Health & Wellness tips

Editor’s Note: For travel insurance information specific to the current COVID-19 epidemic, see our stories on Travel In the Time of COVID: What You Need to Know; Travel Insurance Coverage: 18 Things Your Policy Won’t Cover; and Cancel for Any Reason Travel Insurance, Explained.

The recent headline-grabbing virus made travelers stop in their tracks, prompting many to cancel their trips to the tropics. While the Zika virus is mainly a concern for expectant mothers, it should be a reminder to all travelers that soon after booking that international itinerary they make a very important call: the travel clinic.

After more than one hundred incidents of the now-discontinued Samsung Galaxy Note 7 exploding, popping, and generally being a fire hazard, the Department of Transportation has officially banned them from all flights.

In a blow to smartphone giant Samsung, and a scare for a plane full of passengers, Southwest flight 994 last night was evacuated when a Galaxy Note 7 overheated and began smoking. According to USA Today’s report, the phone in question was a replacement for the owner’s original phone, which was among 1 million Note 7s recalled and replaced because of overheating batteries. The replacement phone was supposed to be the fix. Apparently it wasn’t.

Unless you’re traveling in first or business class, and maybe even then, longer flights simply mean more discomfort. So while airlines take it as a point of pride that they operate long, longer, and longest flights, most flyers rightly treat long-flight boasts as more threat than promise.

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.

The debate over inflight phone-calling raged hot and heavy two years ago, with the opposing forces seemingly gaining the upper hand. The Association of Flight Attendants called for an outright ban on the calls. A no-call bill was introduced in Congress. The DOT signaled its general opposition to inflight cell use on safety grounds, in particular that it would distract passengers from attending to routine safety announcements and flight crew instructions in emergency situations. And several airline CEOs pledged it would never happen on their planes.

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.

The U.S. State Department this week added two of Mexico’s most popular leisure destinations to its long list of Mexican cities that Americans should avoid, or where they should exercise extra caution.

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.

When it comes to commercial air transportation, consumers have two bottom lines. First, it must be cheap. And second, it must be safe.

If current practice is any indication, cellphone calls aboard U.S. flights might as well be banned. Technically, that’s not currently the case. But it might be soon.

There was considerable hand-wringing in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday that travelers would be facing something just this side of hell on earth. Packed planes. Overflowing overhead bins. Overcrowded gate areas. Endless check-in lines. And even longer lines to clear security checkpoints.

There’s nothing mysterious about a solar eclipse. The moon blots out the sun for a few minutes, completely, in a spot about 80 miles in diameter. Places within that totality spot experience total darkness—just like a moonless midnight—for more than two and a half minutes near the center, a bit less than a minute at the edges. Areas hundreds of miles on either side of the totality spot will experience partial darkness.

While the Thanksgiving travel period was mostly uneventful, thankfully, at least one plane-full of holiday flyers got more than their fair share of inflight drama.

Getting banned for life from flying a commercial airline isn’t easy, or common. In fact, I can’t recall another instance of an airline’s taking such a harsh line on passenger misbehavior, ever.

Not everyone believes that taxes are as inevitable as death. In addition to the I-won’t-pay crowd, there’s the I-can’t-pay contingent, and the I-forgot-to-pay group. Whatever their reasons, they’re all considered delinquent taxpayers by the IRS. And that delinquency can now jeopardize their ability to fly.

In his opening remarks before yesterday’s House Transportation Committee “Oversight of U.S. Airline Customer Service” hearing, committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) referred to two recent incidents: United’s forcible removal of a passenger on flight UA3411, and an American Airlines flight attendant’s tussle with a passenger over her child’s stroller.

I’m always on the lookout for jet lag remedies, so when I learned about mild hyperbaric oxygen treatment as a growing trend for treating the ill-effects of air travel and time-zone changes, I knew I wanted to test it out. Here’s the lowdown on my experience.

Airlines take operating the world’s longest flight as a point of pride, apparently figuring the title carries with it the luster of technical prowess and sophistication. If they’ve got it, they’re sure to flaunt it. They’ll even flaunt it before they have it.

The “Do Not Disturb” sign is a ubiquitous part of the hotel-stay experience. And many would argue that it’s essential to a restful stay. After all, who wants to come out of the shower to find a housekeeper tidying up your room?