Articles

Jason Cochran

Article / Air Travel

Southwest Airlines Announces Date Open Seating Ends—So There'll Be No Special Reason to Fly It

We know you've heard this greatest hit from an American corporation many times before: A product is being made much worse because you allegedly demanded it.Southwest Airlines, which…

Article / Car, Bus, Rail

More European Cities Are Throwing in Free Public Transit for Visitors: Here's Where

Here's a lesson that some destinations we could name might stand to learn.When you make tourists feel welcome, everybody wins.Guided by that principle, the city of Salzburg, Austria,…

Article / Air Travel

In Parts of Europe, They're Letting You Fly with Up to 2 Liters of Liquid Now

On July 8, at the moment U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was throwing a fancy press event for the cameras to announce the end of the Transportation Security…

Article / Air Travel

Warning: Priority Pass Airport Lounge Access via Credit Cards Is Increasingly Futile

Access at more than 1,300 airport lounges worldwide is granted through the Priority Pass program for people with some of the most popular credit cards in travel. Those cards include…

Article / Miscellaneous

New Executive Order Demands National Park Price Hikes for International Tourists

On the day before Independence Day, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to make international visitors pay more to visit America's national parks. In a confusing new…

Article / Health, Insurance, Security

Rise in Measles Prompts Popular Caribbean Destination to Require Vaccination to Visit

There has been an update to this story. See the bottom of this post. The United States has logged at least 1,200 measles cases so far in 2025. Although the U.S. had declared the…

Article / Cruise

Mexico's Tax on Cruisers, Soon to Be $21, Has Taken Effect: Is It Really a Big Deal?

Late last year, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump wasn't even in the White House yet when he threatened Mexico with a new 25% tariff. When he did that, Mexico slapped back fast. The…

Article / Car, Bus, Rail

Hertz Is Using AI Scanners to Charge for Rental Car Damage That Human Eyes Miss

Hertz is not a company known for mastering technology. After all, it was just a few years ago that dozens of former customers accused the car rental agency of ordering them to be…

Article / Hotels

As Las Vegas Tourism Craters, Resort Fees Are Waived at Some Hotels

Las Vegas is hurting. Tourism numbers are nosediving, and the operators of casino-hotels are scrambling. In April, the city reported a drop of 180,000 visitors compared to the same…

Article / Local Experiences

It’s Time to Re-enact the French Revolution—Using a Free Walking Tour App by Paris!

The French have always been exceptionally talented at anticipating global appetites. They set the trends in high fashion and in wine. They were the first to send help to the North…

Article / Miscellaneous

U.S. Senate to Force Sale of Millions of Acres of Publicly Owned Vacationland

There is an update to this story at the bottom of the post.The U.S. Senate is marking public lands to be pillaged, and preservation groups are sounding the alarm to call fans of…

Article / Miscellaneous

New Federal Junk Fee Rules Are in Effect: What to Look for, How to Report Violations

All right, savvy shoppers. It's been a month since the new federal rules about fee disclosures have kicked in. Are you seeing a difference in your online shopping?It's not often that…

Article / Air Travel

Your Personal Airline Data Is Secretly Being Sold to U.S. Homeland Security

Perhaps it surprises nobody that in this age of meaningless digital privacy protections, the U.S. government has been secretly buying up data about airline passengers.But that's what…

Article / Theme Park

Disney's Iconic Riverboat and Island Will Be Removed Forever As of July 7

Castle in the middle. Railroad traipsing around. Man-made "mountains" concealing family rides. A meandering waterway through an American frontier landscape. The periodic hoot of a…

Article / Air Travel

U.S. Airlines Caught Charging Solo Passengers More

There are lots of ways that the travel industry punishes you for traveling solo, including higher cruise fares and higher group tour prices. But those upcharges are usually based on…

Article / Arts and Culture

V&A East Storehouse, Where You Can Touch V&A's Treasures, Opens in London

Tim Reeve, the deputy director of London's world-famous V&A applied arts institution, says that most of the world's biggest museums only have space to display about 3% of their…

Article / Air Travel

Standing Airline Seats Are Reportedly Coming in 2026. That News Doesn't Sit Well

When you have covered travel news for 25 years, as I have, you notice that certain stories flare up with the regularity of heartburn. Such it is with standing airline seats, a sizzling…

Article / Air Travel

Delta Air Lines Will End Basic Economy and Revise Fare Categories

Delta Air Lines is tired of using the word economy. The airline industry simply can't seem to settle on the name for its most common airfare seat class. Just like most carriers ditched…

Article / Air Travel

The U.S. Gets 4 New Nonstop Flights to Portugal's Beaches and Islands

Portugal is a delightful country to visit—especially for its beaches, Mediterranean cuisine, and indisputable appeal in warm-weather months. But the country can take some effort to…

Article / Road Trips

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's New Series, 'Long Way Home': 'It Makes Us Very Proud'

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman aired their first travel series, Long Way Round, in 2004. So much was different then. When the two appealing actors and friends announced they planned…

Article / Health, Insurance, Security

Flyers without REAL ID Asked to Arrive 3 Hours Early (Or Just Bring This Instead)

REAL ID is a case study of how constantly shifting politics in the United States makes it nearly impossible to get constructive long-term projects done. First developed in 2001 after a…

Article / National Parks

Trump Budget Cuts Could 'Wipe Out' Operations for At Least 350 National Park Units

"The president's proposed budget plan is beyond extreme. It is catastrophic."That's what Theresa Pierno, the head of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in an urgent…

Article / Money and Fees

People are Boycotting Travel to the USA. Use That to Save Money—and Jobs

Like it or not, it's happening. International visitors are avoiding the United States.  U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) counts say that crossings of the northern border…

Article / Air Travel

What Each of Southwest Airlines' New Fare Classes Buys You

Southwest Airlines has been going through some things—operational meltdowns, backtracking on customer perks, scorching mockery on Saturday Night Live—but it wants you to believe…

Article / Air Travel

LAX Finally Gets Metro Service: How to Use It to Reach LA

Flying into LAX can feel like landing in a much poorer city than Los Angeles. For many of the 75 million passengers who use LAX each year, the experience is miserable.It's…