5 tips to keep in mind when shopping for fares

You may be thinking of a vacation after seeing some tempting sales on spring and summer travel from Southwest and other airlines. But while the price may be right, the conditions might not be ideal. You may have to fly on odd days of the week or times of day to get the best fare. [...]

Discount airlines start new round of short sales

Leading discount airlines have launched a new round of airfare sales for summer, but travelers may have to act fast and be flexible on dates to grab the best deals. Sales from JetBlue Airways, Frontier Airlines and AirTran Airways end this week. Frontier is touting fares as low as $98 roundtrip between Denver and West [...]

Tips to ensure vacation rentals don’t disappoint

Here are a few tips from the Better Business Bureau, travel experts and seasoned renters to make sure you don’t get burned when you rent a home for your vacation. • Get a written agreement spelling out terms and conditions. Never wire money or write a personal check. Plastic is the way to go because [...]

Air travelers to see tougher security before beach

For those who haven’t flown in a while, be prepared to be scanned, swabbed or thoroughly patted down. Maybe all three. Many spring break travelers are about to have their first encounter with airport security measures stepped up after Christmas, when a man was accused of trying to blow up a U.S. jetliner using explosives [...]

Which is more useful, a guidebook or a travel app?

A comprehensive travel guidebook can feel like a brick in your luggage. Yet smart phone travel guides are not always a good alternative. They can overwhelm users with potentially unreliable user-generated content or underwhelm them with a flashy interface and little true substance. But two wildly different brands — Lonely Planet and Wallpaper — offer [...]

Some air travelers complain about body scans

Hundreds of U.S. air travelers have lodged complaints over use of full-body security scanners in the past year, charging they violate personal privacy and may be harmful to their health, documents released on Tuesday showed. The United States began testing the devices in a pilot program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the pace [...]

Save on Rail Europe round-trip tickets, from $257

The Real Deal: Discounted round-trip tickets in Leisure Select class on the Eurostar route (18 departures daily between London, Paris, and Brussels) start at $257 per person—plus between $10 and $18 in fees. Leisure Select class is more spacious than economy class, with reclining seats and more legroom; you also get complimentary newspapers and a [...]