I took my 4-year-old to Champagne houses in France. She had more fun than I did.

Swiss International Air Lines has an unusual problem: Its new first-class seats are too heavy for some of its widebody planes.

An American tourist was visiting an ice cave in one of Europe’s largest national parks last month when a frozen arch collapsed, killing him and injuring his girlfriend.

Even if you travel on many different airlines, it makes sense to focus on just one loyalty program in each of the Big Three airline alliances: OneWorld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam.

Sep 2, 2024 • 6 min read

Koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake, is so beloved in Japan that it has its own holiday. And lately, chefs have been finding new uses for the fungus, which has a fruity aroma and an ability to make “anything it touches better,” says Jeremy Umansky, 41, the owner of Larder deli in Cleveland. He uses koji for almost everything: to cure pastrami; to ferment Chinese-style black beans, which are ground and swirled into chocolate babka to embolden the chocolate; and to sprinkle over salads and fries in the form of what the restaurant calls Special K, a seasoning of dried ground koji. “It’s a harmonizer,” he says. Bartenders, too, are taking note. At Nancy’s Hustle in Houston, the bar manager, Zach Hornberger, 32, adds it to the nonalcoholic Silver Brining cocktail, a sweet-sour-salty mix of pickle brine, grapefruit and lime juices, koji and tonic. “It brings this umami background to beverages, and it plays well with citrus, taming the high acid notes and rounding the drink as a whole,” he says. At the restaurant Fête in Honolulu, the bar manager, Fabrice McCarthy, 41, infuses rum with shio koji (a slurry of koji, water and salt) and shakes it into a mai tai to add salinity — the effect, he says, is similar to how salted peanuts make you want to drink more beer. Ryan Chetiyawardana, 40, the owner of the bar Lyaness in London, experiments with koji in multiple forms — for one cocktail, he ferments parsnips with koji, which he says unlocks the sweetness and delivers “a huge tropical brightness.” While koji often plays a supporting role, at Paradiso in Barcelona, it wraps around the entire lip of the glass used for the Fleming, named for Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, another influential mold. For this fungus-inspired cocktail, which includes grapefruit, tequila and miso, the manager of Paradiso’s research lab, Matteo Ciarpaglini, 30, one-upped a classic salt rim with a fluffy cloud of koji, its floral fragrance accompanying every taste. —

Lufthansa is eyeing a 19.9% stake in TAP Air Portugal, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which cited two Portuguese institutional sources. The company’s CEO, Carsten Spohr, plans to travel to Lisbon this week to speak with government officials, said the report.

There’s never a bad time to go to Paris, and Air France agrees, giving away a pair of roundtrip flights and a wardrobe incroyable so travelers can live their best French lives.

Ahead of Labor Day, Capital One launched a very lucrative Air France-KLM transfer bonus. From now through Sunday, Sept. 29, when you transfer your Capital One miles to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, you'll receive 20% bonus miles. Therefore, when you transfer 1,000 Capital One miles, you'll get 1,200 Flying Blue miles, making this offer a 1:1.2 ratio.

Driving between France and Italy this year? You may be forced take a detour as the Mont-Blanc Tunnel, which links the two countries beneath the Alps, is closing for 15 weeks for renovation work.

Back in March, Southwest Airlines announced it would be launching it first red-eye, i.e. overnight, flights; however flight schedules are revealing more details about new flight options for passengers.  The first overnight flights will depart on February 13, 2025, and arrive on February 14, 2025. These inaugural journeys depart from Las Vegas to both Baltimore and Orlando. The airline will also operate flights from Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville, as well as Phoenix to Baltimore. 

Last Oct. 10, my wife, a friend and I arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport to fly to Paris on a trip we had originally planned for April but had to postpone. At the United Airlines check-in counter, agents told us our reservation had been canceled — by us! Even weirder, the same thing had happened three weeks earlier, when the airline sent us an email saying we had canceled our trip. That time, we called and insisted United reissue the reservation for the same price, which it did by giving us a travel voucher and instantly redeeming it. At the airport, though, we watched as supervisors got their supervisors involved, and we were eventually told that something about the voucher had raised questions about fraud. We missed our flight and bought last-minute tickets for that evening’s 11 p.m. United flight to Paris. Then flight was canceled, though this time for everyone. Given the day’s stress and frustration, we gave up on the trip, had dinner and went to the airport Marriott before heading home the next morning. We believe United owes us for the cost of the last-minute flight ($4,475), a portion of the earlier canceled flight ($3,099), the cost of our transportation, hotel and meals that day ($1,178) and the money we lost on nonrefundable plans in France ($2,007). Can you help?

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 29, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.