Airport tips

If you’re not already familiar with Priority Pass, you might want to be for its ability to get you out of the crowded airport terminal and into an airport lounge. Priority Pass is a membership program that provides access to more than a thousand airport lounges around the world, for an annual fee.

Three relatively new low-fare airlines have run into troubles ranging from minor to bad, with one shutting down completely and the other two cutting or delaying new air routes. Industry pundits have been saying for some time that it wouldn’t be easy for the slew of new low-fare airlines to make their business models work, given the competition from established low-fare lines and ongoing opposition from the legacy lines. And that now seems to be ringing true.

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.

AirHelp, the online service that files complaints against airlines on behalf of passengers entitled to compensation for air delays or cancellations, knows a thing or two about air travel. Because it’s hard for the average person to understand air passenger rights and pursue a legal claim when they’ve been wronged, AirHelp is always going toe-to-toe with airlines and airports—and reveals once a year which ones that treat their passengers for the better (or worse).

Following recent reports that the TSA might cut back on passenger screening at smaller airports, the agency has declared it will, in fact, continue screening procedures after all. It could, however, expand the use of screening dogs in some airports.

On the 35th day of the U.S. partial government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a staff shortage in air traffic controllers and that flights to at least one airport were halted, causing delays. Flights through La Guardia, Newark, and Philadelphia airports were the first to be affected, around the same time that the FAA announced the sick outs.

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.

An airport connection (or two) is often the price you pay for service to far-off destinations. Unfortunately, a connection almost always complicates your travel planning, asking you to decide where to connect and how much time to allow for the connection. There’s no easy formula answer to those questions, but there are a few choice airports to try and avoid.

Wondering what the best airlines are according to the average flyer? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) gives a good idea in its Travelers’ Choice best airline rankings each year based on real travelers’ reviews. And the results are different than most trade studies that list the “best airlines.”

Come March 29, 2019, Great Britain is due to leave the European Union. So far, the opposing sides of the change—those who favor leaving without making any border or trade deals, and those hoping international partnerships are maintained—have not reached agreement on the specific terms. And time is running out.

A new service called Wanderift has launched a new approach to booking air travel. Travelers can join the program for a one-time fee of $500, and then pay $100 to $125 each for up to 50 airfare “tokens” per year. One token can be used for a one-way itinerary anywhere in the lower 48 states and some Caribbean points, but bookings can only be made eight days in advance or fewer.

Bookings at Southwest are way down following a fatal accident this past April. The airline announced Monday that it expects revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to fall about three percent in the current quarter. Basically, RASM goes down when more seats are empty. The airline previously estimated that this number would go down by between one and three percent—suggesting April’s incident is on travelers’ minds.

Ever wonder how much of your life you’ve wasted sitting around at the airport? Financebuzz.com compiled a list of the worst delay-prone U.S. airports of 2018, with overall delay times displayed in the collective amount of years they’ve added up to for travelers overall. And the results are not encouraging: Rankings are based on a composite of total passengers, percentage of flights delayed, and the average length of delay for the top 25 airports.

Do you want to get paid to speed through airport security? CLEAR is now offering travelers a free three-month trial, $20 in Lyft airport ride credit, and a $50 LoungeBuddy credit to test its security-expediting services.

Facial recognition technology is picking up steam in airports around the country. Last year, JetBlue and Delta both tested biometric scanning methods as possible replacements for boarding passes. Now comes news that Orlando International Airport will, according to the AP, “require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights.”

Southwest is quietly raising fares for thousands of flights to combat what it calls “cost pressures” it expects will impact its business into 2019. And while these increases are indeed minor—said to be only $2 to $5 one-way—the move by the low-cost line could signal the possibility that airfares will rise across the board.

CNN reports that the TSA is contemplating eliminating passenger screening at more than 150 small and medium-sized airports across the US, according to internal documents from a TSA working group. The agency currently screens passengers at 440 airports.

America’s newest wicked-long flight is the Boston-to-Honolulu route from Hawaiian Airlines, which is now the longest flight in the country at 5,095 miles. And it’s not a fluke—the new Hawaiian flight is the longest nonstop route in the United States ever. The journey takes a whopping 11 hours 40 minutes when flying to the islands, but it will only take 10 hours and 15 minutes to get back to reality.

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

The final language for an air travel bill called the FAA Reauthorization Act has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and is expected to get final approval by the Senate. The new bill would secure funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for five years and establish new provisions on matters like pets onboard planes, involuntary bumping on overbooked flights, and research into minimum plane seat sizes.