La Compagnie: One-of-a-Kind Boutique Airline

Getting bumped from a flight can either be an easy way to make some cash ($10,000 in one rare case!) — or a nightmare scenario that ruins your vacation. 

From New York to London, Paris, Dubai, Miami, Tokyo, Las Vegas, LA, and back, Nigel Sylvester knows his way through an airport. He also doesn’t shy away from an adventure—most times, he’s traveling with his BMX bike. Hailing from Queens, New York, the professional BMX athlete has traveled all over the world and gave a first-person point of view of his life in his travel series GO. The web series transports Nigel and his bicycle to thrill-seeking experiences, including jumping out of a plane over the Dubai desert with his bike in hand.

A female passenger who tried to fly to a resort with her French Bulldog ended up abandoning the animal in a parking lot when staff refused to let the pet on board, officials said.

Flying in first or business class might seem like it’s a privilege reserved only for ultra-wealthy travelers. But plenty of ordinary people fly in premium airline seats all the time. If you’re savvy about how you pursue an upgrade on a flight, you can score a spot in the front of the plane without paying exorbitantly.

I meet Donald Macauley, the 37-year-old founder of Sierra Leone's first surf school, along a sunny swath of silky yellow sand at Bureh Beach, a surfing destination on the Western Peninsula where he’s been catching waves for more than 20 years. Macauley learned how to surf from a British soldier; before he had access to a proper board, he and other local teens would ride wooden surfboards shaped from busted fishing boats. In 2012, he launched Bureh Beach Surf Club—whose slogan, “Di waves dem go mak u feel fine,” says it all—and today he leads a handful of instructors, mentors street kids, and rallies behind some of Sierra Leone’s most promising young talents. Among them, I meet 25-year-old Kadiatu “KK” Kamara, the country’s preeminent female surfer. “My dream is to teach more girls in Sierra Leone how to surf,” says Kamara, who herself learned at Bureh Beach eight years ago and hopes to someday open her own school. When girls sign up for lessons, she refuses their money. “It’s my responsibility,” she says solemnly. “I want to motivate them not to be afraid of the water.”

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Planning a road trip this summer? For the sake of safety and peace of mind, your own and others’, add this to the pre-departure to-do list: a review of your driving habits. After all, while there’s nothing you can do to change other drivers’ bad habits, you are at least in control of your own.

American Airlines today announced its financial-performance numbers for the fourth quarter and the full year.

Consolidation is the enemy of competition. That’s an axiom of economic theory. And it’s a truth known to any kid who was forced to cut the price of his lemonade when the neighbor opened another lemonade stand across the street.

Effective today, one of the world’s largest airlines is making a surprising change to its booking policy. According to a confirmation email received this morning:

Yesterday, two of the world’s largest airlines got new presidents. What’s less clear is how, and why.

It wasn’t that long ago that Southwest’s self-proclaimed identity as the Love Airline was a credible bit of branding, reflecting a virtuous circle of contentment among the airline’s customers, employees, and shareholders. For now, however, the love fest appears to be over.