There's a Second, Smaller Commercial Airport for Seattle Now
Posted on 03/06/2019, 3:00 PM
As of this week, travelers have a new commercial airport option in the Seattle area. Located about 25 miles north of the city in the town of Everett, Washington, Paine Field has been around since the Great Depression but has primarily been used, up until now, by Boeing's wide-body assembly plant. In recent years the airport was cleared for commercial flights, and on Monday, March 4, the first s...
Hey, Airlines! Maybe We Don't Want to Watch TV on Our Phones
Posted on 03/05/2019, 12:00 AM
The airlines have stripped coach passengers of nearly every vestige of dignity—our legroom, our food, our free checked bags. But they're not done yet. Now they are taking away seatback entertainment systems. Last year, Alaska Airlines took over Virgin America, one of the world's top-rated airlines for customer service. Virgin had a devoted following. Customers loved the carrier's sassy style an...
Airline Ticketing Will Include Nonbinary Gender Option
Posted on 02/19/2019, 3:30 PM
The major U.S. airlines are changing their online ticketing sites so that passengers can identify gender with options other than male and female. According to the Associated Press, American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska, and JetBlue are all working on introducing selections such as "undisclosed," "unspecified," or "Mx.," a non-gendered alternative to Mr. or Ms. Industry trade group Airlines...
Finally! After Years of Waiting, TWA Hotel at JFK Opens Reservations
Posted on 02/08/2019, 10:45 PM
Booking a room at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport is off to a lovely start. On Valentine’s Day, Thursday, Feb. 14, at noon, reservations open for stays beginning May 15, 2019. The grand opening is an illustrious second act for what was once known as the TWA Flight Center, a major hub during the Jet Age era. Designed by architect Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962, the distinctive terminal, cons...
Flying With Wine: Packing and Legal Tips You Need to Know
Packing wine to fly? We asked an expert about customs laws, airline policies, and avoiding luggage disasters.
How to Check TSA Wait Times Online
Several apps promise to tell you airport security times—but are they reliable? Results vary.
What to Do About TSA Delays Caused by Government Shutdown
Posted on 01/14/2019, 12:00 PM
The U.S. government's partial shutdown, now in its fourth smash week, has started to have a negative impact on airport security lines. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners aren't being paid during this month-long-and-counting lapse in federal productivity and rationality. On Friday, those workers missed their first paychecks since the shutdown began on December 22. As an a...
America's Most Stressful Airport Is Named, Surprising No One
Posted on 12/21/2018, 3:30 AM
New York City's much-despised LaGuardia Airport is the U.S. hub most likely to give you a stress migraine this holiday season, according to new research from travel insurance comparison site InsureMyTrip. The study ranked 75 U.S. airports by their flight cancellation data for this year, and LaGuardia was found to have the worst record, canceling 4.9% of total flights. Here are InsureMyTrip's to...
Arthur Frommer: Long Live the FAA, Protector of Our Lives in the Air!
Posted on 11/20/2018, 12:00 AM
Although a great many business interests are constantly opposed to being regulated by the federal government, almost no one objects to a similar supervision of the airline industry. We all risk our lives when we fly, and to a lesser extent we rely on government for our transportation comfort. Just recently, Congress reauthorized actions by the Federal Aviation Administration, and gave additiona...
Stressed at LaGuardia? The Airport Will Bring You a Therapy Dog
Before and after security, onsite airport therapy dog crews make NYC's LaGuardia a little more lovable.
Despite Heavy Financial Losses, Low-Cost Carriers to Europe Will Survive
Posted on 11/13/2018, 12:00 AM
Will low-cost transatlantic airlines continue to survive in the months ahead? That’s a big question currently asked by travel professionals. On its answer rest the hopes of many travelers that they may be able to enjoy a European vacation. The pessimistic response to this question has been stoked by recent airline failures. WOW Air of Iceland has recently canceled several of its cheap flights...
American Airlines Will Allow Early Boarding for Flyers with Nut Allergies
Posted on 11/08/2018, 12:00 AM
As if determined to undo their decades of peanut pushing, U.S. airlines continue to make concessions to passengers with nut allergies. Hardly any carriers serve those snacks on flights anymore—not even Southwest Airlines, which had once made its peanuts a core part of the company's brand identity. Now, American Airlines is going a step further for allergy sufferers. Starting December 12, they'...
Arthur Frommer: Charging $300 Round-Trip to Europe, Level is the World’s Budget Champion
Posted on 11/08/2018, 12:00 AM
If you were to ask even a well-informed travel professional to name the cheapest airline flying the Atlantic, they would undoubtedly answer: Norwegian Air. And they’d be dead wrong. The cheapest such airline is the oddly named Level, a joint enterprise of British Airways and Iberia Airlines. It flies mainly from Paris and Barcelona to Newark, Boston and San Francisco, for a basic fare—hold your b...
How to Sleep on a Long Plane Flight: Here Are 24 Tips You Should Try
Over the years, I have developed some tricks for sleeping on airplanes—long flights, short flights, or any trip on which you need to get some shuteye.
Boost Your Overseas Vacation with a Free Stopover in Switzerland or Belgium
Posted on 09/21/2018, 8:00 AM
If you've ever longed to take a vacation from your vacation, maybe you should opt for an airline stopover. That's when a plane makes a days-long pit stop on the way to its final destination, giving passengers a chance to squeeze in an extra mini vacation in the connecting city. Best of all, some airlines don't charge customers additional fees for the interlude—instead, they treat the journey as ...
Is This the King of Airfare Search Sites? The Aggregator of Aggregators
Posted on 09/13/2018, 1:30 PM
For years, we've been telling you that the best places to find cheap airfare are often the "aggregators," which are search engines that scan prices from dozens of different airfare-selling websites to pick out the lowest prices and tell you which site to visit to find them. But even though these aggregators do their best to level the shopping playing field, or at least to make the shopping game l...
Holiday Flights: Tips for Saving Money—and Actually Getting to Your Destination
Posted on 09/06/2018, 4:45 PM
There are few bigger problems, budget-wise, than having to buy a ticket to fly over the Thanksgiving or the Christmas/New Year's holidays. Prices are always at their peak, and discounts are nil. But tell that to your grandmother. Or to the other eager family members who insist you fly home for the holidays. So even though the fares are a killer then and the crowds at the airport will demolish w...
JetBlue Increases Baggage Fee, Leading Way for Copycats
Posted on 08/28/2018, 6:00 PM
It's like a cautionary fairy tale. There once was a fun-loving, egalitarian airline that wanted to revolutionize the industry. All seats were given personal TVs, there was only one type of aircraft and one class of service to keep maintenance costs and fares low, and, best of all, there were no checked bag fees. "No, no, no," promised the little airline. "We will not charge to check bags like a...
Another New Fee, Courtesy of United Airlines
Posted on 08/21/2018, 4:00 PM
About five years ago, Saturday Night Live scored some laughs with a skit that parodied "priority boarding" announcements at the airport gate. A uniformed Tina Fey and Taran Killam stood behind a podium and called upward of 20 different categories of flyers before they got to "Group 2" as their SNL castmates grew comically agitated waiting to board. Back then, it seemed like the madness at the gate...
In Late Autumn, Fly to Iceland for $99 Each Way
Posted on 08/17/2018, 12:00 PM
The following is in the nature of a “believe-it-or-not” category of travel. A scrappy budget airline of Iceland (the aptly named WOW Air) has just announced that for scattered flights to Reykjavik in August, September, and October, it will charge only $99 each way! Specifically, you’ll be able to fly to Iceland’s capital from 10 U.S. cities at that remarkable price. And these take-off...
