Travel

The Trump administration fired hundreds of employees with the Federal Aviation Administration over the weekend, just weeks after a fatal crash in Washington, D.C., exposed understaffing at the agency.The union representing the employees called the firings a “hastily made decision” that would increase the workload of a workforce already stretched thin. The union statement referred to the D.C. crash as well as two others in recent weeks across the country as evidence that it was not the time to cut back at the agency. “This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing," David Spero, the national president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO, said in a statement. "Staffing decisions should be based on an individu...

More than 90 passengers and crew members on a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship which set sail from Tampa, Florida, on Feb. 1 for a weeklong cruise came down with a gastrointestinal illness, causing vomiting and diarrhea.According to CruiseMapper, the ship was expected to return Saturday after making stops in Cozumel, Roatan Islands, Belize City, and Costa Maya.The outbreak happened on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a press release. It's not clear what caused the illness.The CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program said it was made aware of the outbreak Tuesday, halfway through the ship's journey.Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, and it's unclear if the outbreak affected the itinera...

Patricka Hogue’s friends were already calling her “the nomad.” While she had visited dozens of countries (at the latest count, at least 60), by 2012 she yearned for a community of Black fellow travelers she could share her traveling experiences with.That was when she stumbled upon the Nomadness Travel Tribe, a Facebook group, now with 37,000 members.“I literally found my tribe,” she said.Patricka HogueCourtesy Patricka HogueHogue and thousands of other Black travelers have built communities — online and off — centered on globetrotting. While they share restaurant recommendations and envy-inducing photos, many members say the groups have instilled lasting friendships and led to marriages. In the worst cases, the groups have sprung to action in times of crisis. At its core, the groups enc...

Consumers are looking for ways to travel on tighter budgets. Many are ditching first-choice options like flights for cheaper ones, like long-haul bus rides. Others are just staying home.Travel demand fell in the second half of last year, when even high-income households spent less on hotel rooms, Morning Consult recently found. It’s the latest sign that consumers are making tough choices when they run out of affordable substitutes for everything from airline tickets to eggs.“All the additional costs associated with traveling — eating out, airfare, gas costs, items to be bought before the trip — are causing more consumers to walk away instead of making the purchase,” said Deni Koenhemsi, head of economic analysis at Morning Consult.Those who aren’t walking away are increasingly tweaking ...

At NBC Select, we spend hours researching and testing products so you can be more selective with your purchases. For our first-ever NBC Select Travel Awards, we spent months thoroughly testing numerous products covering a variety of travel categories. We flew across the globe to Japan and Paris with suitcases, took train rides around New York City with weekenders and duffels in tow and packed bags full of packing cubes, toiletry bags and noise-canceling headphones to road trip across the East Coast. After all that testing, our editors sat down to choose products deserving of NBC Select’s stamp of approval.Below are our award-winning duffels, weekenders and backpacks, plus information about how we evaluated each product.SKIP AHEAD How we picked the best bags | Best duffel bags | Best bac...

Over eight weeks, we traveled to Tokyo, Paris and the Caribbean testing bags and luggage — it's a difficult job, but someone's got to do it. As a result of our hard work testing over 150+ travel products, we picked our favorites — introducing our first-ever Best of Travel Awards.We traveled across the globe to Tokyo with hardshell suitcases and packing cubes, commuting to and from our New York City office with weekenders and duffle bags and tried toiletry bags, noise-canceling headphones and more.  Below, we rounded up the best suitcases, bags and accessories.SKIP AHEAD Travel Awards suitcases winners | Travel Awards bags winners | Travel Awards accessories winnersBest of Travel Awards 2024 suitcase winnersBest hardshell suitcasesBest overall hardshell suitcase: Away The Bigger Carry-On...

Cathy Balestriere was expecting “especially low” bookings last month at Crane’s Beach House, the boutique hotel she manages in Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they jumped 12% from the year before.“It feels like a miracle based on where we were sitting just a few weeks ago,” she said.It’s not a miracle. It’s the weather.The surge coincided with a sweltering mid-June heat wave across the Midwest and the Northeast, putting over 80 million people under heat alerts — the latest run of unseasonably extreme temperatures fueled by a global climate that is warming at a record pace.There is no question that we are seeing a growing preference for destinations with more comfortable summer temperatures.Jesse Neugarten, CEO of Dollar Flight ClubFlorida might not be the first destination that comes to...

A Turkish Airlines pilot died midflight, forcing the co-pilot into an emergency landing in New York City on Wednesday morning, authorities said.Flight 8JK landed safely shortly before 6 a.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.Pilot İlçehin Pehlivan, 59, "fainted during the flight," and when "medical intervention to our captain on the plane was ineffective," the co-pilot opted to land, Turkish Airlines said in a statement.Unfortunately, "our captain lost his life before landing," the airline said. Pehlivan bad been with the airline since 2007.The Airbus A350 took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 7:02 p.m. PT Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware, and was headed to Istanbul.Jay BlackmanJay Blac...

The Tropicana, one of the first luxury properties on the Strip, spent much of its life targeting middle-class guests. Its ties to organized crime and a shifting competitive landscape brought that flashy era to an end. It was sold to Ramada in 1979 and, despite ownership changes, was operated as a budget-friendly resort until it closed.Now, as Las Vegas visitors demand more high-end experiences, the city is competing less directly with longtime gambling hubs such as Atlantic City, New Jersey, or Laughlin, Nevada, 90 miles south of Sin City, Belarmino said. Instead, “our guests are telling us they consider us at the same time they’re considering San Francisco and New York, which makes us a value in comparison to those types of destinations,” she said.Those $20 nights and no resort fees ar...

Germany’s flagship airline has been fined $4 million by the U.S. Department of Transportation over allegations it discriminated against a group of Jewish passengers.The regulator said Tuesday that Lufthansa had prohibited 128 people wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing from boarding for a connecting flight in Germany as they made their way from New York City to Budapest, Hungary, in May 2022.“Based on the alleged misconduct of some passengers,” DOT said, Lufthansa staff “treated them all as if they were a single group and denied them boarding,” despite many of the passengers not knowing each other nor traveling together.Some individuals in the group allegedly violated the airline’s mask policy. Video of the incident at the time showed Lufthansa staff telling passengers that “eve...