News and notes from around the interweb:
- Sara Nelson’s AFA-CWA flight attendants union wants airlines to start screening passengers for hantavirus symptoms and recommends masking.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA)…made the demand… “Prior to travel, airlines should notify passengers that if they have had contact with either rodents or symptomatic people within the past 45 days, they must not fly but can rebook their travel for a later date without penalty,” the union said in a statement.
“Ticket/gate agents should ask all passengers the same questions upon check-in and make an announcement in the boarding area. If a passenger answers in the affirmative, then they should not be boarded to reduce the risk of disease spread onboard.”
The statement added: “Wearing a surgical or N-95 mask will mitigate the risk of inhalation exposure. Airlines should make masks available to flight attendants and to any passenger who becomes symptomatic during a flight.”
Meanwhile, as of this writing betting markets give less than a 10% chance of a hantavirus pandemic in 2026.
- Amsterdam Bans Airline Ads As Flying Becomes The New Smoking it’s immoral to advertise flying, because it’s bad for the environment.
Meanwhile, each country in Europe insists on keeping its own separate air traffic control provider rather than a single European sky, which leads to inefficient airline routings that increase fuel burn 9% – 11%.
That’s low hanging fruit that would actually reduce fossil fuel use, but national desire to control the revenue streams and controller labor union resistance lock in the inefficiencies. Banning airline ads while EU nation policies drive up airline fossil fuel burn tells you these are not serious people.
- Southwest Airlines had already devalued Rapid Rewards points 43% in twelve years before eliminating fixed value for points last year. Since then, the value of points has dropped 27%. Don’t not earn Southwest points when you fly Southwest but there’s very little reason to engage the program beyond Companion Pass at this point.
- Bank of America surveying Alaska Airlines business card changes mostly expect a higher annual fee.
- Potential class action lawsuit against Capital One for cancelling points when closing accounts
- TIL Mister Softee still exists (such an unfortunate name, but I loved these trucks as a kid).
- A love letter to economy class
- An FAA NOTAM restricting airline flights from airspace wasn’t a specifically listed reason for coverage. Traveler struggles to get refund for cruise after being forced to miss flight due to U.S. military abducting Maduro from Venezuela.
The main value of Southwest points vs. cash booking is that you avoid funds expiration. Points plus cash bookings have the benefit of earning elite qualification trip credit. That said, points are losing value faster than cash, so I recommend booking with points until you use them up. Book with cash if you need trip credit or if you are sure you will use that ticket.
People should wear masks on flights but the target disease is Covid, not hantavirus. Why ruin your vacation with Covid. I know 2 people that went to Europe that got Covid on the way there. One went to London, the other to Vienna.
@derek – so they basically got a respiratory disease like the flu. Big deal. I frankly don’t care if I got it (have had it 2-3 times with minimal impact) and would continue my trip regardless. Don’t get me wrong I get a booster shot every 6-9 months and before any major trip but also am not about to wear a mask or cancel my trip regardless of what happens.
But of course. No mask, no jab and somehow at age 67 I’m still alive.
Ahhh. Sara Nelson. The narcissistic president of the “Hey…YOU PAY MY SALARY” union. She’s the gift that keeps on taking…from paychecks. “Hey…didn’t you hear me…you pay my salary.” I wonder if she ever was a real flight attendant? If so, I’m guessing she was fired or quit because…”HEY…LOOK AT ME…YOU PAY MY SALARY. HEY bad press is better than no press. HEY…ME.
TRAILER TRASH
Retired gambler: “ booster shot every 6-9 month”..” have had it 2-3 time”
Wow, those vaccines must really work
Good grief
Combining Europe’s air traffic system would require some for of privatization. Some entities should never be privatized, e.g. prisons and regulatory agencies of which ATC is part of one.
So…the flu and other respiratory illnesses kill hundreds of thousands of people annually and no big deal. Hantavirus (which kills <10K across the globe annually) show us and the FA union is in a blind panic.
Settle down, kids.
@WileyDog – do you believe that canada made a mistake turning over navcanada to a stakeholder nonprofit? their tech is certainly better than in the u.s… natca, the controllers union, even supported a similar effort here. the only real opponents were private pilots, who were afraid they might have to start paying their cost (taxes on fuel doesn’t cover it)
regardless, any european government efforts on aviation emissions is pure grandstanding as long as their own dysfunction is driving a ~ 10% increase in fuel burn
Sara Nelson.
The mouth that won’t shut up and with nothing ever intelligent coming out of it.
FACT.
The #1 reason we won’t go with AFA at Delta is because of Sara Nelson. Period.
Devils like Sara Nelson are why Trump got elected. If you don’t want another Trump, you should never give power to people like Sara Nelson.
Sara Nelson.
The mouth that won’t shut up and with nothing intelligent ever coming out of it.
FACT:
The #1 reason we won’t go with AFA at Delta is because of Sara Nelson. Period.
So if you have any contact with rodents you can’t fly? That eliminates almost everyone from NYC and Boston from flying — When I lived in Boston, we would regularly run across rats the size of cats in the Back Bay.
Does this include Disney trips?
There need not be a pandemic for people to get sick. Those who were on the cruise died or left very ill. I got COVID after lockdown because people didn’t mask at my spouse’s workplace and sometimes wearing a mask isn’t possible – like in a mandatory “team building”. NO one wants Long COVID or any other illness for which there is prevention. Flight Attendants do put their lives on the line with rude passengers, and for viruses. C’mon. This is pretty simple stuff.
Love this. Not because I like unions, or because masks can be helpful, but mostly because even the thought of this will enrage red-hats.
For real, we’re not gonna do anything about hanta or any pandemic under this administration. We defunded CDC, got out of WHO, and basically fired all the scientists and doctors. Just loyalists and grifters. Time to start selling them horse paste.
Pizza rat will be so upset. It’s the dust and the dirt
I’m sure Gene and 1990 are out buying masks right now so they don’t get sick from the rat virus.
Hurry back and virtue signal us…
did we learn nothing from the now obvious useless and dangerous measure to protect from the coronavirus? seems not.
@ANAL — You know it! Gonna hoard them all to myself. Bah!
Thankfully with this administration we’ll never see any type of mask mandate on airlines. In fact didn’t they pass a law or something saying masks could NOT be required anywhere? If not, hope they do quickly. The judge who ended the airline mask mandate in 2022 deseves a medal of freedom. If the CDC hadn’t just needed “2 more weeks” to study the “data” and ended the nonsense in 2021, we might not have the backlash against public health we do today. For the record I’m not against public health and think it’s awful what’s happened to our agencies. But you don’t tell me what to put on my face.
The cruise would not have been missed if a simple precaution had been made. The passenger should have gone a day earlier but since it was not from a mainland USA port, two days would have been a better precaution. The closure of the airspace was about 24 hours. Cruise ships should put this suggestion in their advertisements.
The hantavirus is not a pandemic, AFAIK. According to the CDC and other sources, there’s only one strain (Andes) that can be spread person to person and even then it’s very rare and requires prolonged contact with bodily fluids. Nothing anywhere near COVID/Flu/Common cold in terms of communicability. Although this is the strain that was on the cruise ship. And it also takes a while to show symptoms (range was like 1-8 weeks)
https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/situation-summary/index.html
and
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/health/hantavirus-outbreak-mv-hondius-cruise-ship-who-expert-explains/6499020/
But let’s scare everyone and require mandatory masking, travel bans, etc.
When one analyzes the percentages, the chances of contracting the hantavirus is slim. Now, as my Dad would say, “Well, if it happens to you, the chances were 100%.” If one looks at the COVID data, approximately 7 million people died from COVID. Even 1 death is sad. With a population of about 8 billion people, the 7 million amounts to about 0.0875%…in other words…SLIM TO NONE. Now, compare it to the Spanish flu from 1918-1920 where there were about 50-100 MILLION deaths. Taking the population of the world at that time (1.85 billion). and, taking the median of 75 million deaths, the percentage of deaths was 4.05%! As we now know, masks were of no value in preventing COVID infections! Again, one death is too many but, in the words of William Shakespeare, “Much ado about nothing”.
“Retired gambler: “ booster shot every 6-9 month”..” have had it 2-3 time”
Wow, those vaccines must really work”
You’re showing your lack of knowledge. Some vaccines are very good to spectacular in preventing you from getting sick. Covid is an ever changing beast. Nobody with knowledge of the matter ever claimed any version of the vaccine would prevent all infections. In some cases it might just lessen the effect. The data is clear: Covid vaccination leads to fewer cases and less severe cases.
Please stay six feet apart also.
@G19JHP — Not enough. Let’s do 12 feet this time.
@ Gary. I will take your word for it that Canada’s private ATC system is better than the FAA. Now level the playing field…Canada has approximately 1.5 million movements annually verses USA having 10 million. Considering the workload, I’d say the FAA does a very good job working with what they have.
@One Trippe – you forget that NavCanada handles all traffic over the North Atlantic, too!
Covid, the ever changing beast, US design and Chinese manufacture.
Unless Gary is a pilot with experience, then his opinion means nothing about a better ATC system. Flying, whether general aviation (GA) or Part 121 air carrier, the United States air traffic control is one of the best. GA pays for the use of ATC through a pretty hefty fuel tax. The airlines pay through the various fees imposed upon each flight…that the passenger pays for. The problem is…CONGRESS. The Canadian system charges for EVERYTHING…each take off, each landing, each flight plan by segments (VFR or IFR), each touch and go..you name it. Thus, general aviation growth, for instance, is stunted due to the exorbitant prices. The US ATC system would be great IF CONGRESS (both parties are guilty!!) would fully allocate the funds collected by GA and the airlines to the FAA as it was intended!
@Airbus CFI – those fuel taxes don’t cover the cost of ATC, and that $12 billion in modernization contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn’t covered by ticket taxes either.
In 2017 the major airlines were on board with covering the full cost of spinoff of ATC, with general aviation not picking up any new expenses. But AOPA lobbied hard and convinced its members that it was the camel’s nose under the tent and they’d be charged later. They should be!
You can’t claim the system is fully funded by users on the one hand, and also that the problem is Congress isn’t spending enough. That makes no sense.