Photo courtesy of Matt McGee, Flickr Creative Commons This post previously appeared on Frommers.com “TSA bans holiday cheer,” read a tweet issued from a Transportation Security Administration (www.tsa.gov) spoof account at the beginning of December. And that’s not so hard to believe,...

Watching the blizzards overcome the East Coast this holiday season reminds me of last year’s winter, when my husband spent more than 2 hours on the phone with US Air trying to rebook his flight from Florida back to Washington DC after snow ruined his travel. So I feel for reader Dan, who wrote:...

Last night marked the first time that I had flown since the TSA instituted the X-ray scanners and enhanced pat-downs. As I drove to the airport, I worried about my choices. Among my many concerns, I think the scanners violate privacy – yet who wants to be subject to a patdown that feels more like...

I am so glad I am not flying this week. And that’s not just because of the typical Thanksgiving airport traffic that gives these particular seven days the nickname “amateur week.” No, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with airport security and the Epic Fail of the TSA’s...

My husband, falling asleep with the phone while on hold with US Airways. His noon flight into DCA was canceled because Terminal C at the airport was flooded, due to a burst pipe. Total time on hold: 2 hours, 10 minutes. Still, others may have endured longer – when we called on a second phone,...

This week marks the official kickoff of the holiday travel season, perhaps the most stressful time to get from here to there, whether you’re on a plane, train or automobile. While I’m staying put this week, I’ll be joining my parents and sister in Florida for Christmas and going...

I’ve been lucky with most of my flights this year. There have been no horrendous delays, no lost luggage, no sitting on a tarmac. Air karma was on my side. Until today. An innocuous alert from Delta last week announced that there were “schedule changes.” Careful reading showed that...

I grew up thinking that vacations started at dawn – whether you wanted it that way or not. On the mornings of our family road trip, the alarm clocks sounded before the sun rose, and we’d wake bleary eyed to the smell of brewing coffee, the sound of my dad loading the car and sight of my exhausted...