Airport tips

If you’ve ever excitedly booked a cheap transatlantic flight on a budget airline only to realize you’ll pay in airport time spent waiting in a long, non-PreCheck security line, rejoice: The chances of that happening just got slimmer. Two popular foreign budget airlines now participate in TSA PreCheck: Norwegian Air and Icelandair. This means PreCheck travelers booked on either airline can use the PreCheck lane, where available, when departing from the U.S.

Calling any year the “worst year to fly” is a bold statement. But that’s just what AirHelp, a passenger rights company, is saying about 2018.

Get ready for your close up. Delta Air Lines and the Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport have opened the nation’s first optional biometric screening checkpoints, which use facial recognition scanning to expedite the airport process from check-in to boarding.

We’ve all heard of emotional support animals, but what about an emotional support suitcase? This new robot suitcase from ForwardX, a Chinese robotics company, will never abandon you. It’s the world’s first suitcase that uses artificial intelligence to track your location and roll itself alongside you as you walk, leaving your hands free to multi-task.

Skytrax is out with its annual list of the World’s Top 100 Airlines, perhaps the most recognized worldwide ranking of best airlines. As usual, and to the chagrin of travelers here in the states, most of the top performers are not U.S. airlines. Instead, the list is dominated by Asian, Middle Eastern, and, to a lesser extent, European carriers.

Has it snowed at your home airport yet? It could soon. And while everyone knows that flights generally face more delays and cancellations in winter than in summer, mainly because winter weather can wreak havoc on schedules and plans, not everyone knows just how much travel insurance can offset the financial risk of those winter problems—at least partially.

Checking a bag? Whether you are voluntarily or you’re forced to at the gate, hopefully you’re not flying Envoy Air or ExpressJet Airlines, as they placed last in a study of luggage handling.

Analysis from AirHelp, a company that (for a fee) helps people get refunds and compensation from airlines following disrupted flights, says airlines already owe an estimated $290 million for delayed, cancelled or overbooked flights this year. The data refers specifically to U.S. travelers onboard flights operating under European Union jurisdiction.

Is it too soon to think about the holiday flights? No way, says CheapAir. They’re already tracking flights, and released an early look at the best days to fly for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

This April was a good month for airlines and travelers alike. The latest numbers from the Department of Transportation show airlines canceled just one percent of flights for the month, down from 2.8 percent in March. That also beats the airline cancellation rate from April 2017, which was 1.6 percent.

You might be able to skip two steps in the trudge through airport security soon, as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced a plan to test new scanners that could allow flyers to keep their liquids and laptops in their carry-on bags.

During a lengthy government shutdown, travelers are often rightfully concerned about the strain on TSA workers, who are required to continue airport screenings without pay. A poll by Airfarewatchdog (SmarterTravel’s sister company) recently found that 62 percent of travelers are concerned about safety at airports during a shutdown. Plus, 47 percent think that airlines should have to pay for private security to fill gaps during worker shortages.

If you’ve ever sat with your knees wedged up against the seatback in front of you, you might be wondering which North American carrier is the airline with the most legroom. And the answer depends entirely on an aircraft measurement called “seat pitch.”

Facial recognition is slowly making its way into U.S. airports, with the technology thus far being limited to non-U.S. citizens who are entering or departing the country. But that might be changing soon: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it wants to expand the practice of airport face scans to include U.S. citizens entering and exiting the country, too.

As reported yesterday, the U.S. has grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft until further notice. The move came after most major international regulatory bodies took similar action, notably in the Europe, the U.K., and Canada.

You know going into it that Christmas travel can be exasperating: crowds and winter weather often do not play well together. But some trips are worse than others, so Treetopia dug through Department of Transportation data to identify the best and worst airports, routes, and days for Christmas travel, based on the number and length of delays encountered in last year’s holiday season.

Two models of Boeing’s latest twin 737 MAX 8 jet have crashed in the last six months: An Ethiopian Airlines flight headed for Nairobi on March 8, and October’s Lion Air flight that crashed off Jakarta. Both flights went down shortly after takeoff, killing all onboard. Since Sunday’s crash over 25 airlines grounded their models of the plane. On Wednesday the Trump administration followed other governments, including those of Canada, China, Germany, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar, and the United Kingdom, in calling for the planes to be grounded and banned the aircraft from domestic airspace.

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.

Update: On January 13, Houston’s George Bush International airport closed a terminal due to a worker shortage. The move followed Miami International Airport’s closure of a terminal amid TSA officer call outs. Our original story including tips on how to avoid airport delays during the shutdown continues below.

In the United States, the best airlines for families traveling together are JetBlue and Southwest. That’s according to a ranking by travel-industry blog the Points Guy, which weighed 11 individual factors of flying with family, from entertainment and food to seat size and complimentary seat selection, to create composite scores.

When it comes to keeping the security lines moving, some U.S. airports are simply better than others. And it pays to know which ones are most likely to hold you up with TSA wait times, especially if you’re not enrolled in TSA Precheck.