Price-fixing on fuel surcharges is something that really burns Clark up. What a joke; the cost of a barrel of oil is lower today than it was a year ago. Yet if you buy an international ticket today, you'll almost certainly get ripped off by these bogus surcharges.

A new study from USA Today and FareCompare.com shows that surcharges are not in any way related to the distance you're flying. A shorter international flight can have a higher surcharge than a longer one. It's not legal to fix a price in the United States, but that's exactly what's going on here.

In another example, Christa found a $65 roundtrip international fare -- but when she added in the junk fees it was over $400! Clark says if they want to charge more, fine, do it. But don't lie to customers with phony fuel surcharges.

New Jersey senator Robert Menendez is the only member of Congress making any noise about this perversion of capitalism in the airline industry. Senator Menendez wrote the CEOs of 11 airlines to complain about fuel surcharges. Meanwhile, Clark has heard anecdotally that people are on a buyer's strike over these pricy international tickets.

Yet some things about travel are getting better. Hotels are a deal as people aren't flying and car rental rates are low. Clark is getting his next rental for $16/day -- and he thinks even that is too much! In another example, tourist attractions are cutting prices because they have no customers. So if you can drive somewhere for vacation, then you're getting a real steal of a deal as the cost of gasoline drops.

Finally, the TSA will have a new procedure coming that will allow you to pack big bottles again -- no more of the 3-ounce containers. This is not in place yet, but it's coming at a soon-to-be-determined date.

A few weeks ago, Clark told you about some trouble he had with Orbitz during a recent trip to visit his affiliates at WDBO in Orlando. After he went on the air with the story, he realized that he hit a nerve with people who have had trouble booking travel online. The Orbitz customer no service experience prompted Team Clark to take a look at Travelocity and Expedia. Clark's producer Kim had to contact Expedia 8 times to get a response. Travelocity answered promptly, but here's the sad truth about Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity: None of them have real travel agents answering the phones. They outsource customer no service across the globe to people who may have never left the borders of their own country. Why would you pay these companies a service fee to book with them when you can't get an experienced travel agent to help you?

Clark and Christa were recently in Milwaukee visiting affiliates at WTMJ. Clark was reading the Financial Times of London and there was an insert about Mauritius. That's where Clark's initial call to Orbitz was bounced. During the call, he spoke to a lovely woman with an intriguing accent who wasn't really able to help resolve his issue. That's symbolic of the problem with customer service at these online travel sites. Know that if you do book with these big outfits, they all deliver major customer no service. After all, there aren't any actual employees or actual travel agents available to help you!

Were you one of those cruise customers who got hit with a fuel surcharge fee after you booked on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity? Florida's attorney general has reached a deal to refund this rip-off surcharge to customers. The cruise industry is controlled by a small number of players who act in utter arrogance, so Clark is pleased to see this latest development. He completely supports the right of any business to jack their rates to whatever they want before a sale. But to tack on bogus fees after the fact is disgusting. While the attorney general deserves kudos, where was the FTC on this issue?

Clark has a personal experience of customer-no-service to relate that dovetails very nicely with all the talk of the ACSI results and the Business Week cover story. The penny-pinching guru was recently in Orlando with his associate producer Joel, marking his 10th anniversary of syndication at WDBO. The affiliate wanted Clark to book his own hotel because Clark usually thinks they overpay for his accommodations. Clark enlisted Christa's help, and she found rooms for $57/night on Orbitz. Being 24 years old and a lover of CouchSurfing.com, Joel does not have high standards when it comes to hotels. But even he thought the place was a dump! So Joel and Clark immediately checked out. Clark went on Hotwire and found a last-minute place that was great. Then he called Orbitz to get a refund of what he paid for the first hotel. He initially spoke to a lovely customer service rep in Mauritius, but was then bumped around 7 times to different people with no resolution. Each time he had to explain his situation anew. It was like Groundhog Day. Clark also tried e-mailing Orbitz but didn't get any response. He doesn't like to use his platform to air personal vendettas, but this just goes to show that even consumer advocates can get the short end of the customer-no-service stick.

Clark is a frequent traveler, and it's not too long ago that he recalls people queuing up in airports at endless banks of payphones. The mad rush for payphones in the pre-cell phone days gave rise to a dangerous crime called shoulder surfing. Criminals would pretend to videotape family members near the gates, but they'd really be filming people punching in their long-distance calling card numbers. The crooks would turn around and sell those codes all around the country within minutes of filming.

The days of shoulder surfing are now long gone; payphones may be the next to go. AT&T has announced that it's getting out of the payphone business. There are some 300 million people in our country and more than 250 million of them have cell phones. The 50 million that don't is largely made up of children, such as Clark's 2-year-old son and his 8-year-old daughter. But while we no longer have to worry about shoulder surfing, we can still fall victim if our cell phones are stolen. Clark gets tons of calls from people who get stuck with a huge bill when criminals make international calls on their phones. So it may be wise to get your international long distance blocked. At the very least, be sure to report your phone stolen as soon as possible. That way you'll be able to avoid this costly mess. On a related note, Continental Airlines in Houston now allows you to check in with your cell phone just by showing your e-boarding pass.

The airlines are behaving so badly these days. Continental is often thought of as delivering the best customer service, yet something might be going wrong judging from the slew of recent horror stories Clark's been hearing. First there was the tale of Continental's sewage-filled flight from Europe to New Jersey. Apparently there was a malfunctioning toilet that wasn't fixed before takeoff. It spilled raw sewage up and down the aisles all across the Atlantic. The company's response to that incident was lame at best.

Now there's been another Continental snafu that's caught Clark's attention. This one concerns a passenger revolt that took place on a grounded Continental flight, and it was first reported in The Baltimore Sun. About two weeks ago, a flight from Venezuela to Newark, N.J., was diverted to Baltimore because of bad weather. Once the plane touched ground, it sat on the tarmac for five to seven hours. Worse still, the passengers had no food, no water and no working toilets or toilet paper. So some travelers began rhythmically clapping their hands in protest while others beat out an accompaniment on the overhead bins. The unrest caused the pilot to radio the police, who put the passengers in a hallway with what some have called an "attack dog." Continental doesn't even deny the facts. The airline only says that the airport couldn't make proper arrangements. But the airport denies this version of the story. What this all points to is the need for a federal passenger bill of rights that guarantees food, water and working toilets during a delay, plus the provision that after a plane is delayed for three hours on the tarmac the passengers will be brought back to the terminal. So far only JetBlue has even come close with its own passenger bill of rights that promises to pay customers if there are any delays.