Travel

A Delta flight attendant slashed a co-worker and hotel security guard after a late night and early morning of heavy, “blacked out” drinking, officials said Wednesday.Joshua Smith, 36, remained locked up in a New Orleans jail on Wednesday and is facing one count of attempted second-degree murder and several other battery and assault charges stemming from the bloody Monday morning incident, authorities said.Smith and “several other coworkers were returning to their” riverfront hotel when he started bickering with the victim, New Orleans police said in a statement.“The victim escorted the suspect to his room at which time an argument ensued and the suspect cut the victim twice on the arm and once to the neck,” according to police. “The victim relocated to another floor of the hotel to seek...

With Thanksgiving holiday travel well underway, many have reached their destinations — but for everyone else, a storm tracking from the Rockies to the Midwest and Northeast into Thursday will bring rain and snow, likely impacting flights and packed roads.Just shy of 3 million people were expected to be screened by the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday, and a record 71.7 million were expected travel by car over Thanksgiving — over 1 million more than last year. The storm, which dropped snow over the Rockies Wednesday morning and slowed by the afternoon, is forecast to race east throughout Wednesday to the Midwest and Northeast through Thanksgiving.It'll bring rain, with the possibility of ice and snow, that will intensify in the evening from St. Louis to Indianapolis an...

Seven foreign tourists were hospitalized in Fiji in a suspected case of alcohol poisoning at a luxury resort, Fijian and Australian officials said Monday.The guests, who, according to local media, included an American, were hospitalized after they drank cocktails at a bar at the five-star Warwick resort near the town of Sigatoka. The group also included four Australians and two unidentified foreign nationals.They were hospitalized with nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms, The Associated Press reported, citing Fiji Health Ministry spokesperson Jemesa Tudravu. Two people remained stable in the hospital Monday, Tourism Minister Viliame R. Gavoka was quoted as saying by the AP, while five others have been discharged.The cause of the guests’ illness was not immediately clear, and offi...

Women are increasingly planning leisure trips just for themselves.Nearly 40% of female travelers voiced interest in setting out solo in 2025, the tourism market research firm Future Partners found in a recent survey — up 8 percentage points from a year earlier. While men are more likely to travel alone for leisure, women’s appetite for independent adventures is rising, and travel operators are working to cater to them.After launching “Women in the Wild” small-group nature journeys in 2023, Natural Habitat Adventures boosted its capacity by 75% over the last year and plans to double it for 2025. The Boulder, Colorado-based company, which partners with the World Wildlife Fund on conservation-driven tourism, said it has seen especially strong demand among older women.“There’s an emerging s...

Spirit Airlines customers have to don unprovocative clothes that do not expose “breasts, buttocks, or other private parts” when aboard the low-cost carrier, according to new standards posted this week.The Florida-based airline updated its “contract of carriage” terms on Wednesday with updated language covering the appearance of passengers.A customer can be taken off the flight if they are “barefoot or inadequately clothed (i.e., see-through clothing; not adequately covered; exposed breasts, buttocks, or other private parts) or whose clothing or article, including body art, is lewd, obscene, or offensive in nature,” according to Pages 9 and 10 the updated standards.Before Wednesday, the standard was more vague.Page 9 of the guidance, as it appeared on Tuesday, said only that “barefoot ...

JetBlue has agreed to pay a $2 million penalty after federal regulators charged the U.S. carrier with operating multiple chronically delayed flight routes.The penalty is the first time the U.S. Department of Transportation has fined an airline for engaging in unrealistic scheduling practices that it says can harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry.Half the penalty will go toward compensating JetBlue customers affected by the airline’s chronic delays or any future disruptions caused by JetBlue within the next year — with a minimum of $75 for each harmed passenger. “Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers. Today’s action puts the airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality,” U.S. Transportatio...

Boeing said Friday that it had hit several internal targets on safety and quality control despite a series of deadly crashes, near catastrophes and embarrassing incidents that has seen its share price plunge and airlines around the world pull some of its planes.The company said in a news release that it had made improvements “in multiple areas including safety culture, training, simplifying their processes, and eliminating defects.”The announcement comes less than a week after the latest deadly crash involving one of its aircraft. In the worst air disaster in South Korean history, 179 people were killed when a Boeing 737-800 belly-landed and skidded off the runway at Muan International Airport. Even so, in a section titled ‘Elevating Safety & Quality Culture,’ Boeing said it has “ad...

China said Tuesday it was expanding its visa-free transit policy, allowing Americans and other eligible foreign travelers to stay in parts of the country as long as 240 hours, or 10 days, as officials try to attract more overseas visitors.China’s National Immigration Agency announced the measure, which is effective immediately, on its WeChat account, saying passport holders from 54 countries are eligible. They include countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as the United States and Canada.Previously, travelers could stay in China visa-free for as long as 72 to 144 hours depending on where they visited, as long as they continued on to a third country or region.Travelers with confirmed tickets to exit China within 10 days can enter the country in 60 places across 24 provinces...

Industrial action and winter weather — as well as the traditional kids bickering in the back seat — are set to make travel that little more tricky during a record holiday travel period this week Service workers at North Carolina's Charlotte Douglas International Airport walked off the job at 5 a.m. Monday, having voted to strike on Friday — adding to the tricky weather conditions facing much of the country during what is predicted to be the busiest holiday travel period on record.The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced the start of industrial action on Monday and said it planned to put an "end to poverty wages" and demand "respect on the job during the holiday travel season."The striking workers are ABM and Prospect Airport Services employees, whose tasks include clea...

It’s been another summer of record-smashing temperatures and record-smashing air travel. Airports and airlines say they can handle both.U.S. airlines expect to transport 271 million passengers worldwide this summer, up 6.3% from last season, the Airlines for America trade group has projected. Carriers have added flights and seats — in some cases too many — to accommodate the uptick. It comes in a year when the Earth notched its hottest June ever, and as last week saw two days in a row break planetary heat records.Nevertheless, the aviation industry is adjusting to “a new normal” of scorching temperatures during the busy summer travel period, said Kevin Burke, president and CEO at Airports Council International–North America. So far, airports have managed “to adapt to these conditions” b...