4 Hacks Ted Cruz Can Teach Us To Become Better Travelers

by Gary Leff

Ted Cruz flew to Cancun with his family on Wednesday. He says he was just taking accompanying his children down, but the ticket was booked to return Saturday and then changed to fly back Thursday after a rash of criticism for leaving the country while his home state found itself in the midst of a power and water meltdown during a weather event worse than anything in the state in over 30 years.

Though I’m at home in Austin with no power, I won’t focus on whether the state’s junior Senator should have left the country right now. That’s been well hashed out. For this post I’m more interested in the ways that his trip to Cancun can teach us all how to be better travelers.

There are 4 things Ted Cruz knows about travel that most people don’t.

  1. Last-minute dog sitters are easy to find even during the pandemic. Many people are concerned congregating indoors with people outside their household during the pandemic. But if you leave the dog, and a key, you can have a sitter come over without any close contact. Just have them leave before you get home, and open the windows (as long as you have heat).

  2. How to get instantaneous Covid-19 test results. Arriving in the U.S. by air requires a negative Covid-19 test within 3 days of travel. Senator Cruz did a simple overnight out of the U.S. and traveled back to the States, ergo he must have received a negative Covid-19 test. If Senator Cruz (or his staff) can figure out how to make that work, anyone can get a negative test.

  3. How to avoid CDC quarantine when returning to the U.S. The CDC recommends quarantining for 7 days with a negative Covid-19 test 3-5 days after travel. Compliance with this quarantine guidance is included in President Biden’s Executive Order on Covid-19.

    Perhaps Cruz, experienced litigation before the Supreme Court, would argue separation of powers exempts him from the President’s order (his arguments weren’t always winning ones). I’m not suggesting we can use that exact argument ourselves. But if we travel internationally and don’t quarantine ourselves when returning to the States, we can just say “I was following Ted Cruz’s example.”

  4. How to get a cheap airport concierge escort. Airlines will sell you personal escorts through the airport but it can be pricey. But you’re a taxpayer, police are public servants, and several of them are ststioned at airports. Just call them up and ask for special assistance, after all they work for you.

Ted Cruz’s MileagePlus elite upgrades may not clear, but he’s a traveler we can all learn from.

There is one area in which Cruz was an absolute fail as a traveler, though: for someone claiming to be taking just an overnight trip that’s an awful lot of luggage…

About Gary Leff

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 »

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  1. Very cute. #3 is guidance rather than an unenforceable mandate, so we can let that go. I agree about testing being possible though it will take a while for people to work the details out (maybe it will be about the time this requirement ends). Two weeks ago coming back from the Dominican Republic (a drive-through testing site had been set up in Punta Cana) the Sun Country flight was almost empty. The flight attendant told me there had been mass cancellations after the requirement was announced. So that’s #5: When you have a couple of rows to yourself social distancing is easy.

  2. Wow. Even for you, you’re even more agitated than usual over CNN’s latest “demonize a conservative” story. So hey, here’s a thought: start a blog and entitle it “View From the Left Wing” and feel free to regurgitate all the latest anti-conservative/republican MSNBC and CNN stories they purvey (that would be roughly 100% of their stories). That way you wouldn’t have to find an absurd/pathetic relation to “travel” in order to justify your regurgitation of all their stories. A little more freedom for you I would think. Of course your absurdly tangentially travel-related excuse for going with said stories aren’t really stopping you now so why bother? Am i right? Also you’d attract only the deranged left among your current audience to such a blog and yours would be just another unnoticed drop in the huge bucket of deranged left media out there so probably wouldn’t be worth the effort. So never mind and carry on. But I still think changing your blog title to “View From the Left Wing” would provide a little more “buyer/reader beware” honesty. Don’t you?
    And seriously, relax. Ted taking his kids on a trip won’t hurt you. You’ll be fine.

  4. “1 Hack Gary Left Can’t Teach Us About How to be a Better Travel Blogger”
    1: Leave your petty politics out of your “travel” posts.

  6. Hey, Ted was on a quick turn-around mileage run. We all done this in the past. Once two members of my family flew East Coast-LAX – STT and back with just 20 hrs in STT.

  10. 5. How to spend too much for a mullet haircut before going to a country where it could have been done for 90% cheaper

  13. Why hasn’t biden done more to help Texas during this emergency? the media is giving him a pass, as always. A Katrina in the making.

  14. Fun take on this but I don’t know what Ted Cruz could of done to do away with cold weather, snow or correct the green defects in the local power supply. I guess he’s to blame because he hates the planet and we couldn’t find a way to blame Trump? Weird.

  15. If Trump was still in office the libs would be blaming him for the Texas catastrophe. Of course Biden gets a pass. It must be all Cruz’s fault. Pathetic.

  16. 1. Beto seemed to find a way to help people. Its called Leadership
    2. Its Gary’s blog, its his state and his senator, and he can write whatever he wants. @Chris, @Jim etc can start their own blog and JUST GO AWAY from this one
    3. Once again its astonishing to think that some of the RWNJ commentators travel around the world ‘representing’ the US…

  17. Love how the Cruz supporting clowns are out in force. If a lib (as they call them) had done this they would have been screaming bloody murder.
    Gotta love these 2 cent per post trolls

  18. Considering what Cruz said about California: “California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity.”, maybe he should have spent some effort trying to help rather than running away from his state that’s unable to perform basic functions. Given his criteria, Texas could use the help.

  19. Why not post a travel hack on using your credit card dining credit at French Laundry or getting Amex concierge to help with a French Laundry booking – oh wait Gov Newsom went to FL during covid restricted indoor dining times for a lobbyist birthday so he didn’t worry about the check or reservations

    Both sides make bad decisions. Humans make bad decisions

  20. Let’s focus on the important stuff: did the Cruz family really plan to leave their dog home alone (in freezing weather conditions) from Wednesday to Sunday?
    Are they a monster family unconcerned about anyone but themselves?

  21. Ted needed the big suitcase to bring back the free bottle of Tequila that came with the room, because you can’t put that in carry-on.

  26. Regarding #3.
    Last week the cdc removed the requirement for individuals to quarantine after contact with individuals who are COVID-19 positive if you have received the second dose of the vaccine within 14-90 days. Lots of places have interpreted that to extend to international travel.

  27. Wow, Gary – you sure get a lot of wingnut whack-jobs responding to your posts! I especially love the one from @Chris who calls out “the deranged left” in as unhinged a rant as I’ve ever seen on a blog. Love the poorly-educated, just like their false idol TrumptyDumpty does. They’re sure good for a laugh!

  28. I agree w @Micharl F / Cruz needed to set a good example not fly off to warmer pastures during extreme Texas conditions. “Do as I say, not as I do. #absurd2021

  30. Senator Cruz makes an escape from Texas while his constituents were told to stay off the roads as much as possible? So he goes flying out instead after using the roads to get to the airport.

    Why do Cruz’s two daughters need both parents to fly with them to Mexico if it was just to drop them off, as insinuated by Cruz? Can’t just one parent do that job? Maybe Cruz’s Lord Trump can attack Cruz’s family again, but this time for something different than the previous times.

  31. @KL
    What more can Biden do? Why would the media give him a pass? Biden declared it a federal emergency… oh and just in case you have a total lack of history the president that you’re referring to during the Katrina crisis was Bush… a republican.
    @Jase
    Please enlighten us on what Biden is “getting a pass on” as far as his handling of the Texas crisis…

  33. And Gary doubles down on his trash story with another installment of his steaming pile of crap series on Ted Cruise that has nothing to do with air travel and everything to do with Gary’s quest to sell out journalistic ethics for profits at the expense of the public good!

  34. Enough with the nothingburger news concerning Cruz. He has no ability to change the weather or miraculously restore damaged critical infrastructure. Nobody is pleased that at least 50 people have died as a result of the severe winter weather in Texas, but Texas tragically has always had climate-related deaths, including 128 last year in the heat of summer. Of course that provides no comfort to those that have lost loved ones and one hopes that lessons learned this winter concerning cold weather’s impact on critical infrastructure may save future lives. From the historical record we know that severe winter weather in Texas is not a sign of Global Warming, but has happened as far back as the days leading up to the Battle of the Alamo when Santa Ana’s troops made their winter march from Mexico to San Antonio. Countless soldiers and at least 50 yoke of oxen (100 oxen) died from the severe South Texas winter weather of early February 1836. Later the cattle industry was all but wiped out in the Great Cattle Extinction caused by the severe winter weather of 1886-1887. Severe cold weather comes to Texas regularly. A simplification would be to say in roughly 20 and 50 year cycles. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) set guidelines, but not mandates, for utilities to perform winter readiness checks and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) does voluntary spot checks on about 15% of systems to be sure they are following best practices. Improvement is obviously needed and all three organizations will now focus on improving winter readiness to harden the Texas power grid.

  35. The comments here are some combination of hilarious and scary. Gary is a real left-winger! Lol. Check out his day job where he has dedicated his professional life to furthering “market” solutions and fundraising for Republican politicians. Gary’s adult life has been dedicated to the forces that actually caused this mess. He is on your side commenters! I know it can be hard to figure out bc he is teasing someone with “your” letter next to their name.

    I am guessing Gary has been personally affected by this, which has caused the negativity toward Cruz. Or maybe he is just chasing those clicks as a good market actor would. In any case, good thing Texas didn’t allow any of those pesky regulations to get in the way of their FREEDOMS.

  36. If you read all of Gary’s posts, not just this one, you’d be more likely to conclude that he’s a conservative instead of a liberal. He’s just making fun of a stupid politician and as Cuomo, Newsom, Cruz, and Graham prove, being stupid is truly bipartisan.

  37. I love these troll posts, Gary.

    It never fails to rile up the so-called conservatives, which makes for a hilarious scroll through the comment section. And I’m sure it adds to your site view numbers, a fact they never seem to catch on to. 🙂

    Have a great day, Gary. Hope you can stay safe & warm.

  38. Will the last one out of Texas please turn off the lights. Never mind. The lights have been off for last four days.

  39. Classic! Ted always puts America first, eh? I mean if he was going to abandon his constituents why didn’t he just go to South Florida. It was 85 degrees and keeps his money in the USA. fLyin’ Ted Cruz

  40. Chris You say this blog would only attract the deranged liberal group. So is that why you are reading and commenting on this item? Or maybe a deranged trumper group.

  41. Why shouldn’t Cruz go to Cancun? After all the Biden administration’s political philosophy is Mexico and Central America First.

    Also, love all the celebrity drunkards and drug addicts like Stephen King proclaiming God is paying back Texas for voting for red politicians. They said the same after the flooding during Hurricane Harvey. Then within a short time frame Mexico got hit by a devastating earthquake and a couple of hurricanes. I wonder what Stephen thinks Mexico did to make God hate them so much? Better he could just lay off the booze and stop making such idiotic statements.

  42. Ehmmm… How do you keep posting without power???

    I totally agree with your comments, Gary. I may even try some of the hacks myself.

    Lousy weather notwithstanding, we can now bring the world back to almost normal. It is totally up to us. If we all get the vaccine, COVID will be gone by summer. The Coronavirus is too stupid to mutate if it cannot live anywhere. GET THE VACCINE!!

  44. 1. Biden HAS sent aid to Texas, in contrast to Trump’s position on California.
    2. No, no-one would have (or is) blaming Trump for the disaster; the blame lies on Texas’s series of Republican governors, who disconnected and deregulated the Texas energy grid. Choosing not to winterize in order to save money was the proximate cause.
    3. Look at Beto O’Rourke for one example of what Ted Cruz could have and should have been doing. Not to mention Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who isn’t even from Texas.

  45. If any of you people commenting and giving Gary slack do not live in Texas – we’d appreciate your sitting down and shutting it – and stay in your lane – which it to have no say on this topic.

    You are sitting in your nice warm home, with internet you can use to flame this writer right? I expect you actually have food in your fridge that isn’t spoiled? Do you have running water? Is it hot? Or is it pouring through your walls with no way to stop it?? We are deep in it here in Texas and IT IS BAD.

    You have NO IDEA the intensity of disaster we are dealing with here and we have every right to give this useless representative of the people of Texas a hard time. Sit this one out.

  46. Poor Texas. Though Ted did deserve a vacation after spending 2 months trying to overthrow our election. Maybe there could be a one way door for him thru his beloved border wall.

  47. Ha! Clever post Gary, well done! Ignore the MAGA fools in the comments, they’re snowflakes who can’t see what’s in front of their faces.

  48. To all you idiots who think that the problems in Texas are a political matter that you can win by being a Hipocrat or a Republiscum, you are 100% wrong as usual. I know that you like to ruin this country by defending your own side of the fence when the fence it’s self is everyone’s real problem, but the fault of the issues going on in Texas sits with the Electrical Board and it’s Inspectors for not ensuring that the state’s electrical code protects it’s infrastructure against “The Cold”. Thank goodness that our electrical safety code is not a political issue and doe not rest with simpletons like you or our politicians or we would all be dead or back in the stone age.

    Now that that is cleared up, maybe the rest of you can pull your heads out and stop bringing your totally unrelated political childishness into an issue that has NOTHING to do with it….just like Gary Leff should learn how to write travel articles on a travel blog and stop bringing in totally unrelated political issues in his desperate attempt to be taken seriously by the main stream media that he obviously idolizes so much.

  49. So many triggered Conservtards(aka insurrectionists) in this thread. Instant Karma for self fellating “free market” Texass. And then this funeral director/game show host gets busted for literally not giving a ‘flying fudge”. This story is delicious on so many levels. Right wing fantasy land nonsense being shredded for the empty, self serving horse manure that it is. Poetic justice.

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