The average amount of time, in minutes, it takes me to get through security using TSA Pre-Check. (Photo credit: Andrew Bender)

About the best news – OK, about the only good news – for air travelers in the last few years has been TSA Pre-Check, which allows passengers to speed through security at dozens of U.S. airports without removing shoes, laptop bags and light outerwear. Domestic travelers love it, but international travelers were stuck in the slow lane. Thankfully, that’s changed.

Read the rest of the story on my  Forbes Seat 1A column.

Las Vegas Strip (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Las Vegas is famous for shady characters who try to stay under the radar: card counters, bookies and, um, others. But some of the shadiest may be hiding in plain sight: taxi drivers.

“We conservatively estimate airport passengers were overcharged $14.8 million in 2012,” reads an audit report on taxi services in Las Vegas.

Read the full story on my Forbes blog, Seat 1A.

Image: Andrew Bender

Historic hotels can be a treasure but can also pose a problem: the fine line between “classic” and “dated.”

The InterContinental Chicago has an elegant solution: two towers with different design concepts.  The hotel’s Historic Tower was built in 1929, and it’s been a landmark ever since. The hotel’s other wing, the Grand Tower, was built in 1961 but paradoxically felt more dated than the Historic Tower – until a renovation completed this month.

Read the full story and see before-and-after pictures on my Forbes Seat 1A blog.

If one measure of an artist is finding a motif and committing to it, Lego’s designers belong up there with the Old Masters. For starters: 3,500 Lego models fashioned from over 3 million of the Danish bricks, throughout the 250-room hotel. The building is three stories, both in height and the themes of its rooms (kingdom, pirate or adventure), which are executed to the hilt.

Read the full story on my Seat 1A blog on Forbes.com.

Thankfully, things haven't gotten this bad...yet.

If you’ve flown in the last year, you don’t need to be told that airplanes are getting ever more crowded. Now a report by the U.S. Department of Transportation confirms it.

“Last year, U.S. airlines set a modern-day record,” said John Heimlich, Vice President and Chief Economist for Airlines for America, the industry trade organization.

Read the full story on my Forbes Seat 1A blog.

Air route traffic controllers at work at the Washington ARTCC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Friday, March 22 that it would shut down 149 of the 516 air traffic control towers across the U.S., beginning April 7, 2013. Here’s what it all means.

Read the rest of the story on my Forbes Seat 1A blog.

The changes, to take effect on April 25, 2013, will permit passengers to carry folding pocket knives with blades up to 2.36 inches (6 centimeters) in length, as well as sporting equipment such as lacrosse and hockey sticks and golf clubs.

Read the full story on my Forbes Seat 1A blog.

Read the full story on my Forbes Seat 1A blog.

Celebrations of the year 4711 in the Chinese calendar officially begin this Lunar New Year’s Eve (February 9, 2013), but in cities across the United States and Canada the partying began weeks ago and will continue for weeks more. Inside our little red envelope for you: some of the biggest and most unique festivities from coast to coast.

Read the full story and see the slide show on my Forbes Seat 1A blog.

Read the full story and see the slide show on my Seat 1A blog on Forbes.com.

Niki Club, Japan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By going beyond local farms to growing food on-site, resorts get the freshest ingredients and avoid fuel-guzzling transport. BY ANDREW BENDER

Read the full story on the website of SilverKris, the in-flight magazine of Singapore Airlines. Featured properties are Niki Club (Japan), Appellation at the Louise (Australia), Cuixmala (Mexico) and the Inn at Little Washington (USA).

Centro do Rio de Janeiro (Photo credit: Rodrigo_Soldon)

American Express Global Business Travel released its Global Business Travel Forecast 2013today, and vice president Hervé Sedky sees “prices likely rising…in growing economies such as Brazil, India, and Russia, but staying flat or even declining in those markets where growth is stagnant.”

Those stagnant markets include Europe – largely because of its financial crisis – and China, where meteoric growth is seen as leveling off.

Read the full story on my Seat 1A blog on Forbes.com.