Things To Do In SW Florida

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I booked three nonrefundable airline tickets for my wife and me on United Airlines to fly from Orlando to Rome. United resold the middle seat between us on three of the five flights. I asked for a refund, but United is telling me that I can’t get my money back, since I purchased nonrefundable tickets.

But how can they resell the seats I paid for? I’ve sent emails to the executive contacts for United on your website, but United won’t even give me a travel credit.Can you help me get the $660 back I spent for the extra seat?

— Leigh Roberts, Winter Garden, Florida

ANSWER: United Airlines should have kept the middle seat (that you paid for) empty. United offers the option of buying an extra seat for the same price as your original ticket, if you need more room. This obligates United to keep the seat empty; it can’t resell the seat halfway through the flight.

Your case brings up a long-standing grievance among air travelers. When you have a nonrefundable ticket and can’t make your flight, your airline can resell the ticket, collecting money for the same seat twice. This strikes many air travelers as unfair. In the past, lawmakers have suggested legislating this unfairness and mandating that an airline should refund a nonrefundable ticket if it can resell the seat. But so far, nothing has passed. read more

A 35-acre Osceola County park on the southern shore of Lake Toho is set to get a $19.5 million “glamping” upgrade — with dozens of new lodging units, an amphitheater and an upgraded restaurant — but the proposal is stirring controversy amid statewide debate about the appropriate amount of development in parks.

Environmental advocates are objecting to the plans for Southport Regional Park, which sits just east of the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Wilderness Preserve and is home to wildlife including protected bald eagles, endangered Everglades snail kites and threatened sandhill cranes.

“It sets a bad precedent of selling public land for private ownership and private development,” said Marjorie Holt, Central Florida Sierra Club’s conservation chair. “It now shows Osceola is not committed to maintaining a wildlife-friendly habitat.”

The developer — Boggy Creek Adventures, which operates an airboat concession at the park — insists the project will be sensitively done. But it also comes at a touchy time, in the wake of the August rollout of a controversial plan by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to install recreational amenities including golf courses, pickleball courts and lodges with up to 350 rooms at nine state parks. read more