As Paris Olympics wind down, Los Angeles swings into planning for 2028
PARIS — From the City of Love to the City of Angels, planning for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is well underway and organizers are paying close attention to what’s worked, and what hasn’t, so far in Paris. It will be LA’s third time hosting the Olympics — the last...
Frontier Airlines pilot arrested at Houston airport, forcing flight’s cancellation
HOUSTON — A Frontier Airlines flight that had been set to go from Houston to the Dallas area last week got canceled not because of weather, but because one of its pilots got arrested. The pilot, Seymour Walker, was arrested by officers around 4 p.m. Thursday before passengers began to...
Daycation: Visit the celebrated home of Punxsutawney Phil
It’s not necessary to wait until February to take a rural rodent-themed road trip to Punxsutawney in Jefferson County to see the world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. Avoid the wave of Groundhog Day’s 35,000-plus tourists that descend upon Punxsutawney every Feb. 2 with an off-season visit to the small-town...
Proposed U.S. rule would ban airlines from charging parents additional fees to sit with their children
The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing a new rule that would ban airlines from charging parents more to sit with their young children. Under the proposal, released Thursday, U.S. and foreign carriers would be required to seat children 13 or younger next to their parent or accompanying adult for...
Find a ‘cooler weather’ road trip in Western Pennsylvania
Bruce Gezon of Murrysville is no stranger to a nice, scenic drive. Gezon, a member of the Sports Car Club of America’s Hall of Fame, has been designing rally courses for a half-century. With late-summer temperatures continuing to stay in the 80s and 90s, spending an afternoon outdoors might not...
Southwest Airlines plans to start assigning seats, breaking with a 50-year tradition
DALLAS — Goodbye, cattle call. Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it plans to drop the open-boarding system it has used for more than 50 years and will start assigning passengers to seats, just like all the other big airlines. The airline said it has been studying seating options, running tests...
Taylor Swift’s museum era is on full display at London’s V&A
LONDON — Taylor Swift fans who missed her world tour or those who can’t get enough of her can catch her at the museum this summer. As a celebration of her double run of sold-out shows in London on her Eras Tour, real items from Swift’s different musical eras have...
Delta CEO, in Paris for the Olympics, says outage-related cancellations should end Thursday
Delta Air Lines canceled significantly fewer flights Wednesday, and the airline’s chief executive said cancellations and delays stemming from a global technology breakdown should end by Thursday. The airline issued a message to customers from Ed Bastian while the CEO was in Paris to attend the Summer Olympics. In the...
Disney reaches tentative agreement with California theme park workers
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Disney has reached a tentative agreement with four unions representing thousands of workers at its California theme parks, including ride operators, candy makers and parking attendants. The coalition of unions said early Wednesday that its 14,000 workers will get to vote on the deal on Monday. No...
River tourism a hit with older generations
A white steamboat with a prominent red paddle wheel docks in Pittsburgh and boards 150 passengers before setting sail on the mighty Ohio River. The 1800s-style cruise ship isn’t headed to Punta Cana or the Bahamas, but to locations off-the-beaten-path such as Moundsville, W.Va., to see the Adena Indian burial...
Higher costs and low base fares send Delta’s profit down 29%. The airline still earned $1.31 billion
Americans are traveling in record numbers this summer, but Delta Air Lines said Thursday that it saw second-quarter profit drop 29% due to higher costs and discounting of base-level fares across the industry. The airline is also predicting a lower profit than Wall Street expects for the third quarter. On...
Delta and an airline that doesn’t fly yet say they’ll run flights between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia
Delta Air Lines said Tuesday it has entered into a partnership with startup Riyadh Air with the goal of operating flights between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh Air, which plans to begin passenger flights next summer, is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and is part of the...
More than 3 million pass through U.S. airport security in a day for the first time as travel surges
More than 3 million people passed through U.S. airport security on Sunday, the first time that number of passengers have been screened in a single day as travel surges, according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. The record, which was widely predicted to happen at some point over the July...
An Alaska tourist spot will vote whether to ban cruise ships on Saturdays to give locals a break
JUNEAU, Alaska — Each year, a crush of tourists arrives in Alaska’s capital city on cruise ships to see wonders like the fast-diminishing Mendenhall Glacier. Now, long-simmering tensions over Juneau’s tourism boom are coming to a head over a new voter initiative aimed at giving residents a respite from the...
Daycation Destination: Retired surgeon finds passion with world’s largest Cadillac Museum
A retired Brookville eye surgeon has one cool car collection — and it’s the world’s largest. Dr. Steve Greenberg owns more than 80 meticulously restored Cadillacs, and he displays the shiny, sleek and sexy models in three separate indoor areas on the grounds of what was formerly a Cadillac dealership...
Air travel is getting worse. That’s what passengers are telling the U.S. government
WASHINGTON — Air travel got more miserable last year, if the number of consumer complaints filed with the U.S. government is any measure. The Transportation Department said Friday that it received nearly 97,000 complaints in 2023, up from about 86,000 the year before. The department said there were so many...
Back to Woodstock, with Wi-Fi: Women return after 55 years to glamp and relive the famous festival
BETHEL, N.Y. — Beverly “Cookie” Grant hitchhiked to the Woodstock music festival in 1969 without a ticket and slept on straw. Ellen Shelburne arrived in a VW microbus and pitched a pup tent. Fifty-five years later, the two longtime friends finally got back to the garden, but this time in...
TSA says it screened a record of nearly 3 million people Sunday, and bigger crowds are on the way
The number of air travelers moving through U.S. airports hit a record Sunday, and the new mark might not last through next weekend. The Transportation Security Administration said it screened nearly 3 million people at airports Sunday, breaking a record set on May 24, the Friday before Memorial Day. TSA...
Use a roaming eSIM on your summer travels to avoid cellphone data fees
LONDON — For summer trips overseas, a smartphone is essential for most people. How else will you check Google Maps to find your Airbnb, post an Instagram video from the Eiffel Tower, or WhatsApp friends and family back home? Of course, if you’re using apps that gobble up data while...
Travel trend: More couples choose exotic wedding destinations
More couples are saying “I do” to exotic wedding destination locations in place of traditional church weddings. According to the 2023 Destination Wedding Global Market Report, the destination wedding industry is projected to grow from $27.6 billion in 2023 to $36 billion this year. Mexico tops the list of tropical...
Governor halts plan to charge most drivers entering Manhattan $15 for transit and traffic fixes
NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul halted a plan to charge most motorists $15 to enter the core of Manhattan, upending the nation’s first “congestion pricing” system on Wednesday just weeks before it was set to launch. The announcement dealt a stunning blow to a program, years in...
Bette Nash, who was named the world’s longest-serving flight attendant, dies at 88
NEW YORK — Bette Nash, who was once named the world’s longest-serving flight attendant, has died. She was 88. American Airlines, Nash’s employer, announced her passing on social media Saturday. The carrier noted that Nash spent nearly 70 years warmly caring for customers in the air. “Bette was a legend...
Record broken for most passengers screened at U.S. airports, TSA says
ATLANTA — A record was broken ahead of the Memorial Day weekend for the number of airline travelers screened at U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration said Saturday. More than 2.9 million travelers were screened at U.S. airports on Friday, surpassing a previous record set last year on the Sunday...
What is in-flight turbulence, and when does it become dangerous for passengers and crews?
NEW YORK — The death of a British man and injuries impacting dozens of other people aboard a Singapore Airlines flight that hit severe turbulence Tuesday highlighted the potential dangers of flying through unstable air. The exact cause of the 73-year-old man’s death is under investigation. Authorities said he may...
No more cute snaps of Mount Fuji over a convenience store. A screen was built to stop tourist crowds
TOKYO — Sorry, the screen is now up — no more snapping cute photos of Mount Fuji from a popular sidewalk spot in the Japanese town of Fujikawaguchiko. Known as a place that offers some of the best views of the iconic Japanese mountain, the town last month started erecting...
