Southwest fliers can board early – for a $40 fee
Southwest Airlines, known for open seating and boarding passengers in bunches, announced this week that fliers can buy a priority spot in boarding group “A” for $40 per flight. Southwest will put unsold slots in the A1-15 boarding group up for sale, when available, at the gate beginning 45 minutes before departure. Passengers will then be able to use a credit card to […]
Airport amenity of the week: yoga room at Burlington Int’l Airport
Vermont’s Burlington International Airport (BTV) has joined San Francisco International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in offering passengers a space to meditate and practice yoga. Evolution Yoga opened a yoga space on the second floor of Burlington International Airport, offering travelers a place to stretch out and relax before or between flights and enjoy […]
Worried about the 787 and the one-butt ashtray
Boeing, the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), airlines and all manner of interested parties are worried about the fate of the 787 Dreamliner. And I am too. For all the reasons everyone else wants all the problems to be resolved but also because I’m worried about the fate of the one-butt ashtray. While […]
Smoking lounges at airports not going away
Smoking is still allowed in specific areas at the five major U.S. airports detailed in a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed air pollution levels that are significantly higher than those at non-smoking airports. One of the airports — Denver International — did snuff three of its four smoking areas in […]
More ways to celebrate the presidential inauguration – at the airport
If you’re headed to Washington D.C. this weekend – or anytime between now and February 28, 2013, you can see an art exhibit commemorating the presidential inauguration at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “Hail to the Chiefs: Portraits of United States Presidents and First Ladies,” was created by Morgan Monceaux, who used oil and acrylic […]
Celebrate the presidential inauguration – at the airport
Can’t make it to downtown Washington, D.C. to be part of the presidential inauguration festivities? No worries! If you’re passing through the area’s airports – BWI, Dulles and Reagan National – you can still pick up a few souvenirs. The America! shops at those airports have stocked up with all manner of mementos, including this […]
Guns at airports
(Guns at the Airport: TSA Catching Firearms at Record Pace is my first story for AOL Travel. An excerpt from the story is below. More to come. ) Firearms top the list of items passengers are prohibited from taking past airport security checkpoints and onto airplanes. Yet, during 2012 that didn’t stop travelers from trying […]
Fresh art – you can sit on – at Anchorage International Airport
Ron Baron created some cool bronze, baggage-themed sculpture for the permanent art program at Indianapolis International Airport. Now Baron has a set of six new bronze sculptures in Terminal B at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport that include objects he collected during a trip to Alaska. Like the sculptures at the Indianapolis Airport, the […]
Win a ticket for a flight into space
http://youtu.be/aiXGUDnbSqs The folks at AXE ( a line of grooming products for men) have kicked off a contest to give away 22 tickets for a seat on a suborbital spacecraft – and they’re recruited astronaut Buzz Aldrin to help with the promotion. (See below). Rules vary by country and market, but it appears that contestants […]