https://www.dhs.gov/real-id.

International Travel, International Rights

If you’re using your passport for how it was originally intended, for international travel, you may have additional rights as a passenger when travelling to or from the EU.

While American law does not provide for passenger compensation for flight delays, European regulations do.

As long as you are flying to the EU on a European carrier, or flying out of the EU on any air carrier, you may be entitled to delay compensation based on the length of the flight and the duration of the delay under EU Regulation 261.

The Montreal Convention provides additional passenger protections for international travel, including provision of damages for baggage damage or loss, passenger death or serious bodily injury, and travel delay.

Not only does the Montreal Convention apply to international flights, it applies to any flights on the same international itinerary. If you are flying from, for example, Kansas City to Paris, with a stop at Chicago O’Hare, even your flight from Kansas City to Chicago would be covered under the Montreal Convention.

Christmas Cheer:

Two passengers were caught trying to bring firearms in their carryon luggage over the Christmas holiday.

The first incident occurred at Dulles Airport on Christmas Day and the second occurred at BWI Airport on December 26.

In both incidents, the guns were detected in the passengers’ bags during  X-ray screening.

A first-time offender is typically fined $3,900 for attempting to pass a firearm through airport screening, according to TSA.

These were the 24th and 25th firearms caught by the TSA this year, up from 24 in 2016 and 16 in 2015.