Hotel happy hours are hopping.

A number of hotels are getting into the brewing business, either heavily promoting craft beer at social hours or working with local breweries to have their own beers made.

•The Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia this month released Cherry Verbena Saison, its third collaboration with Dock Street Brewing. The beer was brewed with lemon verbena harvested from the hotel's rooftop garden.

•Four Fairmont hotels have partnered with breweries to create their own house microbrews using honey from their onsite beehives. "The Fairmont San Francisco Honey Saison," for instance, was crafted in partnership with Almanac Beer Co. and will be offered on draft in the hotel's Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar.

Hotels are expanding their loyalty programs and making it easier to use points not only for rooms, but also on a wide array of experiences, merchandise and entertainment.

Fighter jet ride, anyone?

Here's a round-up of some of the most unique items:

Global Hotel Alliance's 14 brands include Kempinski, Omni and Anantara. Its 2-year-oldGHA Discovery loyalty program offers more than 700 cultural experiences worldwide in addition to free room nights or upgrades. This program is popular with road warriors who want an authentic local experience, but only have a limited amount of time in their destination. For example, you can take a 2-hour private salsa dancing lesson at a top Los Angeles club, enjoy a day at the races in Malmo, Sweden, or go behind the scenes at a traditional Thai puppet show. Experiences get more exclusive depending what level of the three-tiered program you qualify for.

More airports and airlines are participating in the Transportation Security Administration's "PreCheck" program.

The TSA on Wednesday announced select United Airlines passengers at Chicago O'Hare International Airport and US Airways passengers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport will now be eligible for the expedited security program. The other participating airlines are Alaska Air , American and Delta .

PreCheck allows eligible passengers to volunteer information about themselves to undergo faster screening, which generally includes being able to leave shoes, belts and light outerwear on, as well as keep their laptops and approved liquids in their cases.

Flying first class comes with a lot of perks. You check-in at a dedicated counter, breeze through security in a priority lane, board first, enjoy a comfortable seat and avoid those pesky add-on fees for bags or meals becoming so prevalent. Not so fast.

Alaska Airlines quietly adjusted their checked baggage fee policy for first class travelers. Beginning July 10, some passengers who upgraded to first class will be charged a $20 fee for their first and second checked bag — something they previously got for free.

Full-fare first class customers still get the first two bags free, as do elite frequent flyers of Alaska's "Mileage Plan" program — plus certain elites from Delta and American Airlines — but this marks the first time a U.S. airline has levied a checked bag fee to a passenger riding in the front cabin, upgrade or otherwise.

There's a new trend developing among many international airlines that appears to be gaining traction.

Upgrading a coach ticket into business or first class generally requires a traveler to redeem miles or spend a fixed amount of cash determined by the airline. Elite frequent flyers also receive upgrades for free or by using certificates bestowed on them for their loyalty.

But many international airlines are now offering an "upgrade auction," where fliers bid against each other for a seat in business or first class. It's already available on seven internationalairlines and some frequent flyers aren't too happy.

Some of America's biggest hotel chains that offer free Wi-Fi are considering adding charges after seeing insatiable demand for Internet bandwidth from guests.

No chain that includes Internet access in its room rate has pulled back on offering Wi-Fi for free. But some are giving customers the option of paying extra for upgraded bandwidth so they don't get frustrated by sluggish speeds.

Currently, Marriott International and Carlson Hotels have some locations that offer free Wi-Fi and a faster choice for an additional sum.

Carlson's Country Inn & Suites says it has no plans to expand this tiered pricing strategy. But, spokeswoman Rosanne Swanson says, the chain will "continue to monitor guests' expectations and evaluate options."

At a terminal being renovated at Dallas Love Field, contractors are installing 500 high-definition security cameras sharp enough to read an auto license plate or a logo on a shirt.

The cameras, capable of tracking passengers from the parking garage to gates to the tarmac, are a key first step in creating what the airline industry would like to see at airports worldwide: a security apparatus that would scrutinize passengers more thoroughly, but less intrusively, and in faster fashion than now.

It's part of what the International Air Transport Association , or IATA, which represents airlines globally, calls "the checkpoint of the future."

The goal is for fliers to move almost non-stop through security from the curb to the gate, in contrast to repeated security stops and logjams at checkpoints.

Let's face it. Solo business travel can sometimes be downright boring and lonesome, especially when kicking back in your hotel room. One hotel chain has a novel concept to add a little extra color, comfort and companionship.

San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels , a collection of boutique hotels in the U.S. and Canada, offers guests a little "Guppy Love" at many of their nearly 50 hotels. The Guppy Love program gives guest the option to request a live goldfish for an overnight stay in their guest room.

And you never have to worry about feeding or caring for the fish. Hotel staff are on-hand daily to take care of the stress-reducing and calming in-room live "amenity."

I consider myself a well-traveled road warrior , but I just learned of this cool program yesterday. It began in 2001 and continues to make a splash with guests to this day.

The children of the baby-boom generation are the first generation that never knew life before the Internet. And because they are a growing portion of the work force, the companies that employ them, as well as the hotels, airlines and other travel-related businesses that serve them, are having to change the way they talk to them, work with them and sell to them.

Although this group — classified as those under 32 years old and known as millennials — makes up about 20 percent of the adult population and 13 percent of the business travel hotel bookings, their business travel numbers were up more than 40 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, according to data from the travel research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates.

"Younger business travelers are less apt to follow policy for the sake of policy," said Evan Konwiser, a travel technology entrepreneur. "It’s much more around buy-in and wanting to be a part of the team and understanding the big picture. I think the trend is toward simplifying some of these policies and infrastructures."

This is what Maria Chevalier, a corporate travel manager at Hewlett-Packard , found after completing a six-month study about her company’s roughly 100,000 business travelers. "With these younger generations, you have to communicate more frequently, but shorter. You have to use different forms of communication," she said.

Tomorrow marks the summer solstice in North America and one hotel is giving away some cool shades to every guest that checks in Wednesday. And they're free.

The Starwood Hotels brand Element Hotels, touted as an eco-wise and light-drenched collection of hotels in the U.S., will surprise guests with a complimentary pair of unisex Aviator sunglasses when they check in on Wednesday. They will then be encouraged to share Instagram photos of themselves wearing the specs via Twitter using the hashtag #elementhotels.

It's a pretty nifty one-day promotion and something original I certainly would never expect when checking in to a hotel. While I doubt they're the ones that retail for $100-plus, it's still a nice gesture.