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Consumers should do their research before giving in to Travel Tuesday temptation

Tue, 12/02/2025 - 03:00

By CORA LEWIS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Chain stores have Black Friday. Online marketplaces have Cyber Monday. For local businesses, it’s Small Business Saturday.

In the last 20 years, more segments of the retail industry have vied for their own piece of the holiday shopping season. The travel trade has firmly joined the trend with another post-Thanksgiving sales push: Travel Tuesday.

On the same day as the nonprofit world’s Giving Tuesday, airlines, hotels, cruise ship companies, travel booking platforms and tour operators get in on the annual spirit to spend by promoting one-day deals. Consumer advocates say there are legitimate savings to be had but also chances to be misled by marketing that conveys a false sense of urgency.

“People see ‘40 percent off’ and assume it’s a once-in-a-lifetime steal, without recognizing that the underlying price may have been inflated or that the same itinerary was cheaper last month.” Sally French, a travel expert at personal finance site NerdWallet, said.

She and other seasoned travelers advised consumers who want to see if they can save money by booking trips on Travel Tuesday to do research in advance and to pay especially close attention to the fine print attached to offers.

People hoping to score last-minute deals for Christmas or New Year’s should double-check for blackout dates or other restrictions, recommended Lindsay Schwimer, a consumer expert for the online travel site Hopper.

It’s also wise to to keep an eye out for nonrefundable fares, resort fees, double occupancy requirements or upgrade conditions that may be hidden within advertised discounts, according to French.

Shoppers should be wary of travel packages with extra transportation options or add-on offers, French said. Instead of lowering fares or room rates, some companies use statement credits, extra points, included amenities and bundled extras as a way to tempt potential customers, she said.

“Many travel brands want to keep sticker prices high to maintain an aura of luxury, but they still need to fill planes, ships and hotel rooms,” French said. “Add-on perks are their workaround.”

Consumers who are prepared rather than impulsive and on the lookout for the up-sell are in a much better position to identify authentic bargains, consumer experts stressed. Knowing what a specific trip would typically cost and comparison shopping can help expose offers based on inflated underlying costs and whether the same itinerary might have been cheaper at other times, they said.

“Compare prices, check your calendar and make sure the trip you’re booking is something you genuinely want, not something you bought because a countdown timer pressured you,” French said. “What gets glossed over is that the best deal might be not booking anything at all if it doesn’t align with your plans.”

Travel Tuesday came about based on existing industry trends. In 2017, Hopper analyzed historical pricing data and found that in each of the nine previous years, the biggest day for post-Thanksgiving travel discounts was the day after Cyber Monday.

The site named the day Travel Tuesday. The number of offers within that time-targeted window and the number of travelers looking for them has since expanded.

“Nearly three times as many trips were planned on Travel Tuesday last year compared to Black Friday,” Hopper’s Schwimer said. “We continue to see growth in the day, year over year, as more travel brands and categories offer deals.”

The event’s origin story is in line with the National Retail Federation coining Cyber Monday in 2005 as a response to the emerging e-commerce era. American Express came up with Small Business Saturday in 2010 to direct buyers and their dollars to smaller retailers, credit card fees and all.

A report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company last year noted that November and December tend to be slow months for travel bookings, making Travel Tuesday a “marketing moment” that could help boost revenue.

Hotel, cruise and and airline bookings by U.S. travelers increased significantly on Travel Tuesday 2023 compared with the two weeks before and after the day, the report’s authors wrote, citing data provided by the travel marketing platform Sojern.

While Travel Tuesday so far has been mostly confined to the United States and Canada, “European travel companies can anticipate the possibility that Travel Tuesday will become a growing phenomenon in their region, given that other shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have spread beyond North America,” the report stated.

Vivek Pandya, lead insights analyst for Adobe Analytics, which tracks online spending, said consumers have more tools than ever this holiday season to help them determine if deals hold up to scrutiny.

“Social journeys, influencers providing promo codes and values, and generative AI platforms taking all that in – the prices, the social conversation, the reviews – and giving guidance to the consumer, that’s a very different, dynamic kind of journey consumers are taking than they have in previous seasons,” Pandya said.

Both he and French emphasized that prices rise and fall based on multiple factors, and that the winter holidays are not the only major promotional period of the year.

“We now have dozens of consumer spending ‘holidays,’” French said. “Amazon alone keeps adding new versions of Prime Day. So if you don’t buy on Travel Tuesday, you haven’t missed your moment.”

The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Manatee protection may be eroded under Trump administration’s proposed changes to Endangered Species Act

Tue, 12/02/2025 - 03:00

In the wild, Florida’s manatees already face threats from cold stress, habitat loss, boat strikes and other human activities.

Now advocates worry about the potential peril that manatees may encounter from the Trump administration’s proposed changes to federal implementation of the Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists say the proposed rollbacks could threaten the lives of sea cows through further habitat degradation, pollution and the adverse effects of development.

“I’ve spent 50-some years trying to get [manatees] to a place where they’re going to be around and they’re going to be a part of a healthy, sustainable ecosystem,” said Pat Rose, executive director of Save the Manatee Club. “If these changes occur, it’s going to be a huge battle going forward.”

The Trump administration says the modifications — which would change how agencies manage species and habitat under the act, not the act itself — are aimed at curbing “regulatory overreach.”

One of the proposed revisions includes rescinding the “blanket rule” that affords animals and plants listed as threatened, such as the Florida manatee, the same strict protections automatically given to the more critically at-risk animals and plants on the Endangered Species List. Instead, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be tasked with making species-specific rules, a process that could be time and labor-intensive.

Another change will allow “consideration of economic impacts” when deciding whether to include an area as protected ‘critical habitat’ for a species, allowing for cost-benefit studies rather than solely focusing on science.

Earlier this year, FWS also proposed a rule change that would revise the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act, in effect allowing modification or degradation of endangered species’ habitats that have historically been protected under the law.

“When you deregulate or when you chip away at the framework of this bedrock conservation law by undermining it piece by piece, trying to pull out critical pieces that make it successful, it puts species and their habitats back at risk,” said Katherine Sayler, southeast representative with Defenders of Wildlife.

A Florida manatee comes up for a breath near Hunter Spring during a tour with Crystal River Watersports in Crystal River on Nov. 19. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

Florida manatees were first protected by Florida state law in 1893, but federal legislation — the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 — established the bedrock conservation laws that protect manatees to this day, which also includes protection of their habitat.

The Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of roughly 291 species since 1973 and has saved more than 99% of listed species under its protection, according to a 2019 study.

These safeguards helped Florida manatees to rebound from an estimated 1,267 manatees in 1991 to an estimated 8,350 to 11,730 manatees in the state based on 2021-2022 surveys.

A Florida manatee swims through the clear water of Three Sisters Springs during a tour with Crystal River Watersports in Crystal River on Nov. 19. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

Though the gentle giants have recovered substantially in recent decades, the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife says the proposed changes could diminish the gains of the Florida manatee and push them further towards endangered status.

From December 2020 to April 2022, manatees in the Indian River Lagoon experienced an “Unusual Mortality Event” (UME) due to a lack of forage. An overabundance of phosphorus and nitrogen in the estuary — the result of leaking septic tanks, wastewater spills, stormwater runoff and over-fertilization of lawns — caused algae blooms that choked out the natural seagrass that manatees rely upon to survive. The UME was tied to the death of more than 1,200 manatees.

A Florida manatee and calf float in Three Sisters Springs during a tour with Crystal River Watersports in Crystal River on Nov. 19. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

To date in 2025, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has counted nearly 600 manatee deaths, including 91 caused by watercraft and 130 perinatal deaths of manatee calves less than 5 feet in length.

The fear among manatee advocates is that rolling back habitat protections could exacerbate the habitat loss that has dramatically accelerated in recent years.

Another proposed change would introduce a two-step process for designating critical habitat that favors currently occupied areas while creating a higher standard for designating unoccupied but potentially significant habitat. Yet another would weaken the requirements for interagency cooperation and consultations, opening the door for federal agencies to approve resource extraction and development projects without assessing future impact to threatened and endangered species or their habitats, according to Defenders of Wildlife.

“Projects may go forward without the level of attention to, ‘What are the effects on species’ habitats going to be?’ What you don’t measure, you can’t mitigate,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “It’s just putting the blinders on to one of the five major drivers of extinction, which is habitat loss.”

A Florida manatee swims through the clear water of Three Sisters Springs during a tour with Crystal River Watersports in Crystal River on Nov. 19. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

The U.S. Department of the Interior said the changes are aimed at advancing “American energy independence” and improving “regulatory predictability,” according to a news release.

“These revisions end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach, delivering certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in the release.

A Florida manatee rests in Three Sisters Springs during a tour with Crystal River Watersports in Crystal River on Nov. 19. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

Critics argue that the changes will favor industry interests and profit over actual species conservation goals.

“The question is, ‘Who benefits?’ Certainly not the species,” Davenport said. “That deregulatory agenda certainly favors the few over the many.”

Sayler said that manatees can help indicate what’s happening with Florida’s broader environment.

“They’re an umbrella species and a sentinel species. When manatees are doing well, so many other marine species benefit,” she said. “They also tell us when things are not quite right with an estuary, a watershed or a system.”

A Florida manatee rests in Three Sisters Springs during a tour with Crystal River Watersports in Crystal River on Nov. 19. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

There’s also more than sea cows at stake. When manatees benefit, so do economic, fishing and tourism interests. When the ecosystem suffers, so can humans.

“I think in Washington some have lost sight of the fact that we’re dependent on a healthy ecosystem,” said Elizabeth Fleming, senior Florida representative with Defenders of Wildlife. “We can’t thrive if we’re breathing polluted air, eating polluted food and drinking polluted water.”

A public comment period is currently open through Dec. 22 for the public to weigh in on the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act. Comments can be made by visiting federalregister.gov/agencies/fish-and-wildlife-service.

Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com.

Miss Manners: My mother-in-law’s holiday-card habit is insulting, sexist

Tue, 12/02/2025 - 02:47

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Due to a computer meltdown earlier this year, I had to rebuild my holiday greeting card address list.

When I asked my mother-in-law to share her list from that side of the family, I was flummoxed to find that she addresses her cards as “Mr. and Mrs. Husband’s Name” — e.g., John and Jane Smith would be addressed as “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith.”

While I know this used to be a correct form of address, I (married for 15 years and using my husband’s last name) find this sexist and would be somewhat insulted to be addressed as “Mrs. Husband’s Name.”

I imagine that in this day and age, there are quite a few other female friends and relatives that would feel likewise. There are so many other alternatives — the holiday cards may be addressed to “The Smiths,” “The Smith family,” “Mr. John and Mrs. Jane Smith,” for example.

Should I bring up the subject with my mother-in-law? I had not realized the issue previously because we live in the same town, and she typically gives us our cards in person rather than through the mail.

GENTLE READER: When people want to insult their friends, Christmas cards are probably not their weapon of choice.

Or so Miss Manners would think. But you — and others, no doubt — think otherwise.

So here is an idea for an advance Christmas present for your mother-in-law: Offer to update her list by asking each of her friends how they wish to be addressed.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a young woman who has recently moved into a larger city. I am not comfortable interacting with strange men on the street who ask passersby for change or attention.

It seems that most of my peers respond to such requests by ignoring them, but I dislike the contempt expressed in ignoring anyone. I prefer to give a polite “No, thank you,” “I’m sorry, no” or “Excuse me, please,” and then move on.

Unfortunately, since these gentlemen are used to being ignored, my more polite evasions serve only to encourage them to continue these unwanted conversations.

I feel that if I give in and begin ignoring people on the street, I will be allowing the rudeness of others to force me into rudeness myself. However, I do not care to spend every day disengaging from conversations with very persistent strangers who see every tactic for evasion — except for silence — as encouragement.

Any suggestions as to how to handle such tricky situations would be appreciated.

GENTLE READER: You are not supposed to be comfortable interacting with strange gentlemen on the street. Evidence that people are destitute and desperate should make you uncomfortable. And so should solvent strangers who have personal designs on you.

However, Miss Manners is reluctant to discourage you from responding initially with those polite phrases when they might serve to acknowledge the humanity of the unfortunate. That does not oblige you to continue with an exchange. Whether they are seeking your money or your acquaintance, you should react to aggressive behavior by moving away.

Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, gentlereader@missmanners.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.