USA Today's 25 Best Travel Changes in the Last Quarter Century

In celebration of USA Today turning 25, the editors of the American newspaper are publishing a variety of top 25 lists. This week, they tackle the "25 pivotal changes that transformed the way we travel."

Want to take a guess what they are?

Well, number one on the list is something that we all personally use quite often: online booking. I can't even remember how we bought tickets before. Didn't we have to telephone the airlines or something like that? I know I booked a lot of my tickets pre-internet with STA travel, a student travel agency that is still going strong these days.

The next "pivotal change" that I was most excited about in the last quarter century was certainly the prohibition of smoking onboard an aircraft. I never actually flew on a smoking flight and simply can't imagine what hell that must have been like, but I know how much I'd hate it today and simply can't believe that this life-saving regulation doesn't appear on the USA Today list until number 5.

It's rather fun checking out all 25 "pivotal changes" and realizing that so many of them, like the anti-smoking laws, are so commonplace in the travel industry that it is now hard to imagine life without them. For a quick peek at the top five, check out the list below, or jump on over to USA Today to read about all 25.

1. Online booking
2. TSA airport security
3. Airline e-tickets
4. Roll-aboard luggage
5. Smoke-free flights

Filed under: Airlines, Airports