Monthly Archives for August 2020.
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.
A couple of readers have asked me for a simple summary of the reasons it’s a bad idea for the federal government to offer another round of payroll support funding. This will duplicate much of what I’ve already written, but in a manner that might be more easily shared with legislators and opinion leaders.
The federal government picked up the tab for a majority of airline payrolls during the pandemic, but that money runs out September 30. The argument initially was this would be a bridge to recovery, and it was important to keep workers attached to their airlines so they would be ready to support economic recovery once Covid-19 was over. Now we know, though, that the pandemic will have longer-lasting effects, airlines won’t need all of their employees again for several years, and they’ve already started to shrink their payrolls.
Sixteen Senate Republicans have signed onto a proposal for a second airline payroll bailout. The measure, which would give U.S. carriers a second $25 billion injection, likely has enough votes to pass – but that doesn’t mean it’ll be in the next coronavirus relief package.
The stock market response to the news shows this is really a subsidy for airline owners. Meanwhile the funding is unnecessary, too late, and too much money to address the stated desire to protect workers.
The two major Taiwanese airlines, Star Alliance member EVA Air and SkyTeam’s China Airlines, are running flights to nowhere in August. Both carrier’s flights instantly sold out.
New carrier Starlux Airlines has applied to start offering these flights as well.
Taiwan has been one of the real Covid-19 success stories. Part of the price of their early lockdown is that they’ve cut themselves off from the rest of the world for longer than most.
People get kicked off of planes for lots of reasons. Often alcohol is involved. Recently the refusal to wear a mask has been a point of conflict, but with months feeling like years now this reason seems ‘so July’.
Instead the most 2020 reason to get kicked off a plane is now wearing a mask that’s offensive.
Google is no stranger to financial services (GooglePay) and fundamentally checking accounts are about consumer data: how much do people earn (deposits, especially payroll deposits) and what exactly do they spend money on?
They’ve now taken the step of announcing digital bank accounts inside Google Pay along with eight banks.
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.
As long as the restructuring is approved, miles are safe – and it seems likely that creditors will approve because in the current environment the value of collateral is likely depressed and liquidation of the carrier isn’t likely to secure greater repayment. Put another way, you want to sell Heathrow slots when they’re worth more, not when they’re likely to secure their lowest prices in years.
Hertz reportedly has a system glitch that has been reporting some cars stolen even though they’ve been properly rented out. The customers that have rented the cars? They’ve been getting arrested. In a few cases they’ve faced guns drawn by police. Several customers have gone to prison.
As a general rule I’ve advised folks to hold off booking paid airfare unless it’s an incredible deal. Even with airlines offering ‘flexible rebooking’ policies, waiving ticket change fees, I’d rather have cash than an airfare credit. And it’s speculative when Americans will be able to travel to Europe again.
But here’s an incredible deal, and since it’s available not just this fall but through Winter 2021 some of you will want to consider it.
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 »
