Ed Perkins travel tips

Goodbye, Virgin America.

Amtrak is repeating its flash sale for the Northeast Regional area, ranging from Boston to Virginia Beach and including the Northeast Corridor line. Sample one-way fares range from $19 for Washington-Richmond to $39 New York to Boston or Washington and $55 Boston to Philadelphia.

The recent attention focused on a 60 Minutes report covering Allegiant’s maintenance problems may have overshadowed another airline horror story: Sun Country canceled two return flights from Minneapolis-St Paul—one to Mazatlan, the other to Los Cabos—this weekend, leaving somewhere around 250 passengers with return reservations stranded in Mexico.

Ever wish you could buy a rail pass for the skies? This summer, Norwegian regional airline Wideroe is once again offering a seasonal fly-all-you-want Norway air pass covering all of its routes. The airline flies a relatively dense route system throughout Norway, plus flights to/from Aberdeen, Goteborg, and Kobenhavn.

As if air travel wasn’t already a stressful and hostile experience, a whole new threat emerged in late December: drones at airports. By being flown around the Gatwick Airport, at least one drone caused London’s second-busiest airport to shut down completely on two successive days.

Add the new AAdvantage MileUp Card from Citibank to the (very) short list of no-fee credit cards that earn airline miles. It offers one American Airlines mile per dollar charged, plus double miles for purchases at grocery stores or with American Airlines.

Looking for a last-minute Labor Day getaway? This is a good year for it, according to fare search data from Hopper. Average airfares for Labor Day weekend are lower this year than they have been in four years, but probably only if you buy your tickets before August 17.

JetBlue has announced it will join American, Delta, and United in offering bare-bones “basic economy” fares beginning in 2019. The new, no-frills fares will still include the line’s standard free on-board Wi-Fi, snacks and soft drinks, and a full-size carry-on bag plus personal item, the airline said. But basic economy passengers can expect to see fees for things like picking a seat and changing their reservation—JetBlue hasn’t yet said what exactly will change.

An all-business-class airline called La Compagnie just announced the launch of five nonstop U.S.-France flights per week, from Newark to Nice, starting in May 2019. Introductory fares start at $1200 round-trip, but that price is limited to the first 1,000 customers to pounce. Even after, however, you can expect regular round-trip fares somewhere between $1500 and $1800 indefinitely, and the occasional sale fares.

Never flown first class? One of the big-three U.S. airlines just upgraded standard service for travelers on international flights 6.5 hours or longer, to feature services usually only seen in business- or first-class cabins. And it’s totally free.

Airlines insist you can’t sell frequent flyer miles or rewards, and courts in the U.S. have generally backed this claim. But a court in Sao Paulo, Brazil, just ruled that frequent flyer miles can be sold, and it ordered American Airlines to reimburse one traveler for the tickets the airline canceled after citing a violation of the airline’s rules.

JetBlue announced that it was increasing fees for checked baggage: from $25 to $30 for the first bag, $35 to $40 for the second. And the line also increased the top ticket change fee from $150 to $200, although fees on cheap tickets remain less than the maximum. The new fees have already gone into effect. JetBlue didn’t charge bag fees until 2015 but now has already increased its prices.

When you purchase travel insurance, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you are, well, insured for all aspects of your trip. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Travelers are frequently frustrated to find that their travel insurance coverage is full of holes—with exclusions that are typically stated in the fine print but nonetheless confusing and sometimes counterintuitive.

Wondering how hectic the high season of summer travel will make the skies? Summer air travel will raise 3.7 percent above last year’s summer travel figure to set another all-time record, Airlines for America announced, with the U.S. expected to see an average of 2.68 million air travelers per day.

Looking for a more exciting family vacation than staying local this February break, but not sure you’d be able to afford the airfare? Try Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden: If you’re traveling with kids, one airline is offering up basically free plane tickets to Scandinavia when you book before December 10, 2018.

Hypersonic flights from New York to London in two hours? Maybe in your lifetime, but only if you’re super-rich.

It’s not exactly news when one of the big three airlines does something to make its economy seats worse, but it is when one actually makes them better. Kudos to Delta for its newly refurbished Boeing 777-200s, which feature fewer economy seats per row to maintain some elbow room.

Looking for the best cities to live in or retire abroad? The world’s most livable city is once again Vienna, Austria, according to The Economist’s Intelligence Unit’s annual Most Livable Cities ranking.

Rely on Uber and Lyft when you land in a new destination? You might want to reconsider, as many airports are ending curbside pickup for rideshare apps admid construction and traffic woes.

Do you rely on a Citi travel card for perks like insurance and lost baggage protection? You might want to take a look at your card’s newly updated benefits: Citibank is sharply reducing the travel add-ons, dropping a slew of protection benefits on all the cards that previously offered them.

The no-frills “Basic Economy” airfares many travelers have come to hate (or maybe love, depending who you are) seem to be working in at least one way: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that average airfares in the U.S. were $343.28 in the third quarter of 2018, which is a record low when adjusted for inflation.