Articles

Air Travel

Article / Air Travel

TSA Tips for Getting Through Airport Security This Summer

Summer is upon us once again and you know what that means: way more people at the airport and all of them in front of you in the TSA line. The agency says it's "ready for the…

Article / Air Travel

Southwest Airlines Becomes the First U.S. Carrier to Ban a Common Electronic Device from Overhead Bins

If Southwest Airlines had a theme song for 2025, it would have to be Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'."Not only has the carrier ditched its much-beloved/much-maligned…

Article / Family & Kids

11 Ways to Save on Summer Vacations

Summer vacation = carefree fun in the sun, right? That's the ideal. But with the steep price of travel today, vacationing in the high season of summer can mean unexpected expenses and…

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 / Air Travel

Make Sure This Common Electronic Device Isn't in Your Checked Bag—Now TSA Rules Forbid It

Amid all the brouhaha over the long-awaited launch of the Transportation Security Administration's REAL ID requirement at U.S. airports, you might have missed news of another important…

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 / Air Travel

Newark Airport is a Mess. Has it Become Less Safe to Fly in the U.S.?

Even people who live nowhere near New Jersey have been shaken by reports of chronic flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) due to ATC. There's…

Article / Slideshows

The 10 Worst Airports in the U.S.

The United States is where air travel was born. The United States is also where air travel grew up to become a miserable ordeal. Among wealthy nations, the U.S. has some of the worst…

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…

Article / Air Travel

Another Airline Is Finally Launching Free In-Flight Wi-Fi

After dragging their feet for years, major U.S. airlines suddenly seem to be in a rush to give passengers free Wi-Fi. This week American Airlines announced that free high-speed Wi-Fi…

Article / Air Travel

British Airways Customer Service Chatbot Doesn't Know What London and Heathrow Are, Apparently

Science fiction led us to believe robots would be flummoxed by trying to process logical paradoxes, such as the sentence "This statement is a lie" or perhaps the idea of "jumbo…

Article / Air Travel

Are We Supposed to Be Tipping Flight Attendants Now?

Given that we now live in a world where you might be asked by a payment screen how much you'd like to tip at a self-checkout kiosk, it should probably come as no surprise that the…

Article / Air Travel

Delta Tells Passengers to Arrive Earlier if They Have Bags

If you're flying Delta Air Lines in the domestic United States, make sure you bring a watch and a diversion. You'll now have to get to the airport even earlier to obtain the full…

Article / Health, Insurance, Security

Don't Have a REAL ID? You Can Use These Forms of Identification Instead

Update, December 1, 2025: As of February 2026, the United States government will charge its citizens a $45 fee to fly if they go to the airport without a REAL ID. Read more about the…

Article / Air Travel

Don't Lose Your Phone on a Flight! They Might Turn the Plane Around

Misplace your phone during a flight and the pilot might turn the plane around. That's what happened on a recent Air France flight from Paris to the Caribbean. When a passenger and crew…

Article / Health, Insurance, Security

How to Spot Fake Reviews Written By AI, According to an AI Professional

Fake reviews of hotels, restaurants, and tours have been a problem for travelers since the earliest days of the internet. But now that sketchy businesses can use artificial…

Article / Air Travel

America's Air Traffic Control Needs Fixing—Here's What to Do (and Not to Do)

About the author: William J. McGee is the Senior Fellow for Aviation & Travel at American Economic Liberties Project. An FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he spent seven years in…

Article / Air Travel

Save Money on Checked Luggage! The Best Carry-On Bags That Fit Under an Airline Seat

When airlines began charging to check bags, they also ushered in the era of "gate lice." That's modern slang for people who jockey for early boarding to their flights in order to score…

Article / Health, Insurance, Security

Can You Really Get Water Past TSA by Claiming It's "Medical"? Fact-Checking Social Media

An Instagrammer says he figured out how to get full-size bottles of water past Transportation Security Administration checkpoints."Here's the greatest travel hack of all time,"…

Article / LGBTQ

"They’re Shrinking Our World": Trans Travel Freedoms Are Under Threat. Can Anything Be Done?

What’s it like to be a transgender American right now? “We’re scared, quite frankly,” Dr. Devon Ojeda, senior national organizer with Advocates for Trans Equality, tells…

Article / Air Travel

Southwest Is Changing Its Bag Policy. You Won't Like It.

Southwest Airlines is doing away with the one policy that made the carrier stand out from the competition. Starting May 28, the airline will no longer allow every passenger two free…

Article / Air Travel

U.S. Aviation Safety is Under Fire

About the author: William J. McGee is the Senior Fellow for Aviation & Travel at American Economic Liberties Project. An FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he spent seven years in…

Article / Entry Requirements & Customs

Could This TikTok User Really Get Fined $500 for Bringing a Banana Into the U.S.?

The banana is indisputably the funniest fruit, owing to its shape, color, and connections to pratfalls and monkeys (the funniest primate). But a banana-related misadventure recounted…