Pandemic tips

Southwest Airlines and its pilots union have reached a tentative deal on a new, five-year labor contract that would raise wages and increase retirement benefits.

Travelers looking to plan international trips in the New Year got some good news this week: Passport renewal will no longer take months on end. Processing times for US passports have finally returned to what they were before the pandemic, according to an update from the State Department.

If your passport's expiration date is coming up in the next year, there's a bit of good news. For the first time, passport processing times are back down to what they were before the pandemic, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

Passport processing times have once again returned to normal, pre-pandemic levels.

Warsaw has just moved closer to Munich, Berlin nudged towards Paris, and Aachen slipped nearer to Salzburg. These are just three examples of city pairs that are newly linked, as of this week, by direct night trains. None of these city pairs currently has direct daytime trains, so the overnight options create a web of opportunities. As always in December, rail operators across Europe are introducing new schedules, along the way creating tantalising links where none existed before.

Adam Kidan was aboard his Gulfstream private jet in 2021, headed from Los Angeles to the East Coast, when the pilot told him they needed to land in Las Vegas due to a maintenance issue. It took four days, dozens of phone calls and a couple of favors before he could find somebody to come fix his airplane. An entrepreneur who built his fortune helping others find workforce solutions, from warehouses to light manufacturing, he saw an opportunity. Beyond the manufacturers of private jets, he says there were no national networks of repair shops that could come out and fix your airplane if you have an AOG, industry speak for aircraft on the ground away from its base, or what we call a mechanical.

While traveling to a new destination means exploring new foods and cities, there’s nothing quite like stepping into a fresh hotel room. Whether you’re staying in a budget hotel or splurged on luxury accommodations, it turns out there’s a bit more ick in the room than you probably expected. TikToker and hotelier @queenevangeline25 recently went viral for the list of things she’d never do at a hotel, and it turns out the most significant issues have to do with cleanliness. While you might think to wipe down common surfaces like the kettle in the room, the dirtiest part of a hotel room might be where you rest your head.

The past year has seen a flurry of cabins crop up near the shores of Broken Bow Lake in southeast Oklahoma. Cloaked in pine and pawpaw trees, this rural region likely has a higher permanent population of black bears and bald eagles than people. Fishing, hiking, and boating have maintained steady tourism but the recent boom in new chalets has put the teensy hamlet of Hochatown on the map, literally. Airbnb is credited with creating this vacation bubble in the aftermath of the pandemic as travelers in OK and TX seek countryside getaways closer to home.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and that now includes Delta Air Lines' network.

Like exercise, flossing and college, travel has long been held up as an incontrovertible good — an essential part of the modern human experience. Lately, though, there’s been some pushback from the smart set, if not the jet set.

This story about Koreatowns is part of Home, Made, a collection of stories honoring Asian diasporas creating vibrant communities by weaving their heritages with their American hometowns. Read more here.

Peru's famous Machu Picchu is an iconic destination in South America. Dubbed «the lost city of the Incas,» the 15th-century citadel was discovered in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham and was later designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983. The ruins only allow a maximum of 3,800 visitors per day, but that's slated to change in the new year.

After rebounding following the pandemic disruption, the global cruise industry is set to expand further in 2024 with several notable cruise ship launches.

The global aviation industry is expected to experience a significant increase in passenger traffic in 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This is good news for the airlines, though passengers may find that flights are even more full than they were this year.

Cities around the world manage every year to turn the end-of-year festive mood spotlight on one of the holiday’s most revered symbols, the Christmas tree.

To reach the top of the Waldspritz sledding run above the village of Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps, I hiked 90 minutes into the backcountry, dragging a small runnered sled by a rope to roughly 7,400 feet.

Happy hump day! And we continue to discuss the housing market and mortgages. 

A merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines would place them as the fifth- or sixth-largest airline depending on whether the proposed merger of JetBlue and Spirit goes through. 

“Casa Maria Luigia is a home and a hotel…imaginary and real,” writes Lara Gilmore in Slow Food, Fast Cars, the book she co-authored with chef Massimo Bottura, her partner in life and fine dining. Together, they’ve created such restaurants as the three-Michelin-star destination Osteria Francescana. But Gilmore began her career writing about art, and Slow Food, Fast Cars: Casa Maria Luigia - Stories and Recipes (out from Phaidon on December 6) marries a number of genres, from cookbook to essay collection to exhibition catalog and beyond.

Travelers are continuing to plan trips further out, as they look toward mid-year getaways.

The airport 2030 development plans will bring 200 direct connections, 37 long-haul routes, and 10,000 parking places. Last but not least, the airport will be carbon neutral.