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☆ Bang Bang Chicken: A gun-stuffed bird was among the weirdest items found by airport security teams in 2022. See the full list.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The TSA released its "top 10 catches" list, consisting of unusual items found at airports in 2022. Cash stashed in crutchesSoiled money hidden inside a pair of crutches was discovered by agents at El Paso International Airport in Texas. An inert grenadeA grenade was found after a passenger attempted to get it through airport security in a carry-on at General Mitchell International Airport in Wisconsin. A gun hidden in an arm slingAgents discovered a gun concealed in a man's arm sling at Greater Rochester International Airport. A gun stuffed in a raw chickenA handgun was discovered stuffed inside a raw chicken at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport.

On the busy day-after-Christmas travel day, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,700 flights, frustrating passengers across the country. Overall, around 3,900 flights were canceled within, into or out of the U.S. on Monday, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. Southwest had 2,893 flights canceled at one point Monday, or 70% of its schedule, according to the site. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday combined, over 8,200 flights into, out of or within the U.S. were canceled, according to FlightAware. The issue with Southwest flights also caught the attention of the Transportation Department, which called the airline's performance unacceptable.

☆ Flying with poinsettias, gingerbread frosting and wrapped X-mas gifts: surprising TSA tips for holiday travel
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Luckily for you, smart flyers, the TSA has lots of tips for dashing through that checkpoint with a minimum of stress, pat-down searches, and alarm-triggering luggage. Don't wrap your presentsUse gift bags when you're flying with ready-to-open gifts in your carry-on or checked bags. No one at TSA will measure your frosting at the checkpoint if the frosting is on top of a gingerbread house in your carry-on bag. —Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) December 7, 2022Ugly X-mas sweaters — alarming! —Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) December 8, 2022Farbstein has this parting advice:Expect lines to be longest on December 21, 22, and 23 — the holidays' biggest travel days, when you'll want to allow extra time.

REUTERS/Elijah NouvelageWASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Airlines canceled more than 2,700 U.S. flights Thursday and Friday, disrupting holiday travel for thousands, as a powerful winter storm hit the United States. The extreme weather coincided with the start of a holiday travel season that could be one of the busiest ever. The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that the winter storm was bringing blizzard conditions to the Midwest with major travel disruptions expected in Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul. More than 1,830 U.S. flights had been canceled Thursday and another 900 flights for Friday were scrapped, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Last year's holiday period was marred by an outbreak of COVID-19 among staff that forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights.

☆ How the TSA's Instagram became a must-follow account, thanks to a sticky-note trick
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

So, how'd Burl turn the TSA's Instagram into a must-follow account, with "Tonight Show" cameos and more than a million followers to date? Recently retired from government work, Burl outlined the tiny sticky-note trick that helped her master a totally new skill — and that anyone can adopt when starting a new position. But she had no professional social media experience, and as a middle-aged woman, felt out of depth in a field known for its youthfulness. "That was the beginning of my social media career. Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletterWhat do you think of Make It content?

☆ Dog accidentally sent through Wisconsin airport's X-ray machine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A small dog was accidentally sent through the X-ray screening at Dane County Regional Airport in Wisconsin, the Transportation Security Administration said, reminding travelers to check their carry-on bags for pets. "When traveling with any animal, notify your airline & know their rules," the agency's Great Lakes division tweeted Tuesday. A photo showed the dog inside a small black bag. As strange as the incident may be, this is not the first time TSA agents found an animal inside a travel bag. Last month, security officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City discovered a live cat trapped inside checked luggage.

☆ These 16 US airports are reportedly testing facial recognition technology on passengers that could roll out nationwide next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The TSA could expand facial recognition identification tech across the nation next year, WaPo reported. Facial recognition tech was first tested at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in August 2020 before expanding to airports in Arizona, Indiana, and Miami, the spokesperson said. "While we are informed the preliminary results are encouraging, TSA continues to monitor these pilots to ensure there is no inherent bias in the technology," the TSA spokesperson said. If all goes to plan, the TSA expects to produce facial recognition tech later this year and will begin to deploy it at additional airports sometime right before 2024, another TSA spokesperson told Insider. Here are the 16 US airports reportedly piloting facial recognition technology, per the Washington Post:

☆ Real ID deadline for air travel extended another two years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Colbi Edmonds | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it is extending the deadline to require Real ID-compliant identification for air travelers, pushing the start date from May 3, 2023, to May 7, 2025. The extension will give states more time to ensure residents have driver's licenses and identification cards that comply with enhanced security standards under the Real ID Act. The deadline for the new IDs has already been extended previously. Congress passed the new standards as part of the Real ID Act in 2005, based on a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. The enhanced security standards for state-issued identification cards and driver's licenses aim to make IDs harder to counterfeit and allow records checks.

☆ Some U.S. air marshals plan to refuse deployment to U.S.-Mexico border
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Ted Hesson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - More than a dozen U.S. air marshals plan to refuse deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a group representing them, a sign of challenges facing U.S. President Joe Biden's administration as it grapples with record migrant crossings. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sought volunteers from the Federal Air Marshal Service to travel to the southwest border, but when fewer than 150 signed up in October, some were assigned, said Sonya LaBosco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council. The air marshals are part of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a DHS subagency, and ride on U.S. airlines to guard against security threats. A lawyer for the air marshal group wrote in a Nov. 4 letter to the agency that the deployments are illegal because they involve duties outside the scope of the job. A DHS spokesperson defended the deployments, saying that marshals have had previous assignments to assist hurricane relief and that some were temporarily deployed to the border in 2019.

☆ A Delta passenger says he was told TSA staff would arrive with guns to remove him from a plane after he asked to wait for his wheelchair
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A passenger said Delta staff threatened him while he waited for his wheelchair to be brought to him. Cory Lee said he was told TSA staff with guns would arrive to remove him, per his Instagram post. Per the post, Lee said Delta staff "immediately got livid" after he refused to leave the plane until his wheelchair was delivered. Lee's request fell under the Air Carrier Access Act, which he cited in the Instagram post. A spokesperson for Delta told Insider: "The exchange in this video does not reflect the high standard of care Delta people aspire to every day.

☆ Sunday was the busiest day at US airports since before the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Chris Isidore | Cnn Business | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York (CNN Business) Sunday marked the busiest day at US airports since the start of the pandemic — and though bad weather caused widespread flight delays, relatively few flights were canceled outright. About 2.6 million people were screened at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints Sunday. Unfortunately for passengers, once they made it through the TSA checkpoints they found widespread delays mostly related to weather. US airlines had 6,600 delayed arrivals on Sunday, according to tracking service FlightAware — about 26% of scheduled flights — with the average delay at about 51 minutes. Still, only 178 flights by US airlines were canceled altogether on Sunday, representing less than 1% of scheduled flights.

☆ Thanksgiving travel was still below pre-pandemic levels and it proves air travel isn't back to normal yet
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt applauded airlines for their on-time performance over the Thanksgiving holiday. Before the pandemic reshaped the aviation industry as we know it, Thanksgiving was the US' busiest holiday for air travel. United Airlines told Insider that it flew more than 476,000 customers on Sunday, and the Thanksgiving holiday period was the carrier's third-busiest behind 2018 and 2019. Although the historically unreliable holiday flight operations may have scared people away from flying over Thanksgiving, Harteveldt told Insider the successful week is a win for US carriers. "They have to continue to operate reliably during the next few weeks, during the Christmas and New Year's period, and throughout 2023 and beyond," Harteveldt told Insider.

This year, hospitals are being overwhelmed with a combination of Covid, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the flu. This “tripledemic” of flu, Covid and RSV is a reminder that even as the pandemic ends, the threat of seasonal respiratory viruses remains. When and where respiratory viruses are surging, mask mandates should be reinstated. A recent study found that Boston school districts that had lifted mandates averaged 45 more Covid cases per 1,000 students and staff than those with mandates. This means that RSV — for which a vaccine is still being developed — can be mitigated through both mask-wearing and hand-washing.

A passenger disturbance on a Southwest Airlines flight prompted its diversion to Little Rock, Arkansas, on Saturday on one of the year's busiest travel weekends. "The FBI is the primary federal agency authorized to investigate potential assault aboard aircraft violations," Hagan said by email. The exact nature of the disturbance on board the Columbus, Ohio-bound flight from Houston wasn't entirely revealed. The disturbance came amid one of the year's busiest travel weekends, when many Americans partook in Thanksgiving reunions following the end of pandemic isolation. On Monday, authorities alleged, a Utah man held a straight-edge razor near another passenger’s throat on a New York City-to-Salt Lake City flight.

☆ 'Unruly behavior' by a passenger forced a Southwest Airlines flight to make an emergency landing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Southwest Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Saturday. A spokesperson told CBS News that the diversion was caused by "unruly behavior from a passenger." A spokesperson for the airline told CBS News that the crew declared an emergency due to "unruly behavior from a passenger." The "unruly" passenger was removed from the flight. The Federal Aviation Authority told CBS News that the passenger, whose has not been named, was met by officers from the Transportation Security Administration, as well as local police.

One way to ease the blow to your wallet or purse is by using frequent-flyer miles. So we calculated how much a frequent-flyer mile is worth by dividing the number of frequent-flyer miles needed by the ticket price. We found the best time to spend your frequent-flyer miles for Thanksgiving travel was to book during the first week of October, which was about eight weeks out. The best day to flyAs for what's the best day on which to travel to get the most from your miles, there are two answers. If you haven't booked flights yet, you may be too late to find the best value in frequent-flyer miles.

☆ A cat snuck into a Delta passenger's suitcase and was found by TSA in an X-ray image
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A stowaway cat had snuck into a man's suitcase at JFK Airport, TSA said. TSA discovered the cat in an X-ray image, after staff noticed the outline of the animal. On November 16, TSA officers noticed the outline of a cat in an X-ray image during the screen of a passenger's suitcase, spokesperson Lisa Farbstein told The Washington Post. A photo posted by Farbstein showed the cat's rust-colored fur peeking from the zipper of the suitcase. One photo of the X-ray image showed a glowing red outline of the cat, and several of the passenger's belongings, which included wine glasses and bottles, as well as flip flops.

☆ Travelers are getting out of town earlier for Thanksgiving this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The busiest travel days during Thanksgiving week are usually Tuesday, Wednesday and the Sunday after the holiday. It looks like the rush started early this year, as the Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 2.33 million travelers on Sunday. It’s the first year that the number of people catching planes surpassed the 2.32 million screened the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began. “As a result, we’re confident that the week is going to go well.”U.S. airlines plan to operate 13% fewer flights this week than during Thanksgiving week in 2019. The busiest day in TSA’s history came on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019, when nearly 2.9 million people were screened at airport checkpoints.

☆ Thanksgiving Travel Roars Back, Testing Airlines After Turbulent Summer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Alison Sider | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The crowds for Thanksgiving travel began to build last week, with 2 million travelers going through airports each day since Thursday. Airport parking lots are filling up. In short, Thanksgiving travel is getting back to normal, for better or worse. The Transportation Security Administration expects travel volumes this week could approach prepandemic levels, with 2.5 million passengers or more passing through U.S. airports on the busiest days. Daily airport volumes have neared that level several times in recent months, but they haven’t surpassed it since the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out travel demand in 2020.

☆ 5 tips for taming travel tension over the holidays
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Dana Santas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

So, whether you’re driving to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving or flying to see family in another country, try the five tips below to reduce stress and tension so you can enjoy the holidays. Holiday travel can cause tension, but you can ease stress with strategies like mindful breathing and walking breaks. Stretch out the tensionLots of sitting during travel also means compressed side waist muscles, overused hip flexors and tight low-back muscles. In addition to changing your relationship with gravity to relieve tension, it’s important to get enough sleep. Using the five tips above will help keep travel tension at bay and your holiday spirits high.

☆ Tripadvisor Names Its First CMO Since 2018
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Tripadvisor Inc. has hired John Boris as its first chief marketing officer in more than four years as the online travel company hopes to serve consumers who are willing to pay more to book flights and hotels. Mr. Boris had been chief growth officer at Australian blockchain gaming startup Immutable Pty. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CMO Today CMO Today delivers the most important news of the day for media and marketing professionals. Its marketing expenses rose 58% to $234 million during the same period thanks, in part, to an increase in search-engine marketing, according to the company’s earnings report. Tripadvisor also recently replaced its retiring chief financial officer with Mike Noonan, formerly of dieting app Noom.

A Frontier Airlines flight bound for Tampa changed course Friday night after an unruly passenger was discovered with a box cutter, according to officials. After the suspect was taken into custody and searched, a second box cutter was found in their carry-on, according to the agency. The plane was then "diverted to Atlanta after a passenger on board the aircraft was observed in possession of a box cutter," according to a statement from the airline shared with NBC News. Frontier Airlines didn't provide any additional information on the incident, but according to the Transportation Security Administration, there had been a disturbance involving the passenger in possession of the box cutter. "FBI and Atlanta Police Department responded to the incident, took the suspect into custody and the flight was canceled."

☆ A Frontier Airlines flight made an emergency landing after a man with a box cutter threatened to stab other passengers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Frontier Airlines flight made an emergency landing after a passenger was seen with a box cutter. He threatened to stab other passengers, an Atlanta airport spokesperson told The New York Times. Box cutters have been banned on aircraft since a post-9/11 tightening of security regulations. The man threatened to stab fellow passengers and crew members on flight 1761, Tim Turner, a spokesperson for Atlanta International Airport told The New York Times. Knives and blades, including box cutters, should be identified in pre-flight screening.

☆ Handgun found inside raw chicken in luggage at airport, TSA says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Security officers at a South Florida airport have reported finding a handgun hidden inside a raw chicken packed in a traveler’s luggage. The Transportation Security Administration posted photos of the gun and poultry, with a pun-filled caption, Monday on its official Instagram account. The post didn’t identify the traveler who was transporting the weapon or whether any arrests were made. According to the TSA, fresh meat, seafood and other non-liquid food items are permitted in both carry-on and checked bags, as long as they are packed in ice. Unloaded firearms are allowed to be transported in checked bags, but they must be declared at the ticket counter and packed in a locked hard-sided container.

☆ Inflation has airline ticket prices skyrocketing, but the TSA just slashed the price of its PreCheck program, which lets flyers cut the airport security line
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The service lets members skip long airport security lines for 5 years. The move is a rare example of a price cut in 2022. The service allows qualifying travelers to skip busy security screening lines at the airport for the next 5 years. "For individuals and families with plans to fly this holiday season, now is the time to enroll or renew in TSA PreCheck," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement announcing PreCheck's price cut. Not everyone qualifies to cut security lines, though.

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