Flights have diverted when passengers spent too long in the lavatory, or left their electronic devices behind there. But passengers don’t usually spend the bulk of the flight inside except when airlines take off with more passegners than seats.
One woman though spent 5 hours in the lavatory of her Icelandair flight because she tested herself for Covid while in the air, found she was positive, and was determined not to expose other passengers to the virus.
IHG is converting expiring credit card free nights to 25,000 points if you call and ask. If you do not call, you get nothing for certificates set to sunset after December 31, 2021.
Congratulations to everyone who got in on this deal. It’s hard to overstate just how incredible this offer was. And kudos to American Airlines and Mastercard for honoring the offer made to customers even if it might have been considered “too good to be true.”
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.
Indoor congregant settings are where the virus spreads most easily. Cruise ships require very high rates of vaccination in order to sail. They’re likely safer than spending time indoors at restaurants, bars and gyms or attending indoor concerts and sporting events. But they’re going to have Covid-19 cases because breakthrough infections are real, and they’re looking for cases.
It’s not the health risk you should be worried about, it’s whether you’ll be able to visit the ports on your itinerary, whether you’ll be quarantined in your room, and whether you’ll be allowed to disembark and return home as-planned.
Hilton and Marriott have extended expiring free night certificates. Hyatt has not. They’ve even said they’ll begin expiring points again December 31st. However they’ve quietly gotten much more generous in offering points for expiring awards, and in some cases even extending them on asking.
There’s even a surprise of points for top tier elites.
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.
American Airlines flight AA2578 from San Diego to Miami last night appears to be just the sort of flight that I had in mind, where a flight attendant went to lengths to try to show up – as incentivized by premium holiday pay – even when they were too sick to fly.
I’m told that one of the flight attendants was sick but went to the airport anyway, intending to fly, but called in sick once they’d arrived. There’s a second hand suggestion that the crewmember had Covid symptoms, but this isn’t necessary for the point. The flight wound up cancelling and the remaining crew – two pilots and three flight attendants – operated the aircraft to Miami without passengers as American Airlines AA9782.
Last week Emirates flight EK-231 from Dubai to Washington Dulles “was accelerating for takeoff from Dubai’s runway 30R when the aircraft rotated for takeoff past the end of the runway” and the Boeing 777-300 (registration A6-EQI) continued anyway – all the way to DC. It even flew back to Dubai as scheduled, but the aircraft was then grounded for four days after it returned. The FAA is investigating.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been making the rounds on public affairs programs for several days talking up vaccination requirements for domestic travel. He emphasizes in each case that it makes sense for international travel to keep virus cases out of the country (but unvaccinated Americans are allowed to return, and the virus is already spreading here rapidly).
Fauci then goes on to suggest that a domestic vaccine travel requirement would make sense, not to ‘keep the virus out’, but to serve as an incentive to get vaccinated. In addition to being legally questionable, it may wind up having the opposite effect Fauci hopes.
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 »
