Auf Wiedersehen, Airplane Mode! Europe Allows Smartphone Use on Flights
Posted on 12/02/2022, 5:00 PM
Passengers on flights within the European Union will soon be able to use their cell phones with no restrictions, thanks to a decision by the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's governing body. "Airlines will be able to provide the latest 5G technology on their planes, alongside previous mobile technology generations," a press release from the Commission states. That would mean no more hav...
In Spain, Cheap High-Speed Rail Is Now the Norm
Posted on 11/29/2022, 6:00 PM
Spain's golden age of affordable high-speed rail has arrived. Last week a new company called Iryo launched fast train service between Madrid and Barcelona, with routes to Valencia, Seville, Málaga, Córdoba, and other Spanish cities scheduled to open in the coming months. Traveling at speeds up to 360kph (224 mph), Iryo's trains can cover the roughly 600km (373 miles) between Spain's two most po...
Hilton to Evict Global Tiki Icon Trader Vic's London on Dec. 31
Posted on 11/27/2022, 7:00 PM
The London Hilton on Park Lane has reportedly notified the management of Trader Vic's, a historic icon of tiki bar culture, that its last day in business will be December 31, 2022, a few months shy of its 60th anniversary.Trader Vic's opened along with the hotel in 1963, when worldwide enthusiasm for Polynesian-inflected tiki style was at its midcentury peak. At the time, the London Hilton on Park ...
Bar Harbor, Maine, Votes to Limit Cruise Passengers, Setting Stage for a Fight
Posted on 11/21/2022, 12:45 PM
Amid all the U.S. election news earlier this month, you might have missed a development that could have a significant impact on travelers. Voters in the picturesque town of Bar Harbor, Maine, the gateway to Acadia National Park, approved a measure to cap the number of cruise passengers who can come ashore to no more than 1,000 per day. Given that, as The Points Guy observes, some ships that sto...
The Year's Best and Worst U.S. Airports Named in New Ranking
Posted on 11/18/2022, 1:30 PM
Northern California has the best airports in the United States and the New York City area has the worst, according to a new ranking from the Wall Street Journal. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) topped the newspaper's 2022 list of the best large U.S. airports, while Sacramento International Airport (SMF; pictured above) came in first in the ranking of midsize airports. Rating the countr...
Disney Prices Are Climbing Again: Strategies for Making the Parks Cheaper
Posted on 11/15/2022, 3:00 PM
If you’ve ever read anything about D-Day, you know about the intense planning, subterfuge, and calculation that went into pulling off that epic World War II landing. With Walt Disney World’s recent announcement that ticket prices are rising to their highest levels ever, families attempting to create an affordable Disney vacation in Florida will have to strategize just as carefully as Eisenhower and...
A Rare Fee Reduction! The TSA Trims the Cost of PreCheck
Posted on 11/07/2022, 4:00 PM
You don't see this very often these days: prices going down. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration and its enrollment partner IDEMIA, eager to get more travelers signed up for the queue-cutting TSA PreCheck program, have marked down the price of membership. The enrollment fee is now $78, down from $85.Members of TSA PreCheck are issued a special Known Traveler Number (KTN) valid for 5 y...
Times Are Changing: Why You Should Use Your Loyalty Points As Soon As Possible
Posted on 11/04/2022, 7:30 AM
The corporations that dominate the world responded to the aftermath of the pandemic downturn in their own ways, but there's a common impulse among most of them: recover as much lost income as possible. Since the world opened back up, businesses have been hell-bent on making back the money they missed, even if doing so puts the squeeze on consumers. That has meant flagrant price increases (contribu...
Airplane Etiquette: Survey Names the Most Annoying Behavior in the Skies
Posted on 10/25/2022, 4:00 PM
What type of air traveler annoys you the most? Having recently taken a flight from Frankfurt to Boston during which I tried to watch The 40-Year-Old Virgin on a seat-back screen positioned roughly 3 centimeters from my sternum, I'm of a mind to say Full Recliners are the worst. I know this is a divisive issue, with some passengers claiming that reclining seats all the way is an inalienable right...
New Study of Millions of Airfares Reveals the Best Days to Purchase and to Fly
Posted on 10/19/2022, 9:00 AM
For the fourth year in a row, a study by the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) and Expedia has named Sundays as the best day of the week to book travel—if saving money is your goal.I know, I know: You heard a decade ago that Tuesdays are the best day to purchase travel, and ever since then you've seen talking heads on local news chuckle as they say, "There is no best day." It's all superstition, ...
