Your flight has been canceled. The airline’s app offers you another flight tomorrow afternoon. Then you look at the departure board and see something infuriating: Another airline has a flight to the same city leaving in two hours. Can you make your airline put you on it? Sometimes. Several major U.S. airlines have formally committed…
Your flight has been canceled. The airline has rebooked you for tomorrow morning. It is 10:30 at night, you are nowhere near home, and now you need somewhere to sleep. Will the airline pay for the hotel? Maybe. The answer in the United States depends heavily on why your flight was delayed or canceled. If…
Your flight has been canceled because somebody is on strike. That explanation does not tell you nearly enough. A strike by your airline’s pilots is very different from a strike by airport security workers or air traffic controllers. In the United States, the difference can affect whether the airline pays for your hotel or meals.…
You paid for Business Class. Then, at check-in, at the gate or even after boarding, the airline tells you that your seat is gone. You can still fly—but in Premium Economy or Economy. You do not simply have to shrug and accept that as bad luck. In the United States, an involuntary downgrade to a…
Your first flight lands late. By the time you reach the terminal, your connecting flight is gone. What happens next depends heavily on one detail travelers often overlook when booking: Were both flights issued on the same ticket? If they were, the airline will normally treat the missed connection as part of the disrupted journey…
If an airline tells you that you are being “bumped” from a flight, the word has a specific meaning. In this guide, being bumped means the airline involuntarily denies you boarding even though you have a confirmed reservation and showed up on time because it has more passengers ready to travel than it can accommodate.…
You boarded on time, the door closed, and then the airplane stopped moving. Stuck in the middle (seat) with you? Stuck in a closet with Vanna White? No, you are stuck on the tarmac. Thirty minutes becomes an hour. An hour becomes two. Maybe the captain says there is a ground stop, thunderstorms over the…
Your flight has been delayed for four hours. Or worse, the airline has canceled it altogether. What does the airline actually owe you? In the United States, the answer is more complicated than many travelers expect. You may have a clear legal right to a refund. You may also be entitled to a meal, hotel…
Updated August 2026 Look at a map of New York’s JFK Airport and the terminal numbers seem like someone lost part of the list. As of August 2026, JFK’s operating passenger terminals are: Terminal 1 Terminal 4 Terminal 5 Terminal 7 Terminal 8 There is no operating Terminal 2. No Terminal 3. No Terminal 6—at…
When an airline cancels your flight, the explanation can feel maddeningly vague. The app may say “weather” while the sky outside is perfectly clear. Or your aircraft may already be sitting at the gate and the flight still gets canceled. That is because your flight is only one piece of a much larger system. The…
Most travel gear lists are shopping lists pretending to be advice. You do not need forty-seven clever gadgets for a flight. You need a few things that solve the same boring problems over and over again: dead batteries, bad Wi-Fi, cramped workspaces, missing bags, tangled cables, and the slow realization that the one adapter you…
The irony is hard to miss. After years of regulators arguing that mergers like the proposed JetBlue-Spirit deal would reduce competition and harm consumers, the federal government may now step in to rescue Spirit Airlines itself. According to multiple reports, the Trump administration is considering up to $500 million in support for Spirit Airlines as…
It has been fifteen years since the “United Breaks Guitars” saga captured the internet’s attention. Dave Carroll’s “United Breaks Guitars” music video eventually racked up millions of views and became one of the earliest examples of a customer complaint going viral online. But a new incident involving baggage handlers tossing guitars at LAX, recently highlighted…
Originally wrote this as reports were starting to come in of an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 flight from Montreal, AC 8646, colliding with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport. There are reports of at least two fatalities, and multiple serious injuries on the part of the fire truck. Limited information is available at this time,…
For several years, the Northeast Alliance between JetBlue and American Airlines reshaped competition in Boston and New York. Travelers benefited from coordinated schedules, codeshares, and expanded loyalty opportunities that made the two airlines look unusually aligned. In 2023, that alliance fell apart by court order. Three years later, JetBlue’s attempted merger with Spirit Airlines has…
Updated August 2026 If you suddenly need to fly because of a death in the family, you may still be able to get a bereavement fare. The list of airlines offering them is much shorter than it once was, but they have not disappeared. As of August 2026, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Air Canada…
Recently, when flying out of the JetBlue terminal at New York’s JFK Airport, we noticed that the numbers of all the gates had changed. Terminal 5 building has 29 gates. Gates 1 through 12 and 14 through 30, with gates 25 through 30 handling international flights. Having spent many hours there over the years, was…
The Golden Age of Senior Discounts Once upon a time, airlines marketed themselves heavily to older travelers. Senior fares—special discounted tickets for passengers typically 60, 62, or 65 and up—were a way to fill empty seats while rewarding loyalty. Airlines like Delta, United, and American once promoted senior fares prominently, and AARP even had…
Updated August 2026 Flying with a baby creates an odd combination of airline rules. A child under two may be able to fly across the country on your lap without buying another seat. Put the same family on an international flight and the infant may need a ticket, taxes, fees or a percentage of the…
Updated August 2026 Youth fares are not dead. They are much less common among U.S. airlines than they once were, but several airlines still sell real age-based fares in 2026. United offers a young-adult discount to eligible passengers ages 18 through 23. Air France and KLM have youth fares for travelers ages 12 through 24.…
Last week, JetBlue—long dealt a blow by the collapse of its Spirit acquisition—proved it’s not down for the count. With summer travel demand stronger than expected, the airline raised its third-quarter guidance and is starting to deliver results under its JetForward strategy. We don’t always talk about airlines from the perspective of profitability on…
The Embraer E190: A Regional Jet with Big Ambitions The Embraer E190 was launched in the early 2000s as part of the Brazilian manufacturer’s ambitious E-Jet family. The aircraft first flew in March 2004, and Embraer went on to build 568 first-generation E190s for carriers around the world. With around 100 seats, the E190…
Updated August 2026 If you fly United regularly, a handful of airports keep appearing in your itineraries: Chicago, Denver, Houston, Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles in particular. That is no accident. United builds its network around hubs, airports where flights arrive from many different cities and feed passengers onto another wave of departures. United…
When Security Ate the Terminals Airports weren’t designed for many of the realities of the modern age. In the 1970s, they had to shoehorn in the first metal detectors for people and carry-on bags. After 9/11, entire swaths of departure halls were consumed by ever-expanding checkpoints. The old terminals bent under the pressure. Corridors twisted,…
Updated August 2026 If your American Airlines itinerary seems determined to send you through Dallas, Charlotte or Miami, there is a reason. American builds its network around a small number of airports where flights from many different cities arrive in waves, exchange passengers and head back out again. American Airlines currently describes its U.S. network…