In the days after Hurricane Irene, many travelers find themselves stranded after cancelled flights or suspended train service kept them from going where they wanted to go. Even without extreme weather conditions complicating travel, most travelers have an an airline horror story or two, and many times the source of the problem is not the cancelled trip or lost bag, but inadequate customer service or lack of information from the airline. Several airlines are seeking to remedy this problem by using social networking for customer relations — a tactic many different types of companies are employing nowadays.

Hurricane Irene knocked out public transport from from the Carolinas through New England, and that includes all three of New York’s major airports. A big whack of all commercial flights in the U.S. are routed through New York, as many 12,000 flights have been cancelled. Business was hit as well. Samsung was forced to delay the planned release of it’s newest phone, because it couldn't can get shipments to New York. And on an individual level weddings had to be cancelled, the convention goers got stuck in Vegas for another weekend and then there's those who rode out Irene at JFK.

Earlier this morning, Rep. John Mica (R-FL) told The Takeaway the Democrats were to blame for partial shutdown at the Federal Aviation Agency, after Congress failed to pas a funding extension last weekend. But what does this shutdown mean for consumers at the airport? Barbara Peterson, senior aviation correspondent for Conde Nast Traveler, talks about how airfare has changed since the government can no longer collect taxes on airline tickets.

Partisan fighting over the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill has affected more than just the markets. Over the weekend, Congress failed to pass a funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration, following a disagreement over cuts in subsidies. As a result, the U.S. government was forced to suspend collection of federal airline taxes, at a loss of approximately $200 million per week. The F.A.A had to furlough 4,000 employees, and airport modernization projects worth billions of dollars are now on hold.

A Sacramento bound Southwest Airlines flight declared an in flight emergency on Friday when five feet of paneling ripped out of the 737's ceiling. Flight 812 made a rapid descent from its cruising altitude of 36,000 feet down to 11,000 feet and later landed safely at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station.  

In the recent past, airlines have been caught being lax in their adherence to maintenance inspections. In 2008, the FAA levied a $7.5 million penalty against Southwest for its failure to do mandatory inspections for fuselage fatigue on some of its planes. Southwest wasn't the only airline.

"Wretches and Jabberers" is a buddy movie, a road trip movie and a moving adventure. But this new film is different than your typical mainstream fare. The documentary stars two autistic friends and advocates who do most of their communicating through typing. The story follows Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, as well as their assistants Pascal Cheng and Harvey Lavoy, as they travel around the world, meet other autistic people, and advocate for autism rights.

We’ve been reporting on the devastating East Coast snowstorms all week, hearing your stories and seeing your photos. Today we take a look at how the blizzard has affected post-holiday travel. Yesterday, hundreds of passengers bound for Vancouver sat on the tarmac at JFK Airport in New York for over 11 hours — and that’s not the only horror story circulating between airline terminals.

Snowstorms gave parts of the South a White Christmas, but for most of the East Coast, the blizzards only began on Sunday morning. North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have all declared states of emergency. New York, Eastern Pennsylvania, and New Jersey suffered through white-out conditions yesterday, stifling travel the day after Christmas. This morning rail service up and down the coast has been canceled, along with thousands of flights, leaving huge numbers of travelers stranded.

The Transportation Security Administration has begun more thorough pat-downs at airport security checkpoints just weeks before holidays' heavy travel season. Many passengers have already complained of inappropriate contact and others are upset with the intimacy of the search. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano explains the new search procedures and the full-body scanning machines that have been set up in airports. She and the TSA are asking passengers to be patient and cooperate.

"The vast majority of the traveling public understands that this is a safety and security measure," Napolitano said. Read a full transcript. 

The backlash against new airport screening procedures is growing. Last month, the Transportation Security Administration started rolling out full body scanners that allow screeners to check for weapons concealed by clothing. If a passenger opts out of the scan, they must submit to an "enhanced" pat-down.

A group of fliers is calling for people to boycott the scanners over the Thanksgiving holiday, forcing screeners to conduct the pat-downs, causing disruptions at one of the busiest travel times of the year. The scanners take about 30 seconds, but the pat-downs last several minutes per passenger.

We'll ask Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the new policy, but we're asking you, Is this controversy causing you to rethink your travel plans during the holidays?

For generations, Sibera has served as a metaphor for exile, whether social, political, romantic, or geographic. Consider political thinkers like Lenin, who were forced to serve time — often years — in Siberia, or romantic heroes like Dr. Zhivago, cruelly separated from those they love and sent to the region's icy tundra. Even people who commit crimes of etiquette in their social circles inadvertently exile themselves to social Siberia.

But is this place of exile really so much like a prison? Ian Frazier doesn’t think so. 

The U.S. State Department issued an alert for Americans heading to Europe yesterday, as intelligence services indicate an increased risk of an attack by al Qaida in western Europe. The threats have been linked to a small cell of terrorists in Pakistan, and are reportedly in response to U.S. drone attacks.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will tour the Transportation Security Laboratory in Atlantic City, NJ, on Wednesday. We talk with Napolitano about the cutting-edge screening technology being developed there for DHS, and get her thoughts on the Gulf oil gusher - and where she thinks responsiblity lies.

Following news that the Icelandic volcano that has stopped international travel throughout Western Europe is picking up steam, we discuss how mother nature fits into a human age of technological mastery. Specifically, has Iceland's own climate had such a deep impact on Europe in the past?

European officials struck a deal yesterday to reopen most of Europe's air space to plane travel as early as this afternoon, assuming Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continues to subside. This would end the worst peacetime travel disruption in history, a travel crisis that has left thousands of passengers stranded for days and cost the airline industry hundreds of millions of dollars. But in the midst of the chaos and inconveniences, one philosopher took a moment to reflect on what our world would look like without airplanes.

• Travel Takeout: Over sixty thousand flights have been canceled in the past four days, leaving hundreds of thousand people in Europe devising alternative travel plans. Seth Stevenson, author of "Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World" looks at their ground travel options.
• Listener Takeout: By phone, on Twitter, via email and posted on our website, Takeaway Listeners told us about the global reach of the Icelandic volcano's disruptive plumes.

A five-mile high plume of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland is drifting across Northern Europe, causing massive disruption at airports in the U.K. and Scandinavia. All flights originating from Scotland have already been grounded, and all London flights will be suspended.

With shrinking budgets and expanding populations, cities across the globe are desperate for cheap mass transit. From Johannesburg to Jakarta to Cleveland, city governments are choosing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)— a bus system that acts like a train but with no tracks or rails. The Takeaway talks to freelance reporter Steven Dudley, who explored the successful BRT system in Bogota, Colombia, and to Dan Moulthrop, reporter for WCPN, Cleveland Public Radio, where the city has been making the transition to a Bus Rapid Transit system.

To see the buses in action, watch the film below:

In the wake of an outbreak in swine flu in Mexico that has been spreading, a health official for the European Union urged Europeans to avoid non-essential travel to the United States and Mexico. And here in the United States many of our listeners are concerned about travel to Mexico. Rudy Maxa is the Host and Executive Producer of the PBS travel series Rudy Maxa's World. He joins us now with answers to your travel questions.

Imagine the ease of riding trains between metropolitan areas in the U.S. Simply buy a ticket, board a train, kick back and read, sleep, listen to your podcasts of The Takeaway. Doesn't that sound better than braving crowded airport drop-offs, hours-long security lines or snarled traffic on the interstate? This vision of the future of travel may become a reality. Yesterday, President Obama expressed his ambition towards building high-speed passenger rail lines in ten regions across the country. To discuss how this will be possible The Takeaway is joined by Matt Dellinger, a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the New York Times .

Here's a brief look at how one town, Springfield, is planning on upgrading their infrastructure: