Why FAA staffing cuts and AI travel agents are changing how you planand protectyour next trip

• FAA staffing cuts and government disruptions may lead to delaysand open the door to more travel targeting stressed flyers.

• AI is being used by both legitimate travel services and scammers, making it critical for travelers to verify messages, calls, and customer service contacts before acting.

• Travelers should adopt a zero-trust mindset, use credit cards for stronger protection, avoid unfamiliar payment methods, and go directly to airline or hotel sites to confirm alerts.

Holiday travel has always come with a little stress, but this year, many travelers are facing a new set of challenges before they even get to the airport.

With news of significant layoffs at the FAA and the rapid rise of AI-powered travel agent tools, the landscape of booking, confirming, and navigating trips looks different than ever. And while the season is still expected to be busy, experts say being informed and prepared can make the difference between a smooth holiday journey and an unexpected headache.

ConsumerAffairs interviewed Clayton LiaBraaten, Senior Executive Industry Expert at Truecaller, to learn more about the importance of going into holiday travel with a little extra awareness and preparation.

The impact of the government shutdown

While the government shutdown has technically ended, travelers are likely to feel the effects throughout the holiday season.

Beyond the expected logistical delays, we are facing a reduced capacity for enforcing consumer protection, which emboldens scammers, LiaBraaten explained. Bad actors know that regulatory bodies are stretched thin, and they will exploit the chaos of delayed flights and staffing shortages.

You can expect a surge in texts and calls claiming that your flight is canceled or your booking has failed, designed to panic you and prompt you to click on malicious links. Scammers thrive on this confusion, using the noise of travel disruption to slip past your defenses.

Know how to ID a scam

For those planning travel this holiday season, LiaBraaten says its crucial to be able to separate critical travel updates from fraud.

Because scammers are now using AI to mimic legitimate companies, you need a platform that uses AI to fight back one that can distinguish a legitimate call from a scam. This ensures that the traveler takes the calls that matter, such as a legitimate update from an airline or hotel concierge, while the software blocks AI-driven fraud attempts that try to steal your credit card number.

Additionally, never rely on a Google search for customer support numbers, as scammers often purchase high-ranking ads with fake numbers to spoof unsuspecting consumers.

Travel insurance?

With busy, crowded airports, is travel insurance worth it this holiday season? LiaBraaten says yes.

Financial travel insurance is vital, but your payment method is your first layer of protection; credit cards offer far superior fraud protection than debit cards and often include insurance that makes you eligible for fraud-related refunds.

Adopting a zero-trust mindset

To have the safest trip possible, LiaBraaten encourages travelers to adopt a "zero trust" mindset regarding unsolicited communication.

Scammers are leveraging AI-powered phishing emails and fake listings that look indistinguishable from the real thing, he explained. We need to fight AI with AI. Fraudsters have weaponized AI to create convincing deepfakes and scripts.

With payment methods, fraudsters will deploy pressure tactics. Never wire money or use gift cards, Zelle, Venmo, or crypto for a travel booking if it wasn't the initial method used; these are favorite tools of scammers because the funds are hard to recover.

Lastly, if you encounter a too-good-to-be-true deal or receive an urgent alert, do not click the link. Type the airline or hotel URL directly into your browser to verify the status.

Why shoppers are tired of the hype and what they actually want from holiday sales

• Many shoppers are feeling Black Friday burnout, with two-thirds saying the nonstop promotions and fake urgency have taken the fun out of the holiday shopping season.

• Consumers still want dealsbut on their own terms, prioritizing real, upfront savings and more intentional shopping instead of impulse-driven spending.

• Black Friday is now a marathon instead of a single day, with sales stretching from October through the New Year, leading shoppers to plan ahead and shop strategically rather than scramble.

If it feels like Black Friday has gotten a little exhausting, youre not alone.

What used to be the excitement of scoring once-a-year deals has turned into a weeks-long countdown filled with flashing timers, last chance warnings, and sales that dont really feel like sales at all. And shoppers are over it.

According to a new survey from TopCashback, conducted by Atomik Research, more than two-thirds of consumers believe brands are using fake urgency to push Black Friday offers. Instead of feeling energized by the holiday shopping season, many people are feeling tapped out and skeptical.

ConsumerAffairs interviewed Destiny Chatman, a shopping and savings expert at TopCashback, to learn what consumers are really interested in this holiday season: honesty over hype.

Black Friday fatigue

TopCashback worked with Atomik Research to survey 2,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and over to learn how they really feel about Black Friday.

The results may be surprising for some consumers. However, one of the biggest takeaways was the general fatigue that many shoppers experience around this time of year.

There are major signs of fatigue among consumers from Black Friday, Chatman explained. Two-thirds of shoppers no longer see it as a one-day event and 68% think brands are creating fake urgency with their deals.

Consumers are overwhelmed by the never-ending promotions, shifting timelines, and pressure to keep up. Its not that shoppers are rejecting deals, but that theyre over the chaos surrounding them and shopping events like Black Friday.

Will this affect sales?

While the deals might still be too good to pass up which is of the utmost priority for many shoppers this feeling of fatigue may affect how consumers shop during Black Friday.

Though we dont expect this fatigue to translate into lower sales this Black Friday, we do expect consumers to shop more strategically than ever, Chatman said.

Fifty-two percent will now shop online instead of in store to avoid the pressure to make impulsive purchases. Eighteen percent say they spend less than they did five years ago. People arent abandoning Black Friday, just approaching it with more intention, more research, and clearer spending boundaries.

A marathon of savings

Part of the Black Friday burnout comes from the seemingly endless stream of sales that have no end in sight. While there are pros and cons to this method, Chatman says that this season as a whole is a prime time of year for shoppers to save on holiday gifts.

Black Friday is still one of the biggest savings moments of the year due to its proximity to the holidays; however, its no longer the only one, she explained. With deals starting in October and stretching through the New Year, Black Friday isnt the only option for major savings.

Forty-three percent of shoppers start hunting for discounts in early November and 32% shop during and after Black Friday. Instead of a single best day of holiday savings, theres now a month-long marathon of savings."

There are emergency releases but owners may not know they're there

• New lawsuit filed over fatal Tesla crash where doors allegedly wouldn't open during rescue attempts

• Federal safety regulators are investigating Tesla door defects after multiple incidents trapped occupants

• Tesla owners may not know how to use manual door releases during emergencies

Another family is suing Tesla after a fatal crash where rescuers allegedly couldn't open the vehicle's doors to save trapped occupants. This latest lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, highlights a growing pattern of Tesla door failures that have turned what should be escape routes into death traps.

What happened in Washington state

Jeffery and Wendy Dennis were running Saturday errands in January 2023 when their Tesla Model 3 "suddenly and rapidly accelerated out of control," according to court documents. The car hit a utility pole and burst into flames.

Multiple bystanders rushed to help, but Tesla's "unique and defective door handle design" made the doors inoperable, the lawsuit claims. Good Samaritans even tried using a baseball bat to break the windows.

Wendy Dennis died at the scene. Her husband survived with severe burns to his legs.

A deadly pattern emerges

This isn't an isolated incident. Recent lawsuits reveal a troubling trend:

• Wisconsin: Five people died in a Model S crash when doors allegedly wouldn't open during a fire

• California: Three college students died of smoke inhalation in a Cybertruck after doors failed to open

• California: Three teenagers died in another Tesla crash with similar door problems

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced in September it's investigating Tesla door defects after reports of exterior handles stopping working and trapping children and other occupants inside.

Why Tesla doors fail when you need them most

Tesla vehicles use electric door handles powered by a low-voltage battery. When this battery dies or gets damaged in a crash, the doors may not unlock electronically.

While Teslas have manual door releases inside the cabin, many owners don't know where they're located or how to use them during an emergency. Tesla's own design chief admitted the company is working on making door handles "more intuitive for occupants in a panic situation."

What you can do right now

If you own or ride in a Tesla, take these steps immediately:

1. Locate the manual door releases in your specific Tesla model - they're different for each car

2. Practice using the manual releases so you can operate them quickly in darkness or smoke

3. Teach all family members and frequent passengers where the releases are located

4. Keep a window-breaking tool in the cabin as a backup escape method

5. Document any door handle malfunctions and report them to NHTSA at nhtsa.gov

6. Consider whether the door risks outweigh the benefits for your family's safety needs

The bottom line

Don't wait for Tesla to solve this problem - learn your manual door releases today, because in a crash, those few seconds of confusion could mean the difference between life and death.

Smaller sandwiches, bigger bill: Paneras math problem

• Paneras quiet shrinkflation (smaller portions, cheaper salads, less service) drove customers away and hurt sales

• The new Panera RISE plan promises bigger, better portions, improved ingredients, and more staff in cafes

• If Panera delivers on their promises, you should see fuller salads and sandwiches, less DIY prep, and clearer cheap vs. splurge options

For years, Panera Bread sold itself as the feel-good fast-casual option: warm bread, big salads, clean ingredients and a place you could camp with a laptop. But quietly, something else was happening. Portions got smaller. Salads got cheaper to make. Labor was cut. And customers noticed.

Now Panera is in full damage-control mode, rolling out a new turnaround plan called Panera RISE to reverse years of traffic declines and a 5% sales drop in 2024 that pushed it from the No. 1 fast-casual chain down to No. 3, behind Chipotle and Panda Express.

How Panera shrinkflated its menu

Shrinkflation is when you quietly give customers less while charging the same (or more).

Panera checked several of these boxes:

Smaller sandwiches at higher prices. In some cases, Panera raised prices and shrunk portions while downgrading ingredients. This was seen as a triple whammy for guests who walked in expecting a premium sandwich and got a lighter, less satisfying version instead.

Salads built to save money, not impress. In the summer of 2024, Panera swapped its all-romaine salad base for a cheaper half-romaine, half-iceberg mix. When all of the sudden you see white iceberg lettuce in your salad, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

And guess what? Customers noticed and told the chain exactly what they thought: iceberg looks pale and unappetizing, and the salads felt very skimpy for the price. Panera listened has now reversed course and gone back to romaine-only salads.

Labor-saving shortcuts that felt like DIY. To save prep time, Panera stopped slicing cherry tomatoes and avocados. Guests had to chase whole cherry tomatoes around their bowl and saw a halved avocado plopped in the salad that they had to cut themselves. Panera now says it will start slicing both again in 2026.

Service shrinkflation, too. Like many chains, Panera cut back on front-of-house staff and leaned hard on self-order kiosks. That might look efficient on a spreadsheet, but it meant guests often walked into a caf and couldnt find a single employee to ask for help.

On top of that, Panera is in the middle of a controversial shift away from its longtime fresh dough model. The company is closing all of its fresh-dough facilities and moving to a par-baked bread system, where dough is prepared and partially baked by third-party bakeries, then frozen and shipped to stores to be finished.

Panera insists the bread will be just as good, but the perception is simple for many:theyre charging more while the product feels less special.

What Panera RISE is trying to fix

The new Panera RISE strategy is basically an admission that the shrinkflation era went too far. The plan rests on four pillars:

• Refreshing the menu higher-quality ingredients; salads rebuilt with better greens and more goodies; new drinks to compete with Starbucks-style beverages.
• Igniting value a barbell menu with cheaper options for budget-conscious appetites alongside higher-end items, instead of everything hovering at a painful mid-teens price point.
• Serving guests with excellence reinvesting in front-of-house labor, updating decade-old kiosks, and making sure there are actual humans visible in the caf again.

In plain English, Panera is promising bigger, better portions, better service, and more value overall.

What this means for you, the customer

If Panera follows through, regulars should start to notice the following:

• Salads that look and feel more substantial (and less pale).
• Sandwiches that stop feeling like they were put on a diet.
• Fewer do it yourself prep moments. Your tomatoes and avocados should arrive ready to eat.
• More visible staff and less hunting for a human behind a row of kiosks.
• A clearer split between budget-friendly options and splurge items so you can decide if Panera fits your wallet that day.

But the bigger lesson here is about shrinkflation in general. Panera tried to protect margins by shaving off a little here, a little there. On paper, that seemed smart and efficient. In real life, customers felt the smaller portions and downgraded ingredients. So many stopped trusting the value, and quietly took their money elsewhere.