It's the type of airline reservation no one likes to make. A family member or loved one is seriously ill or has passed away and you need to travel immediately.

A couple of decades ago, airlines used to have generous policies when it came to booking emergency travel. Known as bereavement or compassion fares, airlines offered steep discounts off regular airfares to ease the burden of last-minute travel. More recently, airlines began phasing them out.

But some still offer either a flat discount off current published airfares or a different type of rate determined by the carrier. Policies vary widely by airline.

Companies are sending their employees on the road again. But with travel costs almost back to where they were before the recession, companies are trying various tacks to control spending.

About a fifth of business travelers operate under mandated travel programs, which require them to use the airlines, hotels and car rental companies their employer has chosen, according to the Global Business Travel Association Foundation’s Global Business Traveler Study 2012 , sponsored by Concur.

Roughly a third work for a company that has no preferred travel vendors, the study found. The rest, almost half of business travelers, fall in between — their employer encourages them to use specific airlines, hotels and car rental companies, but does not mandate it.

A US Airways jetliner flying from Paris to Charlotte, N.C., has been diverted to Maine because of what an airline spokesman describes as a "security issue."

A person briefed on the incident said a passenger announced she had a surgically implanted device. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved sensitive law enforcement information.

US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie says the Boeing 767 with 179 passengers and nine crew members landed at noon Tuesday at Bangor International Airport.

Two F-15 fighters were scrambled to escort the plane, according to a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Airlines are reserving a growing number of seats to passengers willing to pay for premium locations — such as windows or aisles, and towards the front of the plane — or holding them back for their best customers.

For families traveling together, it can often mean a game of seat assignment roulette. It's becoming increasingly difficult for them to find two or more seats together in advance without paying an extra fee for the privilege. And many are reluctant to cough up more money and hope for the best at check-in to sit together.

The Associated Press published an article Monday highlighting the dilemma many families are facing. While airlines try to help family members without adjacent seats sit together, it doesn't always work out.

As a road warrior , I do my best to help out when asked to switch seats.

Frequent business traveler Joe Harvey says passing through airport security can be a breeze — if you have the right accessories.

His backpack allows his laptop to be screened at checkpoints without his having to take it out.

"I simply unfold it," says Harvey, a software consultant who lives in Lafayette, La. "My backpack holds everything I need to travel with. Nobody ever has to wait for me to disrobe … or empty my pockets. Ever."

If you're looking for a nice gift for the business traveler in your life, you've got plenty to choose from. A cottage industry has sprung up for products that help frazzled fliers deal with the myriad rules and fees that come with air travel.

Delta Air Lines may have charged some frequent flyers higher airfares than other customers for almost three weeks because of a glitch, which has triggered questions about the complexity of flight searches.

Reports surfaced last week from two business travelers who noticed prices on routes they were searching were different depending on whether or not they were logged into their Delta frequent flyer accounts. Prices were higher when logged in on Delta's website versus anonymous price searches without logging in.

On Friday, Delta offered a detailed explanation of the discrepancy. Although the problem has been solved, it brings into light the complexity of airline pricing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're in an oversold situation for our flight today and are looking for volunteers to take an alternate flight."

We've all heard that announcement while sitting at the gate. It simply means more passengers have shown up for the flight than the airline can accommodate.

Overselling flights is a common and necessary revenue management practice for airlines to ensure as many seats are filled as possible. Necessary because a certain percentage of people with confirmed reservations don't show for their flights. Sometimes they get the formula wrong and too many people show up.

But what do you do if there aren't enough volunteers and you get bumped off the flight? It's important to know your rights, especially as the peak summer travel season kicks off this Memorial Day weekend.

Comfort Inn guests will soon be noticing some changes.

Next month, a Comfort Inn and Suites hotel will open in Spokane Valley, Wash. as the brand's first newly redesigned property. The hotel's furniture, fixtures and equipment were all replaced to fit into the new "Comfort Truly Yours" design.

Choice Hotels International , Comfort's parent company, got feedback from more than 1,500 guests to come up with the new design. More than 100 properties are in the midst of a redesign. Others will follow, with the brand-wide overhaul scheduled to be completed by 2015. The company has said it is willing to close up to 10 percent of its Comfort hotels if they don't meet guest satisfaction standards.

A sleek new $1.4 billion international terminal featuring airy windows and eye-popping artwork opened Wednesday at the world's busiest airport. The aim is to attract more globe-trotting passengers to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal adds a new concourse of 12 gates to the existing international facilities and a separate entrance dedicated for international flights.

"It's really going to open up new opportunities for Atlanta to grow," Louis Miller, the airport's general manager, tells the Associated Press . "It's going to become a gateway not just to Atlanta, but to the world."

Road warriors who fly inbound to Atlanta as their final destination will enjoy a new time saving feature.

No, the dreaded "staycation" hasn't made a comeback.

But according to three surveys released this week, Americans remain fiscally cautious about their summer travel plans.

In a new PhoCusWright poll of more than 2,000 U.S. travelers, nearly four in 10 Americans (38 percent) didn't buy a vacation trip within the past year. Particularly hard hit were early boomers (ages 45-54), whose average trip expenditure dropped by more than 10 percent.