If My Toddler Refuses to Wear a Mask on a Flight, What Can I Do?
Posted on 12/15/2020, 2:00 PM
A few days ago, a video—of desperate parents trying to wrangle an overtired two-year-old—went viral. That's a pretty common scenario for a viral video, but in this case, the tot was objecting to wearing a mask on a United flight, and the crew was objecting to the child flying without one. Because the child refused to comply with the airline's mask policy, the family was booted off the plane—and th...
Lie-Flat Sleeping Options Being Tested in Economy Class
Posted on 12/14/2020, 1:00 PM
There's a moment in the film Crazy Rich Asians when it becomes clear that the modern-day Cinderella heroine has actually met a Prince Charming. Rachel, at the airport about to fly to Singapore, is laden with food for the trip, when Nick, her boyfriend, leads her not into economy class but into a super-glam private cabin where, soon, you see them cuddled in bed. You could feel the audience swoon, no...
Will Vaccinations Be Required to Cruise?
Posted on 12/14/2020, 5:00 AM
At a December 9 meeting with the Travel Leaders group, a multinational network of travel agents, Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Frank Del Rio announced that the company is looking into a possible vaccine requirement for passengers. "It’s too early to tell whether we have the legal standing to mandate that you take a vaccine to come on board—lawyers are looking at it as we speak," said Del Rio, accordin...
Meryl Streep's "Let Them All Talk" Is a Realistic Ride Aboard the Queen Mary 2
Posted on 12/11/2020, 1:00 PM
This post contains no spoilers. When movies and TV shows are set on cruise ships and ocean liners, the results are usually a dubious representation of reality. If you only went by what you see on the screen, you'd think passengers always become best pals with the senior officers (The Love Boat), or that the high seas are known for stowaways (the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business), con artists (The La...
Locals from Great World Cities Name the Dishes They Say Represent Them Best
Posted on 12/09/2020, 10:00 AM
Every week or so, you read about a new survey or scientific study that proves something everyone probably already knew. I'm thinking of such headlines as "Cats Like People!" or "Four Ways Eating Sugar Makes You Fat" (my offhand guess: eating it, drinking it, licking it, and, um, eating it). I believe the German word for this phenomenon is NoDuh-enfraude. Just this week, the esteemed Time Out magaz...
Delta and KLM to Begin No-Quarantine Flights Between USA and Europe
Posted on 12/08/2020, 4:00 AM
Last month, Frommer's told you how some airlines have been running special flights on which each passenger has been pre-cleared to fly with a Covid-19 test. Delta Air Lines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are now following suit. Starting December 15, the two carriers will operate flights between Atlanta and Amsterdam that are filled with passengers who have agreed to test for the coronavirus three ...
Vaccine Passports Are Nothing New. Travelers Already Use Them.
Posted on 12/03/2020, 10:00 AM
In an interview on December 3, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said that using vaccine passports to facilitate international travel after the Covid-19 vaccine rollout is "at least interesting enough to consider." For Fauci and other longtime experts in infectious disease, the idea isn't controversial—because vaccination passpor...
It's Official: Emotional Support Animals Can No Longer Fly Free
Posted on 12/02/2020, 2:00 PM
The days of getting free flights for your untrained emotional support Pomeranian are over. The government has closed the doggy door. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a final rule amending the section of the agency's Air Carrier Access Act that deals with service animals. The new rule reclassifies emotional support animals as pets and allows airlines to apply their pet polici...
Immunity Passports Could Be Just Around the Corner
Posted on 12/01/2020, 1:00 PM
Since the onset of the pandemic, rumors of new forms of health identification or "immunity passports" have emerged periodically. But now it looks like a multinational trade organization and at least one major world government are on the verge of making such authorizations a reality. Let's start with the multinational attempt first. Last week the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annou...
When Is the Best Day of the Week to Buy Airfare and Fly in 2021? A New Study Reveals All
Posted on 11/24/2020, 3:00 PM
This year, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will be a measly single block long, Christmas markets around the world are largely canceled, and far fewer people will gather at grandma's house. But one of this travel writer's favorite holiday traditions is proceeding without interruption, much to my delight and astonishment. I'm talking about the annual Travel Trends Report by the Airline Reporting Cor...
