The federal transportation mask mandate should have been lifted, or allowed to expire March 18. However it was extended – for just one month. And the broad expectation is that it will end in mid-April, as part of the administration declaring victory on Covid-19. There’s a strong political reason to do so before the mid-term elections. And it makes good sense, too.
But one thing could still change this.
Any advocate for testing travelers entering the United States needs to articulate what benefit the testing provides now, why it’s enough of a benefit to justify the restriction, and what condition needs to exist to remove the rule. No one has even tried to do that, because the testing rule isn’t about protecting the country from Covid-19 (it cannot do that) it’s about optics.
A reader made a points advance reservation at the Sheraton Kauai 34 days prior to check-in. They were quoted 200,000 points for a 5 night stay. They transferred points into their account, and more points were earned so that there were a total of 234,000 in their account. They were confident everything was in place.
However 11 days prior to check-in they receive a notice that their booking would be cancelled if they didn’t move more points into the account. They weren’t told how many they needed, and Marriott cancelled their Hawaii vacation.
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A man in the airport spotted a woman near his gate area and decided he wanted to approach her. What’s the modern and non-creepy way to do that with someone you’ve never met? He decided to send over his robot suitcase to do it, rather than walking up.
What I always hated most about winter was how early it got dark. It would be dark before I left work in the evening. Work from home solved that for me long before it did for most other people but I still hated changing the clocks.
Airlines hate it even more, because of how it messes with their schedules.
Much like in the U.S., Dutch mask mandates are falling away everywhere… except on airlines and in airports. So four Dutch airlines led by KLM have decided this is so stupid, they’re just going to stop enforcing it starting March 23.
British Airways, meanwhile, announced an end to their mask mandate – but reportedly has told crew the rule remains in place definitely anyway.
The federal transportation mask mandate was extended through April 18 for no good reason, other than political fear from the Biden administration (that some new variant would come along) and political opportunism (they weren’t yet ready to declare victory and removing the ban will be useful as part of that).
The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate has now voted 57-40 to overturn the transportation mask mandate. Here’s what to expect,
I’ve never realized that Marriott Bonvoy has a set of ‘supplemental’ terms and conditions and that benefits are completely different at all-inclusive properties. In typical Marriott fashion they’re complicated, because they do not apply to all all-inclusives. Instead these ‘special’ terms apply to new all-inclusives that are not part of a legacy brand, and not to Westins and Marriotts et al that happen to be all-inclusive.
Outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker spoke at the JP Morgan Industrials Conference today and suggested that since he’s leaving and won’t be responsible for results after this quarter, he shouldn’t talk about American’s future forecasts. Instead he talked about the airline industry – and revealed something about his own investing in competitor stocks.
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 »
