Travel News: May 15, 2024

Mona Lisa News: The Louvre in Paris is considering moving the Mona Lisa to a larger room in the basement to make it easier for the crowds to get a good look.

Train between Spain and Morocco? Fingers crossed this happens! They might build a tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar to link the two countries from Madrid to Casablanca. Wouldn’t that be something?

Fast train. Photo by StockSnap.

Did you miss the Northern Lights in the U.S. recently? Princess Cruises is launching special Northern Lights cruises to Alaska called “Voyage to the Stars.”

New tallest building in the world: In 4 or 5 years, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will be home to the world’s tallest building – the Jeddah Tower – at 3,281 feet tall. That’s almost 11 times as tall as the Statue of Liberty. (I can’t even imagine such a thing.)

Fewer vacation rentals in Hawaii? The governor of the state signed a law this month that gives individual counties the power to convert short-term rental properties into long-term ones in an effort to deal with the housing shortage.

Airplane.

AIRLINE AND AIRPORT NEWS

Airport parking made easier: Did you know you can book preflight airport parking in advance through AirportParkingReservations.com and premium valet parking through ParkSleepFly?

Don’t want to lose your luggage on a flight? Fly into Japan’s Kansai International Airport (KIX), where they haven’t lost a piece of baggage in 30 years, which is the airport’s entire history!

Travel luggage.

The world’s cleanest airports? Japan also won the top award on this list, but not Kansai. That accolade went to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Others in the top 10 (clearly dominated by Asia) include: Seoul Incheon, Singapore Changi, Doha Hamad, Centrair Nagoya, Tokyo Narita, Kansai, Hong Kong, Taiwan Taoyuan, and Zurich.

Has tipping gone mad? The Detroit Airport is reportedly asking for tips at water-filling stations. Puh-leese!

United Airlines giving you a chance to leave the middle: If you note a preference for a aisle or window in your United Airlines account, they’ll automatically move you from a middle seat if one becomes available.

JetBlue and Etihad Airlines news: Now, you can earn JetBlue miles on Etihad flights and vice versa, thanks to an expanded partnership between the two airlines.

Airlines behaving badly: Qantas Airlines just got fined $79 million for selling “ghost flights” in 2021 and 2022 – flights it had already canceled – and not refunding the money to customers. Naughty, naughty!

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Melanie Votaw is the Publisher and Executive Travel Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. She has visited more than 50 countries on 6 continents and written for such magazines as Executive Travel, Just Luxe, Business Insider, South China Morning Post, Travel Mindset, and more. She is a member of the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association, New York Travel Writers Association, and International Travel Writers Alliance. Melanie's photography has won awards, and she has also written 43 nonfiction books as either the author or ghostwriter.

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