Much has changed since my last vacation to Istanbul. Five years earlier, I journeyed to the crossroads of east and west for the first time with my younger brother. We had a great time, though our accommodation—a small hostel in the Sultanahmet district—left much to be desired. After flying through Istanbul several times on Turkish Airlines in the interim, this was my first time actually being stamped back into Turkey ...

George Carlin famously claimed there were "seven words you can never say on television." In light of the controversy over my recent ejection from a United Airlines flight, I want to pose the following question today—

Are there certain "taboo" words that cannot be uttered on a commercial airplane without fear of being thrown off the flight?

Based on the 700+ comments in my previous post, there is no consensus on the issue.  In fact, opinions are so starkly divided ...

Hi all—I've been amazed at the interest my story has produced and hope it can be used as a catalyst to both clarify United Airlines' photo policy and guarantee that what happened to me will never happen to another onboard guest.

Keeping up with all the comments, e-mail, and media requests has been difficult as I traversed through the Caucasus this week with limited internet access. I am now back in the Turkish Airlines Lounge in Istanbul preparing to fly back to Newark this ...

Live and Let's Fly has been silent the last three days as I weighed how I wanted to cover what happened to me on a United Airlines flight from Newark to Istanbul last week. The situation was both traumatizing and highly embarrassing and I wanted to ensure that I had ample time to consider what transpired before hurling any accusations or failing to understand the other side. But frankly, the more I replay the incident in my mind, the more certain I become that I was wronged. Here's my ...

One of my Washington rituals over the last decade has been to eat lunch at Ebbitt Express, if time permits, every time I arrive in the city. Located adjacent to Old Ebbitt Grill and a block from the White House, the small takeaway eatery offers genuinely good American food—or at least did.

Yesterday I was in Washington to pick up a visa at the Azerbaijan Embassy and had a few hours to spare before my flight out of National Airport. Naturally, I stopped at Ebbitt Grill for a ...