Will Passports Be Replaced by Biometrics?

Southwest is helping travelers get a jumpstart on 2024 trip planning with its latest vacation sale.

From Barton Creek in Austin, Texas to Switzerland's Aare river, urban waterways around the world offer a cool reprieve from city heat—allowing residents and visitors alike to enjoy the various benefits that swimming affords. But even the boldest of New Yorkers, on the hottest of days, wouldn’t dare jump into the city’s rivers of their own accord.

Ever fantasized about having an entire hotel to yourself while on vacation? The Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora can make that dream come true: For $2.75 million, guests can buy out the entire island property for a week, dining at its open-air restaurants, snorkeling in the lagoon, and playing tennis with the hotel’s pro. Or, you could invite up to 245 of your closest friends to stay with you in the resort’s seven villas and 108 bungalow suites.

Depending on your perspective, American Airlines' latest move may be good or bad news.

Train lovers and travelers concerned about their carbon footprint have a lot to choose from this year — especially in Europe. While some European governments are mulling short-haul flight bans, many passengers are already opting for rail, where new connections are numerous.

Travelers appear to be slowly returning to some Middle East nations despite the continuation of the Israel-Hamas conflict that all but decimated the region’s tourism since it began on Oct. 7. Travel operators said that bookings to countries including Egypt, Jordan and Oman are growing, welcome news for an area that’s dependent on tourist dollars and one that had received a record number of visitors since the height of the pandemic.

A record 4.7 billion passengers are expected to fly globally in 2024, up from the previous record of 4.5 billion in 2019, according to the International Air Transport Association. Analysts at American Express Global Business Travel say that average ticket prices across all regions are not expected to change significantly. But in the United States, domestic and international airfares are expected to move in opposite directions.

When JetBlue first announced it would acquire Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion in April 2022, it seemed like an unlikely marriage.

Among the many aspects of travel that the pandemic disrupted, one issue was more bureaucratic — but no less frustrating — for some Americans: an enormous backlog of U.S. passport applications.

A U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday blocked the proposed $3.8 billion merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. 

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the proposed $3.8 billion merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, the first major U.S. airline merger to be rejected in 20 years. 

The passport you hold is a powerful tool when it comes to effortlessly visiting countries around the world.And some passports provide far more access than others, according to the Henley Passport Index.The just-released 2024 index shows that for the first time in 19 years of producing the ranking, six countries are tied for the top spot of having the most powerful passports.The countries leading the ranking are France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain—meaning citizens from all of these countries are able to visit 194 destinations around the world either visa-free or by obtaining a visa-on-arrival.The Henley Passport Index is the only ranking of its kind and is developed based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index compares 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.While Japan and Singapore have made it into the number one slot for the past five years running, according to CNN, the European countries that are now also ranked number one on the list is a new development.