Before we start, a quick note on what this post is (and isn’t). This isn’t a full review of the Centurion Lounge in Atlanta. I’m not doing a room-by-room walkthrough, ranking every dish on the buffet, or attempting to cover every amenity. Plenty of sites have already done that (and done it well). Instead, this is about how the lounge…

Not that long ago, in-flight Wi-Fi was a “nice if you can get it” perk—generally slow and overpriced, and not something you could rely on working at all. Things have changed since then. Now it’s part of the decision-making process. Some airlines still don’t offer Wi-Fi on every flight (or at all), while others bake it into the experience. And plenty of travelers will absolutely pick one airline over another based on whether they can get online—even if it’s just to keep up with work messages, entertain the kids, or doomscroll at 35,000 feet.

Have you ever visited a location—one that EVERYONE is talking about—and discovered it wasn’t ‘all that’? Yeah, me too (for me it was The Jewel, in Singapore. I mean, it was fine. But for the most part, it was just a mall with some extra features. I was expecting more). It turns out there are plenty of places that fit into the category of ‘I heard so much about it, but it wasn’t nearly as good as I thought it would be.’ And, not surprisingly, people are more than willing to say so in their reviews online.

We know how much politics has divided our country over the past few years, but did you know that conservative, liberal and independent voters even tend to travel and vacation differently? MRI-Simmons is the leading provider of insights on the American consumer. Previously two separate research companies (GfK MRI and Simmons Research), they joined forces in early 2019. As per…

We all know that we should make good life choices. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. For example, if you have a DUI on your record, there are a bunch of countries that you can’t visit (here’s the list). PC: 911 Bail Bonds Las Vegas / flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0 Sometimes a person’s bad life choices can go far beyond a DUI.

Marriott elite benefits can be a little… situational. Upgrades and late checkout depend on the property, the day, and sometimes the mood of the person at the front desk. But after a recent stay at a Courtyard by Marriott, I was reminded of one perk that’s more #IYKYK — and it’s one of the few benefits a hotel is least likely to deny.

I don’t know about you, but for me, I think the ultimate in travel luxury would be a lifetime pass, or its equivalent, to something. Walt Disney World sold such things to select visitors and associates in the 1970s and 1980s, and Disneyland has been known to give them out to “significant” guests (i.e., the first guest, the 100,000,000th guest, the first child born at DL, etc.).

Several no-annual-fee Chase cards can be great Ultimate Rewards earners. The problem is that those no-fee UR cards can’t transfer points to airline/hotel partners unless you also have a premium Ultimate Rewards card. The value of your Ultimate Rewards is directly related to the account where you hold them. Points in a Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited or Ink Cash account are typically worth 1¢ each as cash back (and some redemptions, like certain gift cards or merchandise, can be worse).

As the TSA adds more and more Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) units to the country’s airports, it means fewer and fewer people have to show their boarding passes to TSA officers. How CAT scanners changed the checkpoint Typically, you give the TSA officer your ID, which they scan into the CAT unit. The new scanners can verify whether a traveler’s ID is expired or authentic (well, …

I'm never shocked when I hear about people doing stupid things. I mean, I live in Florida. People doing stupid things happen pretty much daily down here. There are some things that I look at and think, "How many people were doing this that they had to make a sign telling them not to do it?" Signs That Make You Ask: “Who Did This?!”

I’ve flown Virgin Atlantic Upper Class before. Lie-flat seat, better food, better service, better everything — the kind of experience that makes you think, “Yeah… I could get used to this.” But Upper Class is also the kind of experience that’s often much more expensive (and award space can be hard to find unless you’re flexible… which we usually aren’t). So for a daytime transatlantic flight — where we’re not trying to get hours of real sleep — …

When JetBlue announced its "25 for 25" promotion, I decided I was up for the challenge. And in the end, I'd get Mosaic 1 status (granted, it's the lowest level of JetBlue status, but still...) for 25 years, AND 350,000 TrueBlue points? Sure, why not? So from late August to late November, I flew a lot - 37 flights, to be exact (needless to say, there were a bunch of positioning flights thrown in) - and completed the challenge.

When my passport was getting close to expiring, I started gathering everything I’d need to renew it. I have to tell you – I really, really hate getting my passport photo taken. Besides the fact that I have to have a white or off-white background behind me (I started going gray when I was 17, and was all silver by the time I was 40; on a white background, I look like I have no hair at all), I hate that I’m not allowed to smile in the photo.

If you’ve been holding onto The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card largely because of its lounge access perks, here’s some bad news: Chase is cutting back one of the card’s best (and most unusual) benefits — the ability to bring in unlimited guests with your Priority Pass. Back in January, we wrote about how the Ritz-Carlton card’s unlimited Priority Pass guests benefit was…

Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing is up for debate. But celebrities tend to have a lot of influence over the general public. That's why you sometimes see famous people in commercials, touting cars, foods, hair products, skin products, alcohol, you name it. In fact, there's a whole marketing strategy around the influence that celebrity endorsements can have over consumers.

It’s simple math: the less money a hotel spends, the more profit it makes. There’s no better cost-cutting measure for hotel owners than one that can double as a "green initiative"—a win-win that lowers energy usage while earning eco-friendly brownie points. Take motion-sensor thermostats, for example. Companies market these as improving comfort, but the real pitch is the bottom line: "Occupancy sensing systems will increase profits by reducing room HVAC energy consumption by 35 to 45 percent." One of the earliest energy-saving tricks in hotels dates back decades: the key card slot by the door.

You've probably heard plenty of stories about flights that were delayed or cancelled and it meant people missed something important. Case in point, when Southwest had its meltdown during the holiday season of 2022, over 2 million people wound up being stranded and essentially missed Christmas with their friends and family (which is why it was so flabbergasting when the airline dropped this tone-deaf ad…

I write a lot about the credit card offers available to earn bonus miles. That's because sign-up bonuses from credit cards are the easiest way to rack up points and miles in a short amount of time. I realize that many people can't get approved for credit cards or choose not to have them. While that means you're missing out on some great opportunities, all is not lost.

If you’ve ever planned a national park trip around one of the “free entrance days,” you’ll want to take note: the National Park Service is changing how those days work starting in 2026. The headline change is simple (and significant): beginning January 1, 2026, entrance-fee-free days will apply only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Nonresidents will still pay the standard entrance fee, and at some parks, they’ll also pay an additional per-person nonresident fee.

According to the FAA database, the ratio of U.S. domestic flights outnumber international flights by roughly 10 to 1 (that's an estimate, but you can see the statistics on the FAA's Air Traffic Activity System (ATADS) database). That means a whole lot more of us fly domestically than outside the country. Of course, when you fly, whether it's within the country or outside of it, there are a whole bunch of rules you have to follow.

It used to be easier to sign up for travel cards. When you hear stories from just a few years ago, they can seem unbelievable today. That’s because the banks figured out what many of us were up to: signing up for a bunch of cards to get the signup bonuses, then canceling or downgrading before we’d ever really become profitable customers.

The general rule when traveling internationally is that you need at least 6 months of validity on your passport to be allowed to enter a country. Some countries allow you to have at least 6 months of validity remaining from the day you enter. But others require you to have 6 months beyond your departure date. It just depends on the country.

If you fly into a large airport and have checked luggage, you already know how humongous those baggage carousels can be. They take up a lot of floor space and have switchbacks/turnarounds, etc. And of course, it makes sense. If a single plane is carrying a few hundred people, you need a baggage carousel that can handle the luggage of said few hundred people.

Some meals are about the food. Others are about the feeling you get the second you walk through the door. But every once in a while, a meal is about something else entirely: going back. Not just to a restaurant, but to a version of your life that still lives in the smell of the place, the look of the dining room, and the way the menu feels in your hands.

There are some airline passengers who do their best to, if not be helpful, at least mind both their manners and their own business. And then you have the passengers who...don't. Someone in the Southwest Airlines subreddit of Reddit wrote a story of what they said happened recently to her and her husband while on a Southwest Airlines flight not long ago.