Airport tips

The 26-country no-border-control Schengen area is in danger of collapsing under the migration threat. Presumably, the new border controls will be for no more than two years. But for now, you have to figure on reverting to the bad old days of mind-numbing border hassles within the area.

In a first for a U.S. airline loyalty program, Alaska Airlines is offering members of its Mileage Plan program the option to redeem miles to pay for TSA PreCheck service.

The last day in August marks the unofficial end of summer, and now also a historic day for U.S.-Cuba relations. JetBlue announced last month that it would be the first to send a passenger plane to Cuba in 2016, and at 10:58 a.m. today, fulfilled this promise.

It’s a basic premise of savvy loyalty-program participation that the best return-on-investment is to be had by redeeming points for the program host’s own services. Airline miles are best redeemed for flights, and hotel points are best redeemed for free room nights. Sure, all major programs offer alternative award opportunities—consumer electronics, clothing, event tickets, and on and on—but when you do the math, it inevitably turns out that such options offer very poor value.

What’s the most expensive airport in America? Here’s a hint: It’s not exactly in the continental U.S. If you guessed Guam then high five!

An incredible, unsettling report from the ACLU, using the documents obtained from the TSA, details patterns of racial and religious profiling, dubious tactics, and shaky science in that agency’s behavior detection program.

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) have a novel proposal to alleviate the expected congestion at airport security checkpoints this summer. In a letter sent this week to executives at 12 U.S. airlines, the senators called on the carriers to “suspend bag fees for the summer”:

Would you shelve your favorite piece of luggage and instead use a bag plastered with advertisements if it meant you didn’t have to pay airlines’ checked bag fees anymore?

Editors’ Note: On October 1, 2018, Primera Air announced it will cease operations immediately. The following story was published on September 11, 2018.

A world where everyone could sleep on command—or, simply one with more comfortable airplane seats—would be a beautiful one. But until that fantasy becomes reality, some of us will have to rely on sleep aids and accessories to help us catch some Zs.

No cash, no tip, no hassle… When you arrive at your destination, just hop out—we’ll automatically charge the credit card on file. And there’s no need to tip.

Been on a full flight lately? Then you may have heard an announcement or seen an appeal posted on the monitor at the gate asking for passenger volunteers to check their bags at the gate for free.

If you haven’t heard about the U.K.’s heated debate on cutting ties with the European Union—dubbed a “Brexit”—you certainly will this week. Britons headed to the ballot box on Thursday and made the historic decision to leave the European Union.

In its latest effort to capture the hearts, minds, and expense accounts of the travel universe’s most privileged 1 percent, American is raising the bar for airport lounges.

If asked to name my favorite U.S. airport, most days I’d say it was Smith Reynolds, more commonly known as the Winston-Salem airport in North Carolina. What I’m thinking of is not Smith Reynolds as it exists today, but as it was in the latter years of the 20th century, when I had business reasons to visit Winston-Salem on several occasions.

Ready to press that “Book Flight” button? Not so fast. There are some key rules to follow for dodging blunders when booking your long-awaited trip. Fortunately, some of the biggest problems are easy to avoid if you know what to look out for. Here are eight simple things to consider when booking a flight.

Britain’s Monarch Airlines failed abruptly last week, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at resort destinations without a return flight. The British government is helping those travelers return home, but the airline shutdown raises the question of whether a similar collapse could happen elsewhere.

OAG, which dubs itself an “air travel intelligence company,” has released its top-10 rankings of the most and least punctual airlines in 2016. The group analyzed 54 million flight records using full-year data from 2016 to compile the list, and for the purposes of the study defined “on-time” as “a flight that arrives or departs within 14 minutes and 59 seconds (under 15 minutes) of its scheduled arrival/departure time.”

Smoking traditional tobacco-packed cigarettes has been banned on most U.S. commercial flights since the late 1980s. But the “No Smoking” signs didn’t specifically prohibit the latest nicotine-delivery device, e-cigarettes.

Things are getting back to normal for Delta, but the damage, as they say, is done. The airline is reeling from a crippling systems outage that affected flights across the globe and led to thousands of cancellations and delays. Now begins the process of fixing what went wrong and, just as importantly, making good with customers.

The TSA is trying to figure out how 11 people were able to walk through security without being screened earlier this week at New York’s JFK airport.