Monthly Archives for June 2020.
British Airways boss Alex Cruz penned a rather remarkable piece in response to criticism in the U.K. over plans to renege on labor deals, firing everyone and rehiring a portion of staff at lower pay. He declares that the business is facing challenges, and that they will do the bare minimum legally required of them.
In the spirit of understanding just how countries that are working to ‘crush’ the virus are approaching opening, and the hoops they’re requiring people to go through, I was fascinated by the “fast lane” jointly announced by Singapore and China to provide for essential business and official travel without a 14 day quarantine.
Calling is a “Fast Lane” is like calling a dump truck a sports car.
There are reports across social media of flights where the majority of passengers aren’t wearing masks, even though masks are ostensibly required by nearly all U.S. airlines. It isn’t just people forgetting, or not bothering, there are many people voicing strong objection online to be required to don a mask. And I’d like to better understand the reasons why.
You’re going to take the mask off to eat and drink, but why not put it back on when you aren’t doing those things? What’s the actual reason, and why is that reason more compelling than potentially reducing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus? I appreciate comments, especially from those who are opposed to mask wearing on planes.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The Uber Visa is no longer mentioned in the Uber app and the application has been removed from the Barclays website. If you go to the Barclays page for current Uber Visa cardmembers and choose ‘not a current cardmember’ you’re taken to a page’s expired,
Here’s the deal.
One woman reportedly pocketed $423,000 making bookings during bad weather events, choosing flights that had histories of delays. She’d buy the insurance and pocket the payouts. And she scaled this by not just booking her own travel, but booking in the names of family members as well.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
There are business class roundtrips between several U.S. cities and Europe from $1650. That’s an amazing deal, especially from the West Coast, and this deal was available “from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York, Boston, Miami and many more cities in the US” to Paris, Zurich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels, and more – with travel valid through mid-January.
What’s even more amazing is that some small online travel agency sites are making these fares available for less – much less.
There’s been a lot of coverage this week of the opening of the new New York LaGuardia Central Terminal building (a.k.a. “headhouse“). The old terminal B was ugly, the new terminal B is bright from natural light and new. So, shiny things.
The truth about the new project is there’s only one thing about it that really makes the travel experience better, and that’s only going to last a short period of time: new restrooms.
You’ll know the airline industry is healthy again when we start to see really low fares. There are good deals around right now, but few great deals.
Low fares will signal that it’s possible to encourage people to travel again with good deals. High fares suggest discretionary travelers are still staying away.
So while in normal times, with planes full, airlines prefer high fares – in the COVID-era we need to see low fares before predicting an airline recovery.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
