News and notes from around the interweb:
- Austin’s airport is bringing back live (instrumental) music ‘with precautions’ like masks on musicians “to provide passengers with local entertainment while in the terminal, and to continue providing paid gigs for the Austin creative community during a challenging time.” I’m not really in favor, though, of pumping extra respiratory droplets – perhaps aerosolized by instruments – into the terminal. Meanwhile many concessions have re-opened or are re-opening in the next couple of weeks (.pdf).
- I’m not sure how I missed this story a week and a half ago, but China made a move to harass Taiwanese air traffic. Hong Kong’s air traffic control refused permission for a Taiwanese plane to enter its airspace enroute to a Taiwanese island in the South China Sea. No NOTAM had been issued but Hong Kong ATC declared an aircraft which couldn’t fly above 26,000 feet was in ‘too much danger’ at altitudes of 26,000 feet or below.
- Clint Henderson does a nice job compiling a list of countries accepting Americans in many cases requiring quarantine or testing to visit. The pendant in me takes issue with including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the list, though Henderson acknowledges this as a conscious decision.
- Chase is giving 20% statement credits back on Chick-fil-A purchases, up to $30 via Chase offers. And if you aren’t traveling now the dispute over whether to allow Chick-fil-As in airports won’t even matter!
- How close are we to having planes with glass ceilings? The first major investor in Southwest Airlines, who joined its board, wanted the new carrier to buy Boeing 707s and put in skylights to that passengers could look up to the heavens.
- MedJet Assist covers Covid-19 medical evacuation with limited geographic region. (HT: Reid F.)
- Thai Airways isn’t flying much, so it’s turning life vests into bags they can sell
The pedant in me makes me wonder why you ate jewelry
I’m not sure South Korea/Ireland/UK belongs on a list that “welcomes” tourists. “Long-stay forced-quarantine” isn’t exactly a “welcome mat.”
Jason, from the context, we all knew what he meant thought he autocorrect had other ideas.
Note that Brazil no longer requires US visitors to have health insurance. This changed earlier in the month. Many sites have not updated with that yet, but it’s disappointing that TPG says it has been updated when it is not. I use this site to check which countries are open: https://bringbacktravel.com/ Then I go to websites from there to see up-to-date requirements, which is one of the ways I learned about Brazil. I am going to Brazil, so I made it my business to find out. Of course, I am carrying health coverage anyway, but it is no longer mandatory to enter the nation.
Here’s the direct link. https://br.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/
Gary really shouldn’t express any pedantic sentiments he might have given his track record on copy editing.
@Andrew
The UK’s quarantine enforcement is much laxer than South Korea’s. I’ve passed through a couple times since it was imposed and have not been contacted once by any administrative authority and border controls were quick and easy at the e-gates. No need for Registered Traveller (the UK analog to Global Entry) anymore; the e-gates are better than Global Entry in some cases as you don’t have to interact with any officers at all and the lines can be shorter than with Global Entry. On my last flight I overheard an American couple telling a flight attendant that they were flying to London to celebrate their wedding anniversary, so apparently they found the UK’s policy welcoming enough.
The US added half a million covid cases in one week. Maybe people should not be travelling right now. Some of those countries don’t even have the necessary hospital systems to deal with major outbreaks.
@ Bill
Cases are increasing, which one would expect when testing more and more people. Deaths per infected person are decreasing. As are hospitalizations. At least in England where I am currently.
That list is so badly wrong that it is almost funny.
Off the top of my head, the list has left out at least 10 countries where American tourists are welcome right now with pretty much just a PCR test.
Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Gabon – just to name ten.
@ cargocult – thanks, I saw the fines and policy and assumed that their government would capitalize on that potential. Apparently not. 🙂
Why promote the chicken deal. Terrible company. You are giving them free advertising
It’s one thing to take your chances on flying domestically. If you get sick, you go to an American hospital and your health insurance would likely cover it.
If you get Covid while abroad – you have to stay wherever you are. No travelling back to the US with fever or a positive test. And, if you need hospitalization, your insurance might not cover it.
@Airfarer The case number is NOT increasing in the US because of the number of tests. Even the top doctors in Trump’s administration are saying that this increase is not because there are additional tests. The only person that pushes that lie is Trump and his political campaign. The medical personnel that work for him are saying that is not true. In some states they aren’t even testing enough.