More airports will offer TSA’s PreCheck Touchless ID
Having TSA PreCheck cuts down on the time it takes to pass through the airport checkpoint.
But if your airport and airline participate in TSA’s PreCheck Touchless ID program, your trip through the security checkpoint could be a bit faster.
The program allows opt-in PreCheck travelers to use a shortcut lane where their identity is verified by a photo.
To opt-in, you’ll need to add your passport information to your you frequent flier accounts with participating airlines, which currently include Alaska, American, Delta, Southwest and United.
A PreCheck Touchless ID indicator should appear on your boarding pass and, if you are traveling through an airport that offers the shortcut, you can access a dedicted lane for the service.
Until now, there were just 15 airports offering the service. But TSA just announced that is expanding the program to 65 airports by the end of Spring.
See the map up above for the airports where PreCheck Touchless ID is currently offered and the airports that should have the option soon.
American Airlines is the newest carrier to offer free Wi-Fi
Slowly, but surely, free Wi-Fi is coming to your airplane.
JetBlue offers it for everyone.
Delta Air Lines provides it for Sky Miles members on most flights.
Hawaiian Airlines currently offers it free on all its A330 and A321neo aircraft.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards members can get it free on equipped aircraft.
Atmos members with Alaska Airlines should have it on most aircraft by 2027.
And United Airlines offers free Wi-Fi to Mileage Plus members on aircraft equipped with Starlink Wi-Fi.
Several other airlines offers Wi-Fi for purchase. And, depending on their plans, T-Mobile customers can get free Wi-Fi on some airlines as well.
Now American Airlines is getting board with free Wi-Fi.
The carrier announced on Tuesday that it plans to provide free Wi-Fi provided to all AAdvantage members.
The roll out begins with American’s narrowbody and dual-class regional fleets and the plan is to have free Wi-FI on all aircraft by early spring.
Places to go and the “Hotel Hopping” trend
We know we can’t go everywhere. But we want to. Here are some ‘wants’ on our list:
Rochester, NY: MAG and the Eastman Museum
Yes, it’s likely to be really snowly and cold in Rochester, NY in January and February.
But we’d go there to visit the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), where the exhibition Frontiers of Impressionism: Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum, featuring work by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent and Paul Signac (above) is on view through March 1, 2026.
We’d also be sure to visit the historic mansion at Rochester’s Eastman Museum.
The shrine to photography beckons in winter with its annual Dutch Connection installation featuring a display of thousands of tulips, hyanciths, daffodils, amaryllis, tropical orchids and other flowers.
The museum says that George Eastman ordered tens of thousands of bulbs from Holland every year between 1905 and 1932. Most were for the garden, but many were ‘tricked’ to blooming indoors during the winter.
The annual flower disiplay is a nod to those original orders. And as a nice touch, the museum offers free Bulb Kits for kids with with museum admission. Kits include a pot, soil, and a forced bulb to take home, plant, and watch grow and flower.
Are you a ‘hotel hopper’?
And we’re encouraged to learn that we’re not the only ones who lean into “hotel hopping” when visiting a city.
We’ll sometimes book a hotel near the airport, another in town near a few attractions we want to be sure to visit and then a third in a neighborhood we want to explore.
Hotels.com has declared this a trend, noting that more than 50% of travelers book mulitple hotels in a single destination so that they can explore different neighborhoods and maximize deals and discounts.
Have you done this?
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