Consumers pick the best hotels

This year's "travelers' choice" picks and pans are in at TripAdvisor.com , the Needham travel website/consumer gripe board. Sofitel in New York was ranked the best US luxury hotel, Berlin's Ritz-Carlton the best in Europe, and the SeaCoast Inn in Hyannis the best US bargain. At the other end: Readers picked the Tropicana Resort Hotel in Virginia Beach and New York City's Hotel Carter the two "dirtiest hotels" in the country.

AirTran adding New York flights

AirTran Airways adds a third daily flight from White Plains, N.Y., to Atlanta April 17 and a third to West Palm Beach, Fla., May 8.

Earn more miles when you drive

Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car are tripling hotel and airline point rewards for some rentals through April 15. At Thrifty, members of Best Western's Gold Crown Club International program can get 3,000 points for two-day-plus rentals of premium and luxury cars booked through Thrifty .com. Dollar is giving triple miles for frequent fliers on American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and US Airways for three-day-plus rentals of intermediate and large cars, using promotion code DR7S.

Passport rule will change vacation plans

Nearly 20 percent of Americans responding to a Kayak.com survey say they'll change travel plans this year because of the new requirement for a US passport -- which 73 percent of Americans don't have -- for air travel to Canada, Mexico, and many Caribbean nations. Most respondents think it would take them three months to get a passport, but 51 percent say a member of Congress could get one in just one day.

PETER J. HOWE