You booked a 5 p.m. departure because you cannot leave work before 2. A week before the trip, the airline moves your flight to 2 p.m. and offers no later alternative in its app. For a domestic itinerary covered by U.S. Department of Transportation rules, that three-hour earlier departure qualifies as a significant change: if…
Hollywood Burbank Airport’s old passenger terminal handled its final flights on October 12, 2026. A new terminal opened across the airfield on October 13, ending a 96-year association with the original terminal site. That change raises an appealing aviation-history question: which of America’s earliest airport terminals can you still travel through? The answer depends on…
JetBlue has cleared a major hurdle to expanding at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, and its plans could bring the airline back to a terminal it left four years ago. On October 8, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration approved a special exemption allowing JetBlue to acquire 22 takeoff-and-landing slots formerly held by Spirit Airlines. JetBlue has…
Hollywood Burbank Airport is preparing to retire the passenger terminal that has occupied the southeast corner of its airfield since 1930. The existing terminals are scheduled to handle their final day of passenger operations on Monday, October 12, 2026, before flights move to a new building on Tuesday, October 13. The old complex is slated…
Your flight is canceled. The airline offers another flight tomorrow, but home—or your destination—is only a few hours away by car. Renting a car and leaving the airport may get you there much faster. Just do not assume the airline will pay for the rental. In the United States, a cancellation or significant delay can…
The crash axe used in the September 30 attack aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073 was not contraband. It was emergency equipment carried on the Boeing 737 MAX for use by the flight crew. UAE authorities have described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. According to Reuters, the co-pilot attacked the captain with the aircraft’s crash…
Your flight is delayed until 8:15 p.m. It is only 3:30. You are already through security, the airport is miserable, and there is a real restaurant ten minutes away. Can you leave, eat somewhere civilized and come back later? At a U.S. airport, you generally can leave the secure area during a delay and return…
Your airplane is at the gate. Nothing appears to be broken. The weather has cleared. Then the airline announces that the flight is canceled because the crew has “timed out.” It can sound like an excuse, but crew duty limits are real safety rules. Pilots and flight attendants cannot simply keep working indefinitely because a…
Your flight has been delayed until tomorrow morning. You have a hotel room, but your change of clothes, toothbrush and everything else you packed are sitting in a checked suitcase somewhere behind the airport walls. Can you simply ask the airline to give it back? Sometimes. But a checked bag does not remain parked at…
If your flight is delayed for six hours, canceled overnight or rerouted through a different airport, the suitcase you carefully packed may be almost useless to you. Your checked bag is somewhere in the airline’s baggage system. Even a roller bag you planned to carry aboard can disappear at the gate if overhead space runs…
If you miss the first flight on a round-trip ticket, do not assume you can simply find another way to your destination and use the return flight later. Depending on the airline, failing to show up for one flight can cause the rest of the reservation to be canceled automatically. That can include connecting flights…
You finally get off the plane, make your way to baggage claim, and wait. The carousel slows down, the crowd thins out, and eventually it stops. Everyone else seems to have left with their luggage, while yours is nowhere to be found. This is one of the most frustrating ways to start a trip. Your…
Your flight was supposed to leave at 6:00 p.m., but the airline app now says 8:15. That sounds like two unexpected hours to work with. Maybe you can leave home later, linger over dinner or spend some extra time in the airport lounge. Then you look at your phone again and the departure has moved…
Your flight is supposed to land in Boston. Instead, the captain announces that the plane is diverting to Providence. The obvious question is, “What compensation do I get for a diverted flight?” But that is usually the wrong place to start. A diversion describes what happened to the airplane. It does not tell you whether…
The airline cancels your flight. Eventually, it gets you where you were going. But the replacement flight does not undo everything that happened in between. You may have lost: a prepaid hotel night; a train ticket; a rental car reservation; a tour; a concert or sporting-event ticket; a wedding; or, in the worst case, an…
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…