2020 tips

After the devastation of back-to-back hurricanes in 2020, Lake Charles is now welcoming a wave of new developments that will redefine its tourism landscape. Several projects are slated to debut as early as this summer. PORT WONDER: Summer 2024

Shana O’Mara (Source: Shana O’Mara)

In April 2020, United MileagePlus removed its partner award chart. Partner awards continued pricing at the lowest Saver level from the last-published award charts for a while. But over time, United Airlines has slowly raised its unpublished partner award rates. Last month, United devalued first-class partner redemptions, increasing award prices up to 100%. Now, the loyalty program has struck again with another devaluation.

In this position, Lori Koogler will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the business, including strategic planning, operations, portfolio development and homeowner and guest experience.

The pandemic lockdown in Japan coincided with a flurry of new hotels, especially in Kyoto, where the Park Hyatt, Aman and Four Seasons were joined by a group of independent properties and the first Ace hotel in the archipelago. When the country finally reopened to foreign visitors in October 2022, tourists came flooding back to the city of 800-year-old temples and bamboo forests spoiled for choice of accommodations, at a range of prices. The number continues to grow: Next month, the wellness-focused Six Senses brand will open its first Japanese outpost in the city’s Higashiyama district, home to many of the main tourist sites. Here, a look at five of Kyoto’s newer hotels that are redefining the city’s hospitality scene.

Often when I’ve turned up at various yoga studios in London, the groups I’ve encountered have been overwhelmingly white, svelte and middle class. Perhaps I’ve not found the right class, but as a south Asian woman, it always felt like I was in somebody else’s space.

The airline industry barely survived its last black swan event, the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, U.S. passenger numbers dropped by almost 95%. By June of that year, some 16,000 planes had been taken out of service.

Live music was no more. Patrick Milando could draw no other conclusion. But maybe he could pivot.

In the spring of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the always bustling Dam Square in Amsterdam was deserted, silent and surrounded by concrete counterterrorism blocks. The Dutch street artist Frank de Ruwe, who goes by the name of Frankey, decided these daunting studded blocks resembled something more innocent — giant Lego blocks — and that the city needed something to lighten the gloom.

A wine appellation is basically a chunk of geography that includes specific rules for making wine. Those who follow these rules can print the name of that appellation on their bottle labels—theoretically increasing sales. Or, paradoxically, sometimes not.

One of America's most beloved cruise operators, American Queen Voyages, has shut down.

Ariane Gorin will succeed Peter Kern as Expedia Group's CEO effective May 13.

Lying in the heart of rural Northumberland, the expansive Grade II* listed Matfen Hall offers wellness, golf, fine dining, spa or relaxing retreat in grandeur and opulence.

New York CIty's hottest restaurant now boasts an extra personal touch for vino lovers.

If you didn’t know Idaho produces great wine, take a look at who’s been winning top honors in the Pacific Northwest. An Idaho vintage has won the Cascadia International Wine Competition for the last three years, a testament to the state’s efforts to restore its pre-Prohibition legacy as the earliest center of wine production.

Spirit Airlines, once a fast-growing low-cost carrier, is struggling to convince investors that it has a clear path forward after an antitrust ruling blocked the sale of the company to JetBlue Airways.

Among the many aspects of travel that the pandemic disrupted, one issue was more bureaucratic — but no less frustrating — for some Americans: an enormous backlog of U.S. passport applications.

Michael Bennett, the former N.F.L. player, started designing furniture as a way to reconsider architecture and the spaces that Black people occupy. Inspired by his upbringing in Louisiana and Texas, as well as by trips to Senegal, where his ancestors are from, Bennett began to think about the objects that “bring Black people together in public spaces” as a way to deepen his longtime activism work focused on racial justice. After retiring from football in 2020, he founded the design practice Studio Kër. Bennett’s exploration of the Black home led him to create an 11-piece collection of sculptural furniture that he’s debuting this month in “We Gotta Get Back to the Crib,” his inaugural exhibition for the Los Angeles art gallery Marta, presented at Theaster Gates’s Rebuild Foundation in Chicago. (In the spring, the show will travel to Houston.) The collection reimagines objects of communal gatherings; pieces include the Gumbo lounge chair, a lush take on the stackable monobloc chair, and the Pew couch, a nod to the church bench, made of leather and ekki wood. “For me, the show is about celebrating Black ingenuity and connecting back to that African diasporic design language,” says Bennett.

When Disney World reopened in July 2020 after a brief closure during the pandemic, the Central Florida resort did so with a lengthy list of procedures intended to control and monitor crowds for health and safety purposes. Most were done away with long ago, like temperature checks at the front gate and six-foot distance markers in ride queues. But a few have stuck around since the park reopened...until now.

In a somewhat ironic storyline, as high-profile private jet owners like Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk, and Mark Cuban fretted about keeping their flights off the radar, a flock of private jet flight providers invited skeptical eyes to take a closer look as they chased IPOs.

Filmmaker. Academy Award Winner. Knight. Sir Ridley Scott is not short on titles; and now, the Napoleon director can also add hotelier to the list with Mas des Infermières, a historic winery and vineyard with vacation residences in the heart of Provence, France. Owned and operated by Scott and his family, this charming Luberon address sits on the fringes of the medieval hilltop village of Oppède-le-Vieux and has been in the Scott family for over 30 years. The estate’s first independent vintage was recently released in 2020.