Airports & Flying
Liquids rules exist because of one specific 2006 plot
The 100ml limit is not arbitrary security theatre. Understanding where it came from also explains why it is finally changing.
Tomas Brenner
Contributing writer, Suitcase Theory
Tomas writes about travel money, cards and the quiet cost of a bad exchange rate.
Contact Tomas through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
13 articles
Airports & Flying
Connection times: what the minimum actually assumes
The minimum connection time printed by an airport is a technical figure with specific assumptions. Most of them will not apply to…
Airports & Flying
A seat map tells you more than where you sit
Row numbers, blocked rows and the shape of the cabin encode information the booking page never states outright.
Airports & Flying
Delay rights depend on where you took off
Passenger protection schemes are regional, not universal, and the one that applies is decided by the route rather than by the…
Trains & Ground
Split ticketing works because fares are not priced by distance
Buying two tickets for one journey is legal in many systems and cheaper surprisingly often, for reasons built into how fares are…
Trains & Ground
When a coach beats the train, and when it never does
Long-distance buses win on specific route geometries and lose badly on others, and the deciding factor is rarely price.
Trains & Ground
Car hire abroad: the charges that appear at the desk
The headline rate covers the car and very little else, and almost every dispute happens at collection or return.
Trains & Ground
Airport transfers fail in predictable ways
The journey between the airport and the city is where most itineraries actually break, and the reasons repeat.
Trains & Ground
Left luggage is the cheapest way to buy back a day
The gap between checkout and departure is dead time only if you are still carrying the bag.
Airports & Flying
Gate changes are about stands, not about you
A gate change is a decision about aircraft parking positions. The pattern behind it is predictable enough to change where you wait.
Airports & Flying
Codeshares put the ticket and the aircraft in different hands
A flight number does not always identify the airline operating it. That gap decides who handles your bag, your seat and your…
Trains & Ground
Trains have no luggage system, and that is deliberate
Rail moves passengers and their bags together with almost no handling. The trade is storage that is finite, unsupervised and…
Trains & Ground
Rail connections fail differently from air connections
Missing a train is usually cheaper and always faster to fix than missing a flight. The reason is frequency rather than generosity.