Travel

For many European gays, the festive Eurovision Song Contest each May marks the unofficial kickoff to the global Pride season.As usual, there were soaring highlights and scandalous lowlights among the competing Eurovision nations at the 2025 edition of the contest in Basel, Switzerland, this month. But another country was on the lips of many queer jet-setters this year: the United States, with its spate of new anti-trans and anti-immigrant policies that are causing some LGBTQ travelers to reconsider their upcoming American itineraries. Several European countries, including Denmark, Finland and Germany, have issued official cautions for LGBTQ travelers visiting the U.S., particularly those with an “X” gender listed on their passport. Meanwhile, out of concerns for participant safety, Cana...

A Delta flight erupted into chaos on Saturday when two pigeons were discovered in the plane's main cabin, video of the pandemonium shows. According to an Instagram post from another passenger, Tom Caw was the passenger who spotted the first pigeon before the plane departed from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Caw said the pilot announced the pigeon sighting and returned the plane to the gate to have the bird removed.As the flight taxied out to take off again, a second pigeon emerged and flew down the main aisle of the cabin, video Caw posted on Instagram and NBC News obtained shows. The bird prompted several passengers to scream. "Pilot said when he radioed the control tower about us coming back due to a pigeon, the guy said that was a first for him," Caw wrote. "Pilot tol...

A series of destructive storms across parts of the South and central U.S. could wash out Memorial Day plans and snarl millions of Americans’ return trek home.As of Monday morning, hundreds of flights had been delayed in the U.S., with dozens of others canceled, according to data on FlightAware.com. The Dallas-Fort Worth area, which has seen several rounds of thunderstorms and gusting winds over the weekend and into Monday, has been the most affected by those delays, the flight-tracking site said.Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, American Airlines' largest hub, said it was expecting to serve about 1.4 million travelers over the holiday. Over the weekend, lines hundreds of people deep snaked around the airport's terminals.It's also the first Memorial Day weekend and major holiday t...

Consumers aren’t ready to ditch their travel plans despite growing economic gloom. But they are hunting for bargains — and hoping to find them on the open road.Some 53% of U.S. consumers are planning vacations this season, up from 48% a year ago, Deloitte researchers reported Tuesday. There’s especially strong interest in brief but more frequent trips closer to home, including by car, as travelers take a “more frugal approach” this year, the analysts said.Chris Narvaez, 45, had planned to visit London and Rome this summer. Airfares to Europe are down 8%, according to travel booking platform Hopper, but the New York City-based human resources director said he’s “hitting the pause button” on overseas travel.Chris Narvaez scrapped European travel plans and is sticking to shorter trips arou...

Summer’s unofficial kickoff is here and Americans are wasting no time getting out of town. From crowded airports to congested highways, Memorial Day travel is heating up, thanks in part to a dip in gas prices.A record 45.1 million people are expected to travel between Thursday May 22 and Monday May 26, breaking the 2005 holiday weekend record of 44 million travelers, according to AAA. Of those travelers, more than 38 million are expected to hit the road, marking the highest number of Memorial Day drivers AAA has ever recorded. Fueling this travel frenzy is good news at the pump: A gallon of regular gasoline was $3.17 as of May 19, down 11% compared to the same time last year, according to AAA. Airports are also bracing for the holiday rush. More than 3.5 million people are expected to f...

For some travelers, Newark Liberty International Airport has become a no-fly zone.With passengers spooked by reports of harried air traffic controllers' losing radio and radar contact with planes and dismayed by the resulting massive flight delays, the average daily number of travelers flying out of Newark, New Jersey, has dropped by as much as 20% compared with this time last year, from around 72,983 during the second week of May 2024 to 58,496 last week, according to Transportation Security Administration data reviewed by NBC News.Meanwhile, New York's LaGuardia Airport experienced a 16% increase in the average daily number of travelers during the same period, from 36,367 in 2024 to 42,037 this year, the data shows.And New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport has had a sl...

Members of the railroad engineers union for New Jersey Transit went on strike right after midnight Friday morning, crippling a system that around 350,000 people rely on, officials said.The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said that its around 450 members in New Jersey Transit were walking off the job at 12:01 a.m., in a dispute over pay.Around an hour before that deadline, Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey Transit President Kris Kolluri told reporters that they wanted a fair deal for the union.But they also said that they could not agree to a preferential deal that would cause the other unions in the transit system to demand the same, which Murphy said would cause costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars.New Jersey Transit “is facing a sobering fiscal reality," Murphy ...

A man who tried to open a cabin door and then attacked a flight attendant with a broken metal spoon on a passenger jet in 2023 has agreed to a deal that includes his release.Francisco Severo Torres, 34, agreed to plead guilty to assaulting or intimidating a flight crew member following the 2023 incident on a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston, prosecutors said Tuesday.The agreement, as filed in Boston federal court Monday, includes release for time served, 60 months of supervision upon release, compliance with mental health treatment, and fines and forfeiture. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life behind bars.Francisco Severo Torres during a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston.Lisa OlsenThe court on Tuesday ordered Torres be released to his mother, w...

Let’s be real: no one wants to worry about plug types or voltage conversion on vacation. That’s why you need a great travel adapter — with the right model, you can plug in your chargers and electronics like you normally would at home. That’s why I spoke with electronics experts: to better understand how adapters, voltages and electricity work. With their advice in mind, we selected the best travel adapters for your next big trip.What is a travel adapter?Travel adapters typically come in two shapes: plug adapters and universal adapters.In America, plug adapters have electrical prongs on one side and two or three pronged U.S. slots on the other. If you are traveling to the U.K., for example, your adapter will plug into rectangular-shaped U.K. outlets, and have slots where you can plug you...

Another ground stop at Newark Liberty International left travelers facing a new wave of cancellations and hourslong delays at the New Jersey airport on Sunday. This disruption follows weeks of chaos marked by air traffic communication issues and staffing shortages.While waiting areas, makeshift chairs and benches were emptier this weekend compared to the crowds of stranded passengers last week, outages on both Friday and Sunday left travelers grappling with the lingering effects.Akash Gupta had his travel plans completely upended on Saturday when his flight to Indianapolis was delayed six hours. He passed the time chatting with his wife over a video call and doodling on some paper.“I’m comfortable with flying, but I’m experiencing this kind of delay for the first time,” Gupta told NBC N...