Articles

Jason Cochran

Article / Passportable

Airbnb Gives One Free Night to First-Time Users

Apartment and home rental has been, as most everyone knows by now, one of the booming sectors of the travel industry. And with good reason: It's often much cheaper than renting a…

Article / Passportable

Landing at LAX this Month? Look for the 407-Foot-Wide Vinyl Record

Now that you may finally use your smartphone camera on flights, let the marketing stunts begin!All through January, the Forum, a 45-year-old, circular concert venue about four…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Polar Vortex Grounds 18,000 Flights! Here's Why That's a Good Thing

It's very cold in America right now. The average temperature in the Lower 48 is lower than 48—it's just north of 23 degrees.As weather reports of the Polar Vortex came out,…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Pay $56 a Night to Cruise from L.A. to Japan via Hawaii! Plus 5 More Cruise Deals That Won't Last Long

Princess Cruises' Sapphire PrincessOnce again, we asked the folks at AllThingsCruise.com to fill us in on the best bargains in cruises at the moment. Here's what they…

Article / Passportable

TSA PreCheck Not So Easy if You Enroll Yourself

Recruitment ad from the TSA websiteIn the first phase of the TSA's PreCheck program, the airlines invited their elite members to enroll. That process worked well, since the…

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Cooking with a Hotel Room Hair Dryer

Slow news week! Here's a little offbeat hotel room cooking tip that has been making the rounds. Both NPR and ABC have aired discussions about how to cook simple foods with a hair…

Article / Passportable

Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest Will Not Allow In-Flight Phone Calls

The people are speaking—and the people don't want the people to speak.Both Delta and JetBlue have stepped forward to tell customers they despite loosened federal restrictions,…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Advocacy Group Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Customers Penalized for Writing Negative Review

A few days ago, Arthur Frommer wrote about an incident in which a Utah couple complained their credit was ruined in an act of revenge by a business over a negative online review…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Outside Magazine Publishes Some Solid Advice for Money-Saving Ski Vacations

Arapahoe Basin, Colorado / Photo: Alex KerneyIt's not often a mainstream glossy magazine publishes travel tips that don't push readers toward prohibitively expensive, jet-set,…

Article / Passportable

Best Western is Discounting until February 2, and That Includes the Holidays

Best Western has announced a sale that lasts until February 2, 2014, and surprisingly it includes rooms over the busy holiday period.A 20 percent sale in the middle of Christmas…

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Every Passenger To Get Fast, Free Wi-Fi on JetBlue

Although JetBlue put its free Wi-Fi in place a few weeks ago, giving it time to work out the kinks, today it launched it officially in a big way by loading a group of persnickety…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Today's Top 11 Cruise Deals from AllThingsCruise.com: Something for Every Budget

Princess Cruises' Royal Princess: In Europe Next SummerWe asked the folks at AllThingsCruise.com to fill us in on the best bargains in cruises happening between now and late…

Article / Passportable

Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort Now Generating Power From Rooftop Wind Turbines

On top of the 26th floor of the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, barely visible from A1A and the beach on its doorstep, six wind turbines have just been installed.I…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Property Gets Around Bad TripAdvisor Reviews By Creating a Second Listing, and TripAdvisor Shrugs

Frommer's reader Dave Wyner ran into a troubling problem on the website TripAdvisor.com: A place he stayed had posted two listings to double its exposure.Wyner told us:…

Article / Passportable

New York City's Newest Tourist Attraction: Monthly Concerts By Billy Joel

Las Vegas casino-hotels long ago carved out a healthy tourist industry from installing popular artists in long runs. Elvis will always be the King, of course, but in recent years,…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

The Only Rules You Need to Know for Driving a Car in the United Kingdom and Europe

Over on our busy message boards, the Forums, an interesting conversation has popped up in which Frommer's readers are compiling a list of all the rules a foreign driver would…

Article / Passportable

Handy Discount App HotelTonight Now Offers Discounts from 9am Daily Instead of Noon

The same-day hotel discount app HotelTonight has grown by leaps and bounds since its debut in 2011, going from a coverage of just a few cities to now around 200 locations around the…

Article / Passportable

AppleCare+ Now Lets You Repair Your Apple Products Where You Travel

AppleCare+, and its similar product AppleCare Protection Plan, are like insurance policies for your Apple product—iPhone, iPad, iPod, laptop, and the like. If you crack your…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Introducing Wanderu, the Site that Streamlines the Search for the Cheap Shuttle Bus Services

It had to happen: Kayak for cheapie shuttle buses.New website Wanderu stops budget travelers from having to hunt through multiple sites for cheap bus fares. It grabs search…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

New Hotel Bidding Site Stayful.com Cuts Out the Chains and Slashes Rates on the Boutiques

Although the big Web hotel reservations booking engines are undoubtedly helpful and convenient, they also tend to favor the same old corporate chains. But a newly launched booker…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

An Oversupply of Luxury Hotel Rooms in Prague is Rewarding Tourists with Major Bargains

Prague seems to have gotten a little ahead of itself, at least where luxury hotels are concerned. In the summertime, its nicest four- and five-star properties are fairly full, but in…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Just Like Our Guides, Our Twitter Username is Now Easier to Use: @Frommers!

We've been making everything easier to use at Frommer's. Our guides are now more selective, which makes them light enough to carry on vacation. They're also priced lower—the cover…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Valet Padding: Another Trick Hotels Use to Suck More Cash Out of You

Fairmont Newport Beach: One of many hotels with mandatory valetPretty much everyone thinks resort fees are slimy. Yet the consumer uprising against them has merely simmered for…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Pay-As-You-Use Budget Hotels: Growing Worldwide, But Still Foreign to Americans

Tune Hotel Asoke, BangkokA few years ago in Europe, a new breed of budget hotel began to emerge, epitomized by Lindemann's hotels in Berlin. Although it was a generally…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A New Website Sells Off Non-Refundable Hotel Reservations at Deep Discounts

Often, if you want the cheapest hotel room price, you have to consent to a non-refundable rate, and that makes it impossible to change plans without eating the cost. But a newly…