Connexion
Whether you're taking your cat along on vacation or bringing a new puppy home from another state, there may be times when you have to fly with your (small) pet. You'll have to pay a fee for this no matter which airline you choose, but some will set you back more than others—especially if you are traveling with additional carry-ons or checked luggage.
Airlines have additional restrictions on the number of pets that can travel in the cabin on any given flight, so you'll want to ensure there's space when you book your ticket and add your pet to your reservation well in advance. You should also be clear on breed and age restrictions, as most airlines limit travel with very young puppies.
Strictly speaking, Delta is the cheapest airline to fly with your pet with a carry-on fee of $95 each way. Delta allows dogs, cats, and household birds in the cabin as long as they are at least eight weeks old (16 weeks of age if flying to the U.S. from another country) and can travel in a soft-sided kennel that fits underneath plane seats. In general, you are allowed only one animal per carry-on kennel, with exceptions for unweaned litters or two compatible pets between the ages of eight weeks and six months.
While Delta's pet fee is the lowest among major airlines, you are allowed to bring only a personal item—no wheeled carry-ons—in addition to a pet kennel, meaning you'll pay at least another $35 to check a bag. Unless you have free bag benefits, that brings the total to $130.
Alaska charges $100 each way for dogs, cats, rabbits, and household birds traveling in the cabin (dogs and cats only on flights to Hawaii and international destinations). Dogs and cats must be at least eight weeks old and fully weaned to solid food. Alaska allows two pets of the same species and size per carrier, which can be hard or soft-sided and must measure no larger than 17 inches by 11 inches by 7.5 inches.
Your pet carrier counts toward your carry-on allotment, but you can choose whether to bring a carry-on bag or personal item. Since Alaska does not charge for carry-on bags, you may end up paying only $100 to bring your pet along. Even if you do need to check a bag, the standard fee is $30, bringing your total to $130.
Southwest allows dogs and cats that are at least eight weeks old to fly in the cabin on domestic itineraries for $125 per direction. Two dogs or two cats can travel in a single carrier, which must measure less than 18.5 inches by 13.5 inches by 8.5 inches.
While your pet carrier does count toward your baggage allotment, you can choose either a personal item or carry-on in addition. Southwest does not charge for carry-on bags or the first two checked bags, so your total will be just $125.
Frontier is the only other airline aside from Delta with pet fee cheaper than $100. Frontier allows dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, and household birds in the cabin on domestic flights for $99 per direction. Only dogs and cats are permitted on international flights. Dogs and cats must be at least eight weeks old, and all pets must fit in a travel container that is no larger than 18 inches by 14 inches by 8 inches.
Passengers traveling with pets may also bring a personal item or a carry-on bag, which Frontier charges for in all cases (fees range from $50 to $100 depending on when you "reserve" your bag). Because you'll pay a similar fee to check or carry on with Frontier, your total cost will be at least $150.
JetBlue allows dogs and cats on all domestic flights for $125 per direction. Pets can travel on international flights with significant restrictions (limitations also apply to puppies entering the U.S.). Only one pet is allowed per carrier, which must be no larger than 17 inches by 12.5 inches by 8.5 inches.
Pet carriers count as a personal item, so travelers who purchase tickets at all fare levels above Basic Blue can also bring a carry-on bag at no extra charge. Basic Blue ticket-holders can bring another personal item but not a carry-on. A checked bag costs $35–$40 for Blue, Blue Basic, and Blue Extra fares, so you could pay $160 or more in total.
If you fly American, you can carry on a dog or a cat that fits in a kennel measuring 18 inches by 11 inches by 11 inches or 19 inches by 13 inches by 9 inches (hard-sided) for a $150 one-way fee. Pets are permitted on domestic flights with additional restrictions for international travel.
American recently changed its policy to allow passengers a carry-on bag in addition to their pet carrier (rather than only a personal item), meaning you could pay just $150 to fly with your pet. The fee for one checked bag is $35–$40.
United charges $125 per cat or dog each way and allows pets that are at least eight weeks old and that fit in carriers measuring 18 inches by 11 inches by 11 inches (soft-sided) or 17.5 inches by 9 inches by 12 inches (hard-sided). You'll also be on the hook for an additional $125 if your layover is longer than four hours. Pet carriers count as carry-on luggage, so if you need to check a bag, you'll pay an additional $35 unless you are flying premium economy or above.
Global Entry is a program that speeds up the customs clearance process for travelers returning to the United States, but prospective members have long encountered extended wait times of four to six months to even enroll in the service. The most common choke point is scheduling the enrollment interview, which must be completed in person at select locations.
We've covered numerous ways to speed up the process, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (the agency that administers Trusted Traveler Programs) just added another option for travelers flying out of the country.
Global Entry Enrollment on Departure is similar to the existing Enrollment on Arrival, which allows applicants to complete their interview onsite at certain U.S. airports upon returning from abroad. For now, Enrollment on Departure is only available to travelers leaving from Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.
To utilize Enrollment on Departure, you must have a conditionally approved Global Entry application, meaning you cannot start the process at the airport. You must have an airline ticket for an international flight departing from Washington Dulles International, as those traveling on domestic itineraries are not eligible for Enrollment on Departure. Applicants must also bring their passport and a physical document with their current address as proof of residency, such as a driver's license, mortgage or rental payment statement, or utility bill.
The Enrollment on Departure office is inside the B concourse at Washington Dulles International next to gate B41 and is open from noon to 8 p.m. daily. Travelers should arrive early and allow plenty of time to complete the process before their flights. (Customs and Border Protection does not indicate specific wait times.)
For now, there are no specific plans to expand Enrollment on Departure to other airports. If you aren't flying through Dulles, you can still utilize Enrollment on Arrival at more than 50 airports upon your return, as long as you have a conditionally approved application.
If scammers can find a way to trick you into giving them money, personal information, or both, they will—including by posing as government contractors offering assistance with processing TSA PreCheck applications.
As The Points Guy describes, numerous scammers are pretending to offer legitimate TSA PreCheck application support—such as reviewing for accuracy and scheduling interview appointments—and charging up to $100 for the service. These websites claim to be official but are simply stealing money and personal information from applicants.
First things first, head to the official TSA.gov website, which will link you directly to the enrollment partners contracted to process TSA PreCheck applications. Note that a legitimate government website will end in .gov. TSA works with Idemia, which operates more than 620 enrollment centers, and Telos, which has 26 locations, to help travelers sign up for TSA PreCheck. There are no other third-party services in the mix.
Beyond a website with another company name and a different domain, there are a few big red flags that could indicate you're being scammed. First, initial TSA PreCheck enrollment costs $78 through Idemia and $85 through Telos, so if you're being asked to pay a fee on top of that, do not proceed. Second, you should not pay anything online during the application process—all payments are taken in person at enrollment locations when you complete your fingerprinting and photo capture. (However, renewals are available online for $70 through both contracted enrollment providers.)
Scammers may try to trick you by promising assistance with enrollment appointment scheduling, but this process is easy to do yourself. There are more than 600 enrollment locations in U.S. states and territories and many permit walk-in appointments.
If you do pay a fraudulent service for TSA PreCheck application help, you can report the charge to your financial institution and file a claim with the Federal Trade Commission.
Of the many frustrations of air travel, waiting forever for your checked bags to arrive at the baggage carousel long after you've arrived at your destination is definitely one. There are a number of reasons for bagge claim delays—from the size of the airport to bad weather—and in most cases, you simply have to accept it.
But if you're a passenger on Delta Airlines or Alaska Airlines and your bag takes longer than 20 minutes to get from your plane to the carousel, you may be eligible for 2,500 bonus miles for your trouble.
If you're flying on Delta, the clock starts when the aircraft door opens, and stops when luggage is delivered to the baggage carousel. If any of your checked bags take longer than 20 minutes to arrive to the carosuel, you can apply for the 2,500-mile credit. You must do this within three days of your arrival.
To claim your bonus miles, go to delta.com/bagsontime and enter your information. You'll need your SkyMiles number, departure date and city, arrival city, and trip confirmation number.
Note the fine print: you must already be a SkyMiles member at the time of your flight to be eligible for the mileage credit. The policy applies only to domestic flights in the 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, so if you wait longer than 20 minutes when traveling internationally, you're out of luck. It can take up to two weeks to see the credit reflected in your SkyMiles balance.
If the baggage claim wait time exceeds 20 minutes following the arrival of your Alaska Airlines flight at the gate, you can claim either 2,500 bonus miles toward your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan balance, or a $25 discount code for a future booking. This must be done in person at the airport within two hours of your arrival—meaning you'll have to go to the Alaska Airlines customer service desk and speak to a representative.
Like Delta, Alaska has tacked on some fine print: The 20-minute guarantee applies only to flights operated by Alaska, Horizon, and SkyWest that do not require customs clearance, and oversized checked bags delivered to a separate carousel are excluded from the policy. Also, Alaska Airlines reserves the right to rescind the guarantee in the event of severe weather or airport malfunction.
Air travel remains the fastest and most efficient way to get anywhere—which is unfortunate, because the airlines continue to make the experience worse. Hidden fees, smaller seats, less leg room, annoying people, and baggage restrictions all conspire to make flying commercial an increasingly miserable experience. The decline of perks and service exacerbates this: Where once you actually got a free meal when you flew, these days you’re often lucky to have the opportunity to pay for a snack.
But the, maybe the lack of a meal isn’t so bad: Airplane food is notoriously terrible. There are reasons for that—the air pressure, low humidity, and noise inside the cabin robs our taste buds, and airplane food is typically prepared elsewhere and reheated on the plane, which is not an ideal scenario for great food. But if you plan to eat a meal on your next flight, you can up your game pretty significantly and better your chances of actually enjoying your food by using one of these four tips.
You can, of course, eat before you board, or bring food onto the plane. But if you don’t want to blow your budget on expensive airport fare, remember one thing: Flight attendants are generally happy to bring you hot water.
What does that mean? It means you can bring instant noodles or instant oatmeal and instantly have a much better meal option. Making instant noodles and then adding sauces or butter, plus the proteins, veggies, or other parts of your complimentary meal turns a dubious slab of microwaved ... stuff into a far more satisfying meal. Similarly, getting a fruit option as your meal and then mixing it into hot oatmeal will give you a filling, happy breakfast instead of a greasy, unfortunate one.
One caveat: The water on your plane may not be the cleanest in the world. If you’d never order coffee on a plane because you’re dubious about the water situation, skip this one—or add your own water first and ask if the ramen can be microwaved.
Because our taste buds are sandbagged on a plane, most of the meals we’re served will taste bland and probably overly salty (because they’re packed with preservatives, and because the airlines know how bland the food is). One way to improve your airline meal experience is to order the spiciest stuff you can spot. Sometimes your choices are limited, but most airlines make an effort to accommodate religious and dietary restrictions, so check to see if you can pre-order a Hindu meal option. Anyone can order it, and you’re not stealing a meal from anyone. The benefit is the spices: These meals tend to use more of them, which counteracts the tastebud-suppressing effects of cabin pressure and offers a more satisfying experience.
Also, if you have a choice of meals, always choose the sauciest option. Planes are dry, dry places and those meals get cooked to death in order to ensure they won’t make anyone sick, so the more sauce you have, the less likely your meal will remind you of eating cardboard.
As an airline passenger, you have a superpower: You can bring your own condiments. You know your meal is going to be disappointing—it’s airline food. Of course it’s going to be disappointing. But! You can liven it up with hot sauce, your own salad dressing, spicy mayo or gourmet mustard, homemade spreads—whatever you can cram into your carry-on in a security-appropriate container. There are people in this world who bring hot sauce to every single meal of their lives for a reason—it can transform the blandest, most boring hunk of chicken into a somewhat satisfying meal pretty much instantly. And any high-quality or homemade condiment or spread will allow you to deconstruct a meal and reconstruct it as something much better.
Finally, don’t just sit there like a sucker and wait to see what the airplane gods are going to serve you. Pre-order your meals like a smart person. Most airlines offer a range of options for pre-ordering special meals like vegan or vegetarian meals (or, see above re: the Hindu meal option), and you should do so for two basic reasons:
Speed. Pre-ordered meals tend to come out before the other meals, which means yours will arrive hot and steaming instead of lukewarm and smashed. A vegetarian meal will be lighter and less disastrous to your stomach and digestive system. And many people (including airline professionals) believe the “niche” meals are made in smaller batches, and thus are higher quality.
Planning. By pre-ordering your meal, you’ll know what you’re eating and you can bring condiments to match and plan the rest of your day’s meals.
It sounds too good to be true, but it only kind of is: Amazon is offering students $25 flights home this holiday season. Of course, not every student gets the deal—but if you're a Prime Student member, you could be one of the lucky ones. Dec. 7 is your last day to try for the promotion. Here's how to enter.
Amazon is collaborating with StudentUniverse on the deal, and offering it to its Prime Student members—so, of course, you have to have Prime Student. Prime Student is a half-off Amazon Prime membership only for college students. Members get all the stuff that regular Prime users get, like speedier delivery, access to Prime Video and Amazon Music, free food delivery via Grubhub, and a month of free AI-powered study help from Course Hero. After your six-month trial, it costs $69 per year. It's not a bad deal, provided you're part of the Amazon ecosystem (aren't we all?).
Consider picking up these items for a smoother flight.
A portable foot hammock so you can stretch out $12.95
An inflatable travel pillow with an eye mask, ear plugs, and a travel bag $20.99
A compact blanket in a case $21.77
A flexible stand for your tablet or phone $11.99
Prime Student members can go to this link tomorrow, Dec. 7, for a chance to secure one of 1,000 $25 flight tickets available that day. Qualifying travel includes domestic flights that leave some time between Dec. 8 and 25, with a return flight (if applicable) between Dec. 8 and Jan. 14, 2024.
Amazon and StudentUniverse's goal, per a press release, is “to make holiday travel more affordable for students.” (Actually, their goal is to get you to sign up for a Prime Student membership and/or to harvest your data, but I'll let them pat themselves on the back a little.)
The 1,000 tickets will become available at 12 a.m. PST/3 a.m. EST, so set an alarm and be ready to click in early to try to get yours. If you don’t land the $25 ticket, StudentUniverse will show you cheap flights for your preferred travel days, while Amazon Student can provide additional discounts, provided you have an account with both and are logged in when you try for your cheap flight.
Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and Black Friday sales are in full swing. In addition to the usual deals on electronics, clothing, and toys, some airlines are also offering deep discounts on 2024 travel. Along with eye-catchingly low one-way fares on flights at inconvenient times, air carriers like Frontier are advertising deals on multi-flight passes—in their case, the GoWild! All-You-Can-Fly annual pass. A year’s worth of unlimited flights for the cost of one, maybe two regular round-trip fares certainly sounds like a steal, so there’s obviously some fine print. Here’s what to know about Frontier’s annual pass, including the cost and how to figure out if it’s a worthwhile investment for you.
Between now and Nov. 28, the Frontier Airlines’ GoWild! All-You-Can-Fly annual pass is available for $499. The low-cost carrier has offered several different all-you-can-fly deals over the past few years, including last year’s annual pass for between $599 and $1,999, and seasonal passes covering six months of flights for between $299 and $999. This is the first one promising a full year of flights for just under $500.
Other than the price and the dates, not much else has changed about the annual pass or how it works. The 2024-25 GoWild! All-You-Can-Fly annual pass is valid from May 1, 2024, through April 30, 2025, and comes with “unlimited” flights to all of Frontier’s domestic and international destinations.
If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. In fact, if you don't take the time to carefully read the terms and conditions, it’s might even be misleading: In addition to the usual blackout dates—of which there are many—bookings made using this pass can only be confirmed the day before a domestic flight, and 10 days before an international flight. And while that $499 covers all but one cent of the base fare, you still have to pay for all applicable taxes and fees for each flight, as well as fees for bringing a full-sized carry-on or checking baggage.
There are occasional opportunities to book domestic flights more than one day in advance, but you’ll be charged an additional fee for the privilege. Plus, there are a limited number of seats available to annual pass-holders on each flight.
This annual pass also comes with automatic Frontier Miles Silver Elite status, which includes free seat assignments and priority boarding, though it’s unclear how these perks will work within the limits of the pass.
These are just the tip of the terms-and-conditions iceberg, so if you’re considering purchasing the pass, you should read through the rest.
Back in September, Lifehacker staffer Daniel Oropeza asked this very question about Frontier’s Go Wild! Fall pass, and came to the conclusion that it could be a good opportunity for a limited subset of frequent fliers: That is, mainly “travelers who are flexible and prefer to pack light.” The same can be said about the $499 annual pass. The lower price point does make the deal a little more tempting, but you still need to break out the calculator to get an idea of whether it’s worth it for you.
On the heels of “the busiest summer travel period on record,” the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is gearing up for record-breaking numbers this holiday season. According to TSA Administrator David Pekoske, seven of the “top 10 busiest travel days in TSA’s history” have been in 2023, including multiple days when more than 2.8 million passengers were screened in airports across the country.
In the same news release, Pekoske made the usual claims about the TSA anticipating a high volume of travelers during the holidays and being ready for the increased airport traffic. And while most aspects of air travel are beyond our control, you can do yourself a favor by saving the TSA's text message line for real-time answers to any travel or security questions that come up.
You can text questions to the TSA, which promises “assistance in real time.” Technically, there are three ways of getting in touch:
Texting questions to #275-872 (AskTSA)
Sending questions to @AskTSA on X (formerly known as Twitter) via direct message
Sending questions through Facebook Messenger
We tried texting the TSA to see what you can expect, and it starts with an automated virtual assistant asking you to type in numbers in response to a menu of options. The automated options can give answers to basic questions, but unless you need pretty simple information—like basic ID rules or what's allowed through security—the robot won't be much help. When we asked if travelers still need to put liquids in a resealable bag, we had to send seven text responses to get an answer.
When we asked a follow-up question, the automated system started us over from the beginning and asked the same menu of questions. It seems each ticket is closed after an answer is given (whether their answer helped or not), and you have to start over from the beginning if you want to make a new query. This time, though, instead of going through the automated system with a virtual assistant, we pressed "6" to text with a real person. We were curious to see just how fast you can speak with a real human.
Actual TSA staff members are meant to be available to answer questions from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET seven days a week, including holidays. It took them a reasonable five minutes to answer our question.
Each new question will start over from the beginning of the TSA's automated text menu, but you can press "6" to text with a person during those regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. When we asked our next follow-up question, a real person responded in four minutes this time.
Of course, you can also call the TSA Contact Center if you prefer—their number is (866) 289-9673. You can speak with a human staff member from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends and holidays. An automated service answers calls during off-hours.
Cleaning can be anything from satisfying to boring to even anxiety-inducing for some, but if you put off sprucing your place up, it’ll only get dirtier and more overwhelming—a vicious cycle. While everyone is different and has their own way of getting the job done, some approaches are more decidedly more effective…
Today is a fun-fest of F-word foursomes, and one of the trickier puzzles we’ve had lately. If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Thursday, October 19, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the…
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