Airport tips

Turns out the friendly skies are, well…the jokes sort of write themselves.

Looking to avoid the holiday crowds? Then plan on staying close to home this Independence Day weekend, because record numbers of Americans will be clogging the nation’s highways and airport security checkpoints.

Millennials are changing the travel industry. The frugal and tech-savvy generation that so many people bemoan has prompted big hotel companies to launch affordable, hostel-like lodgings and install voice-activated assistance in rooms. It’s backed a booming peer-to-peer industry. It’s demanded that low-cost accommodations and budget airlines no longer be a seedy alternative.

If you live within driving distance of Boston Logan’s airport, you may be in luck the next time you search for a cheap flight out of town. A ton of new airlines and routes have landed here lately, meaning flyers will have more choices, more fare wars, and more direct flights.

It has been a publicly stated goal of the Department of Homeland Security to sign up 25 million members of the PreCheck and Global Entry prescreening programs. A big number, with a big payoff.

While there’s been no shortage of reports of hours-long lines to clear TSA security checkpoints, there has yet to be a full accounting of the harm caused by the system’s breakdown.

Baggage fees are the airline surcharge that most fliers love to hate, but a new study shows that they have an unexpected silver lining: They’ve made it more likely for your flight to leave on time.

It’s been a bad week for Hertz. And it could be just the first of many bad weeks to come.

Two fast-growing budget carriers that serve the U.S. from Europe, Norwegian and WOW Air, both recently announced cancellations of several transatlantic routes.

American Airlines is on a roll, and not in a good way.

Every summer, Americans selectively schedule their vacation time, typically taking a week or two to get out and enjoy the sun or a dreamy, far-off destination. But as the midyear heat wanes and the holiday season approaches, more of us should assess the vacation days we’re not using—all 658 million of them.

Travel over the Thanksgiving holiday period was robust, and predictions are for similarly strong demand for air travel during the period between Christmas and New Year’s. For most airlines, that’s good news. For American, however, it’s a potential nightmare.

These days, budget air deals aren’t hard to come by. There are plenty of flash sales and discount carriers to choose from, but not all of them are created equal. It’s become easy to find reasonable flights between big air hubs, but dreamy, far-off islands will almost always cost you more.

Four airlines—United, American, Southwest, and Alaska—have been fined by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for “providing inaccurate information to passengers about how much compensation they could potentially receive for being denied boarding against their will, or “bumped” on oversold flights, and for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage.”

Wondering which airports are most likely to put you behind schedule during the busy summer travel season? If you’re flying to the Boston, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco areas this summer—or even worse, connecting to another flight there—be especially wary.

Between my own travels and those of friends and family, I spend plenty of time at Los Angeles International Airport. It’s rarely a pleasant experience. The facility has been in a near-constant state of expansion and renovation for years, resulting in traffic snarls that must have caused more than a few missed flights. It’s become a standing joke among Angelinos that the measure of someone’s love is their willingness to drive you to the airport.

Members of the Oneworld alliance, which includes American Airlines, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific, among others, recently announced a plan to start charging bag fees for separate legs of the same flight. In some cases. Not always. Okay, it’s actually somewhat confusing.

It’s been a long time in coming, but PreCheck, the TSA’s trusted-traveler program, is now available to passengers flying on Frontiers Airlines.

Just hours before it was to take effect, the Trump administration’s revised travel ban was blocked by a federal judge in Hawaii. A second judge, in Maryland, followed suit.

There’s a silver lining for Britain-bound travelers in the wake of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union: Insanely cheap flights and hotel rates are springing up. Americans in particular have perhaps the biggest advantage in the post-Brexit bookings race thanks to a strong U.S. dollar and low oil prices.

Still holiday shopping for your favorite traveler, or need some essentials before you set foot into a new year of jet-setting? Here’s a look back at some of the top-rated travel products we’ve reviewed this year. From comfy shoes and packable gadgets to bags that carry them all, here are the SmarterTravel-reviewed items that outranked the rest in 2016.