraud occurred. While one such complaint against a car rental agency might not have much effect, a large volume of complaints from the public will.
The travel industry is one of the worst offender as to false and misleading advertising, along with many other abuses of travelers. In our current regulatory climate (or lack thereof), there is little that can be done to cause correction of most of these abuses. But misrepresentation of the size of rental cars by categorizing them with terms other than the legal meaning of those terms is actionable. And action should be taken by all victims of this fraud, so perhaps we can stop at least one abuse of travelers.
Richard Ruth
Durango
