Photo by Dennis Stone/Shutterstock. Joan Collins JOAN COLLINS
Have you ever spotted a celebrity in the airport or on your flight during your travels? It’s a bit of a thrill, right?
A new book coming out from Rizzoli called Come Fly With Me: Flying in Style, is filled with paparazzi-taken images of actors, rock stars, and others coming and going from airports around the world.
Jodi Peckman an award-winning creative director, photo editor, and writer who spent thirty years working with Rolling Stone magazine, chose the images for the book, which you can read about in our story on The Runway Girl Network
Before yo go, here are a few other images from the book.
Frank Zappa with straw boater hat at London’s Heathrow airport. April 1975
Right about now everything – including the safety videos we’ve seen 100 times – are among the things we miss about flying.
We especially miss the fun safety videos that airlines offer up in an effort to get us to pay attention when we’re on the planes – or off.
So if France on your list of places you’ll go as soon as the coast is clear, then take a look at this new safety video out from Air France.
In it, two flight attendants lay out all the important instructions that you’ll see in any safety video, but while also visiting iconic French landmarks such as the Opéra Garnier, the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, and the sunny French Riviera. The virtual tour continues through the vineyards of Provence, past museums, a fashion show, a typical French café terrace, and along the banks of the Seine and its famous booksellers.
The safety briefing ends where you might expect: at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Even if you’re not traveling just yet, you can shop for future travel.
(This is an updated version of a story we prepared for NBC News)
A gift-season mantra the past few years has been “skip the things; give experiences and trips instead.”
But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most travel adventures have been put on hold.
Does that mean you should ignore the travel and hospitality-related deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year and stick to sales on slippers and sweatpants instead?
Definitely not. Studies show that thinking about and planning trips makes people happier. And that happiness may get a boost from the deals many travel companies offer during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Travel Tuesday this season.
Many companies are expanding the purchase window. Others are loosening restrictions on how and when deals can be used.
If you decide to shop for travel during this Black Friday/Cyber Friday/Travel Tuesday season, experts recommend joining frequent travel programs and signing up for email alerts for brands and destinations you are interested in. Many deals are offered to club members early and often include a bonus member discount. You can always unsubscribe later.
And while many deals may seem to be more generous than usual, be sure to check for blackout dates, cancelation rules, and other conditions.
Some deals to get you started
Amtrak has rolled out its “Track Friday Sale.” Book November 27 through November 30 to get 50% off on coach fares nationwide for travel from December 8, 2020 – April 30, 2021. In past years the discount has been 30%, so this looks like a great deal.
Many cruise lines, which have been hard hit by season-long cancellations, are offering deals as well. Hurtigruten for example is offering savings up to 50% off per person on select 2021 and 2022 itineraries to destinations that include Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica, and more.
Attractions and destinations
Orlando has a web site dedicated to Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals at theme parks, attractions, resorts, and shopping. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has a long list of Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals available to book now.
LEGOLAND New York Resort, set to open in New York’s Hudson Valley in 2021, is offering a Black Friday deal (November 26 – December 1) offering 60% off retail on an unlimited admission pass good for a decade and including a wide array of other perks.
Hotels
Many travel booking sites, hotel brands, and destinations are offering site-wide discounts on stays.
Hotwire’s Cyber Super Sale offers 12% off Hot Rate hotel bookings made in the app with the code BF12 at checkout from Friday, November 27 to Monday, November 30.
Priceline is offering more than $5 million in travel deal email alerts and flash sales through December 1 to its VIP members (signing up is free) and giving 1000 lucky VIPS a coupon for 99% off hotel Express Deals.
Red Roof guests can save 40% off bookings made November 27 through November 30 for stays through January 31, 2021.
The Cyber Sale from Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants offers 25% off Best Flexible Rates booked through December 7 for stays through September 7, 2021. The boutique brand will also donate $5 per night to charitable partner No Kid Hungry.
Members of the ALL-Accor Live Limitless loyalty program will be able to find deals up to 40% off accommodations + 2x Reward Points. This is for stays at select Fairmont, 21c Museum Hotels, Sofitel, Swissotel, and sbe properties around the world from November 26-30, 2020 for stays December 7 to March 14, 2021.
And Provenance Hotels’ 13 boutique hotels from Boston to Seattle, New Orleans, Nashville, Palm Springs, and Portland, OR is offering fully changeable rates starting at $59 per night through November 30 for stays December 1, 2020 through December 2021.
Because so many countries, and some states, require arriving travelers to have proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test, airports and airlines are rushing to make those tests available at the airport.
Those services, many of which are labeled as pilot programs, include COVID-19 sniffing dogs at the Helsinki Airport; XpresSpa’s new XpresCheck program at JFK International and Newark Liberty International airports: and Alitalia’s COVID-tested flights.
In advance of Hawaii reopening its doors to travelers on October 15, United Airlines is offering COVID-19 testing at San Francisco International Airport. And Hawaiian Airlines is setting up drive-through testing at both SFO and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
In most cases there is charge from $80 to more than $250 for the tests. In some cases, the tests are free.
More COVID-19 tests for air travelers.
A new bundle of airport and airline-hosted COVID-19 testing programs was announced on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Tampa International Airport (TPA) will run a pilot program in October offering travelers both rapid antigen tests and PRC, Polymerase Chain Rection tests. Fees apply.
Oakland International Airport (OAK) will begin offering free, rapid-result COVID-19 tests to employees and the public beginning Oct. 6. An expansion of the program is planned for October 15, when travel to Hawaii reopens.
And American Airlines announced it is working with several foreign governments to offer pre-flight COVID-19 tests for customers flying to international destinations.
The program starts in October with flights from Miami International Airport to Jamaica for residents returning home and for flights to the Bahamas.
There are plans to expand to other markets soon.
For American’s domestic flights from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to both Honolulu (HNL) and Maui (OGG), the airline is working with a vendor offering several testing options, including onsite rapid testing at DFW airport. Fees apply.
No doubt other airlines and airports will be rolling out COVID-19 test programs soon. But already the offerings are confusing and, in many cases, costly. Here’s hoping some sort of consistency evolves in the next few months.
Planning your 2020 travel? Some museum-centric ideas
If history, art
and eclectic adventures are what you seek out when you travel, you’ll have plenty
of excuses to pull off the road in 2020.
For CNBC we put together a list of great options, from a retrospective celebrating 25 years of outsider art to fresh shrines and exhibitions devoted to everything from eyesight, motion pictures, shoes, music and rodeo culture.
Celebrate Southern Rock in Georgia
Courtesy the Mercer Museum at Capricorn
In early
December, Macon, GA celebrated the reopening of the Capricorn Sound Studios, which
captured the music of the Allman Brothers and other emerging bands playing a
new musical genre dubbed ‘Southern rock’ during the 1970s.
The new Mercer Music at Capricorn now operates as a music incubator, with
the Museum
at Capricorn opening
on January 2 to tell the history of the iconic studio with artifacts, photos,
recordings, album art and music-filled interactive digital kiosks. (Museum
admission: $7; Studio tour: $5)
Radical rodeo in Fort Worth
Red Grooms – Rodeo Ruckus – Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
If you’re headed to Fort Worth, Texas to attend the parades, shows, contest and other events that take place during the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas (January 17- February 8, 2020) be sure to stop by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
The museum will display artist Red Grooms’ rollicking Ruckus Rodeo installation, a giant walk-through work that celebrates the Fort Worth rodeo with 3-D caricatures of rodeo regulars ranging from the rodeo clowns and cowboys to broncos to and bulls. (January 17-March 29, 2020; Admission: $16; half-price Sundays; free admission Fridays.)
Fancy Footwear in Florida
– Peep Toe Ankle-Strap shoes. Stuart Weitzman Collection. Photo Glen Castellano, New -York Historical Society.
The grandiose
Gilded Age estate that is now the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida is an appropriate exhibition space
for Walk This Way: Historic Footwear from the Stuart
Weitzman Collection. Organized
by the New-York Historical Society, the 100 shoes in this exhibition are not
just pretty to look at, they tell stories of culture, consumerism, power and
history. (Jan 28-May 10, 2020; Admission: $18).
In the Bronx, NY, the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) will present KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature, by celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama from May 9 through November 1, 2020. The garden-wide exhibit will include the artist’s signature mirrored environments, paintings, giant polka-dotted sculptures flowers and pumpkins, site-specific sculpture and a new greenhouse installation. Tickets go on sale on sale on January 20.
When women got the right to vote
Library of Congress
The 2020
Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative has an extensive list of museum exhibits around the country
marking the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th
amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote.
Wyoming, which gave women the right to vote 50 years before the rest of the
nation, kicked off its suffrage celebrations in 2019 and continues with many
special exhibits statewide in 2020.
In Washington,
D.C. the National Museum of American History will present “Creating Icons: How We
Remember Women’s Suffrage,” with artifacts from 1919 and 1920 donated by the
National American Women Suffrage Association, the precursor to the League of
Women Voters (Opens March 6; free).
A visionary retrospective
Matchstick sculpture by Gerald Hawkes. Courtesy American Visionary Art Museum
Baltimore’s American
Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) collects curates and celebrates
self-taught artists and “outsider” art and presents workshops, parades and
themed exhibitions filled with odd and exquisite creations. In November 2020,
AVAM will mark its 25th anniversary with a retrospective show featuring
work from its past 40 exhibitions, bring back some work which has been in
storage for years. (Admission: $15.95)
In Spring 2020, keep an eye out
for the opening of the Truhlsen-Marmor
Museum of the Eye at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The free museum at
the headquarters of the American Academy of Ophthalmology will feature a
collection of more than
38,000 artifacts, books, and instruments and virtual reality activities.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, featuring a collection of photographs, films, videos, costumes, props and more, is scheduled to open in Los Angeles, CA (of course) in Spring 2020.
And in late 2020, the Museum of Science, Boston
will open “Arctic Adventure,” a major permanent exhibition that will immerse
visitors in a polar environment using state-of-the-art light projections and a real
ice wall. (Admission included with Exhibit Halls
ticket: $29 for adults, $24 for kids.)
