Flight delay tips

New airline passenger protections have passed for our neighbor to the north, offering increased Canadian air rights for travelers impacted by delays and other air travel inconveniences. But advocates on both sides—the airlines and some consumer groups—are not happy with the new rules.

Delta has taken a big step toward its goal of cutting down on delayed bags: Launching the industry’s first bag tracking feature on its app.

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 Christmas travel season is upon us. While perhaps not as narrow and intense as the Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas is nevertheless an extremely busy time of year at airports across the country. In addition to an influx of travelers, late December is infamous for throwing weather curveballs that can further snarl already maxed-out airline operations.

This year’s ongoing security difficulties (read: long TSA wait times) are about to get a multi-million dollar fix. Earlier this month, Congress approved $28 million in funds to convert 2,784 part-time officers to full-time, which will open an additional 53 security lines nationwide. The funds will also expedite the hiring of 600 new officers before the end of September.

Well, these are some expensive pretzels.