Thanks for this, everyone! You can keep up with us here: https://www.wsj.com/news/life-work/travel

Yes! We accept no freebies per our ethics policy. We don't take press trips either. If you see us write a story about an airline or a hotel or attraction, we have paid for it ourselves (with the corporate card!) We don't give advance notice of our plans, of course, so as to not get special treatment or freebies. --Dawn

We all hate those nasty resort fees and one thing I don't think some travelers realize is that while they are mandatory nightly charges, you can (politely) ask to have it removed from your bill if things go wrong during your stay or one of the "perks'' listed as covered by the resort fee isn't available while you're there. The wifi was awful on a recent hotel stay in Las Vegas, on a trip where I had to work, and I had the charge removed. (Ditto for inflight wifi issues, btw.) In Florida last year, the beachfront hotel where I stayed listed beach chairs and pool perks and both were closed on my one night stay. Make sure you ask when you're at the property because they generally won't do it after the fact. --Dawn

If you're into points/miles, look into redemptions on partner airlines. In other words, you don't just have to use Delta points for Delta flights. You can transfer them to another airline (like Air France) and might get a better redemption rate that way - Allison

This is not fascinating in the off-the-beaten path exotic trip sense but I covered the reopening of the Las Vegas Strip in June 2020 (it was closed for several weeks at the beginning of the pandemic) . I arrived a day early to an empty airport the likes of which I'd never seen, even during the travel aftermath of 9/11, and watched a major tourist destination reopen in real time. More recently, I spent the night in a Bass Pro Shop in Memphis for a story. -- Dawn

This is nothing like traveling to a war zone, but I have a PG answer for you: I was in Italy with my two siblings and parents a number of years ago when we crammed into a very small elevator at a train station. It got stuck between the floors and we didn't speak Italian, so we couldn't really communicate that we needed to get out. Being unable to move and stuck with your immediate family is dangerous in its own way :) - Allison

The good airlines do what we all want in a trip: take off and land on time as often as possible, don't cancel at the last minute and get your bags where they need to be, as quickly as possible. And, when things go bad, they keep you up to date on what's going on, as frequently and accurately as possible. Don't know if you've flown United Airlines recently, but they spell out, in detail, why your flight is delayed or canceled. It doesn't necessarily make passengers less annoyed but at least they feel like they're in the loop. -- Dawn

I started on this beat during the pandemic, so my experiences are more limited than Dawn's. But I did get to spend three days with a hotel manager in Maine. The hotel was in an old building that was an observation headquarters for the Navy in WWII. There were many hidden hallways (and rooms!) A lot of what made the trip so fascinating was how much the manager had to navigate issues that came up with employees who lived in shared housing. He told me: "It's like The Bachelor." https://www.wsj.com/articles/running-a-maine-resort-this-summer-was-no-vacation-11662177616?st=s03azmdghitixxf - Allison

2022 was not a good year for airlines and passengers. Even Delta Air Lines, the No. 1 carrier in our latest ranking of U.S. carriers, canceled more than triple the number of flights it did in 2021. The main issue: airlines got giddy about travel returning and scheduled way more flights than they and the air travel system overall could handle. Thankfully, they got more realistic in the second half of the year and things generally improved. The best thing you can do as a traveler: build in some buffers, especially if you have to be somewhere for an event you can't miss. Don't fly in the day of a cruise or night before a wedding. Don't cut it close getting to the airport.

-Dawn

edit: added a gift link

I took my son to Wengen a few years ago and he loved it so much he went back and used it as his base during a college graduation trip last summer. It's right on the train line. Wengen is definitely not off the beaten path but certainly was not as busy and touristy as some others in the area. On his last trip there they loved the hike around Lake Oeschinen so it's on my list now!

-Dawn

Rates are high right now for many reasons, including high demand, and, of course, labor costs. Companies also tell us they're spending more on supplies because of inflation. But, eventually, even travelers who have doled out big amounts for bucket list trips will find it harder to justify. Companies will adjust their rates to meet demand. If that starts to fall, rates will go down, too. The risk for workers is getting very burned out while trying to keep up with this high demand and low staffing levels - Allison

In the U.S., it's Lassen Volcanic National Park. It's about four hours from San Francisco (no traffic haha) and isn't as highly trafficked as parks like Yosemite. The park has everything from wildflowers to hydrothermal sites with cool names (ever heard of Bumpass Hell)? - Allison

I started covering the business side of airlines and resorts and for years tried to convince my editors (at another newspaper) that a consumer travel beat would be a big hit. I had to convince them it wasn't just writing about sunsets in Bali. It's writing about cool places but also helping travelers navigate things like airline and resort fees and educating them on their rights when things go awry. --Dawn

My assistant Joanne and I look at every submission separately and then compare notes. It usually doesn't take long to look over a puzzle--usually less that 15 mimutes--but we get so many, we have a big backlog (months) of puzzles we haven't gotten to.

Once a puzzle is accepted, I add it to the files. Every week, I pick a set to use, pick the days they'll run, edit them and lay them out. Then they go to the test-solvers to check. Once the revisions are made, they get uploaded to the WSJ.

Any or all of the above. First I'll look at the grid fill to see if any areas can be improved. After I'm happy that the grid is as good as it can be, I'll edit the clues which can mean tweaking a few or rewriting whole swaths. Which day of the week the puzzle is scheduled for can mean making the clues easier or trickier. And when the puzzle is laid out, I might need to edit more clues to fit on the page.

It's weird, I kinda think it's silly but I still do it every day.

I'm not really a maniacal cackler. (Maniacal, maybe.)

I'm happy the indie outlets are doing what they are. I'd love to get more puzzles from underrepresented groups, but my philosophy is that I'll use any good puzzle submitted to me.

My favorite puzzles to solve are the themeless Fireball puzzles (which, since I'm crazy, I like to tackle with just the Down clues) and Matt's contest puzzles (though I don't always solve the meta). I won't name favorite constructors except to say I like the ones who require the least editing.

I've been pretty much allowed free rein on deciding on the puzzle style. Getting more pay for constructors is tougher, since the WSJ is a big organization with lots of levels to go through, so my pull isn't as strong as I'd like.

First: the theme--is it fun, clever, fresh?; is it well balanced and consistent?

Next: the filler words--are they good, lively words and phrases, with a minimum of abbreviations, partial phrases, crosswordese?

Last: the clues--if everything else looks good, the clues can always be fixed.

It varies a lot. Sometimes it feels like the grid is cooperating and sometimes it feels like it's fighting me. For a daily puzzle, it might take two hours or less, or it might take days, putting it down and coming back to it. Cluing adds more time.

Until recently I was a pen-and-paper solver (with plenty of cross-outs). When my printer conked out a while back, I switched to digital, and haven't gone back to paper.