It’s the regime uncertainty as much as restrictions themselves that are damaging to travel at the moment. It’s tough to buy a ticket when travel restrictions may change after you make your purchase. And it’s tough to fly when you may be forced to quarantine for two weeks at your additional expense after potential exposure to someone with the virus.
House Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) wrote to the TSA Administrator this week demanding the agency require people wear masks when going through security checkpoints.
The letter concludes that “a mask requirement is extremely important,” and it’s hard to disagree. The appropriate measure for members of Congress to take then is to pass such a requirement – there are four reasons why the TSA doing it on their own today would be illegal.
The Metropark Causeway Bay hotel, with its rooftop pool overlooking Victoria Harbor, has been one of Booking.com’s “top picks in Hong Kong.” Now in the words of one pro-democratic member of Hong Kong’s legislature, it’s “a visual and physical reminder that big brother is watching.”
Not since the conversion of the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh into a Saudi torture site has a hotel’s transformation from home away from home to instrument of the state so quickly. The Causeway Bay Metropark is now the Office for Safeguarding National Security – transformed in a day.
While you’re permitted to bring scissors, you need to handle them responsibly while inflight. That can pose surprising challenges. I present you with one example.
Airlines will be handing out quarantine forms for passengers to fill out when entering New York. Governor Cuomo also wants “a customs-like check-in at the airport” for domestic flights.
The forms will be used to enforce New York’s quarantine of arriving domestic passengers from states with “a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.”
Huge waves were created this week when United revealed that travel bookings have been falling off. Things are headed south, it appears, and they’re sending out possible furlough notices to 36,000 employees. But they aren’t really going to lay off 39% of their staff, for four reasons.
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.
When customers aren’t traveling, travel credit cards tend to fall to a lower position in consumer wallets. In normal times these are some of the most lucrative cards for issuers, appealing to high spending customers. In the current pandemic it takes work to keep them relevant.
Chase is especially exposed to the travel segment, and May 1 they began bonusing groceries on most of their annual fee card products. When you’re not spending much in the categories that your card normally bonuses, adding new relevant bonus categories can be done without raising costs for the issuer (they may try to award about the same number of bonus miles as before).
Hyatt is making a number of aggressive offers to bring business into their hotels, from rate discounts to added benefits on stays to bonus points. In addition to the promotion, discount and breakfast offers they’re currently running they’ve announced three new offers that run through October 8: up to a 25% rebate on award stays, free parking on award stays, and triple points on hotel dining when you’re not saying at the hotel.
United Airlines is bringing back Los Angeles – Sydney service starting September 10, three days a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It’s part of larger growth in their schedule that includes a return of Chicago – Hong Kong and starting up Chicago – Tel Aviv.
But there’s something really interesting about the Los Angeles – Sydney service.
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 »
