It's one thing to blow the bank on a gourmet dinner at a Paris restaurant, quite another to pay more than you need to for it because of fees or a bad exchange rate. So it will come as good news to summer travelers abroad that the dollar buys more of the major currencies (the Euro, British Pound, and Japanese Yen) than it did at the beginning of 2013. What's more, you don't have to give back the gain in foreign transaction or conversion fees when you pay using a credit card.

After you've racked up all those frequent-flyer miles, the last thing you want to do is lose them. But that's what will happen with most frequent-flyer plans when you don't use the miles within 12 to 36 months. One miles-saving option is to get a cobranded airline credit card with American Express, MasterCard, or Visa. With summer-travel season approaching, it's certainly worth considering.

Fans of the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers are probably scrambling today to secure tickets to Super Bowl XLVII and accommodations in New Orleans. And unless driving to and from the Crescent City is an option and their pockets are extra deep, those supporters will need to find affordable flights.

More than 125,000 auto accidents are likely to have occurred over the Labor Day holiday weekend, according to just-released estimates by the Consumer Federation of America. The organization predicts 75,000 to 100,000 auto insurance claims could be filed as a result.

"Award winning." "World famous." "Fluffier, more flavorful." Restaurants around the country certainly don't hold back when it comes to boasting about the pancakes they serve. But sometimes what the waitress delivers you doesn't live up to hype. If you're a fan of flapjacks, read our new restaurant report to find the best place to grab a stack of during your family travels this summer.

Forget the bedspread. When it comes to germ hot spots in your hotel room, the TV remote is among the items most heavily contaminated with bacteria, according to a study that University of Houston researchers presented to the American Society for Microbiology.

As part of our new report Get the best hotel room at the best rate, 22,481 Consumer Reports subscribers spent a collective 94,981 nights at 44 national hotel chains. Based on their experiences, we've identified America's best and worst hotels.

Fewer mishandled bags and bumped passengers were reported in 2011 when compared to the year before, according to the Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report by the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings.

The Department of Transportation today fined Allegiant Air $100,000 for violating rules for advertising full fares and rules protecting air travelers with disabilities.

Average domestic airfare rose 6.2 percent in the third quarter of 2011, when compared to the average fare during that same time period in 2010, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today.

Good news for air travelers this week, as new rules protecting airline passengers go into effect. The U.S. Department of Transportation's airline passenger protection requirements taking effect this week are the final provisions from the DOT's recent airline consumer rule.

Although there were more airline crashes last year, the number of fatalities dropped to a new low, according to a review by Flightglobal, an aviation news site. The 2011 report tracked fatal airline accidents the world over.

Several major hotel companies operating some of the better known hotel chains, have come together to create a website where travelers can book rooms directly and not through other trip-planning websites.

Travel review site TripAdvisor has chosen to abandon the genius idea of releasing a "Dirtiest Hotels in America" list. Why? They want to "focus on the positive."

AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of Southwest Airlines, was fined $60,000 today for violating federal aviation laws and the Department of Transportation's rules prohibiting deceptive price advertising in air travel.