The U.S. move to welcome vaccinated visitors is being viewed mostly as an ‘opening up’ because it means the end to the ban on travelers who’ve been in China, Iran, the European Schengen area, U.K. and Ireland, Brazil, South Africa or India in the prior 14 days.
However it’s also a closing down for travelers who have been vaccinated – just not with a vaccine on the approved list.
Senator Chuck Schumer good-naturedly quips that the most dangerous place in Washington D.C. is between himself and a TV camera.
However it looks like Schumer has a West Coast competitor in California Attorney General Rob Bonta who has rushed to join the Justice Department’s lawsuit against American Airlines and JetBlue over its Northeast alliance which covers Boston and New York, because reasons.
American Airlines was reluctant to fly to India for years (after dropping its own Chicago – Delhi service) in part because they lacked a partner in the country. After losing its partnership with Jet Airways to Delta, it had no way good way to feed traffic to and from whatever city it flew to.
Now their entire strategy of relying primarily on a limit set of partners has changed, and they’ve acquired a new partner in India to add connectivity for both of the new routes American plans to launch there this year.
The Taliban brought in Turkey and Qatar to run the Kabul airport.
Now they’re looking for scheduled commercial air service.
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 I was a kid growing up in New York, baggage claim checks were required when leaving the airport with your luggage. I used to only see this at New York-area airports. I helped prevent people from picking up the wrong bag, and also prevent someone from intentionally taking a bag that didn’t belong to them. I haven’t seen that process in a U.S. airport in many years, and of course New York isn’t the city that it used to be when Ed Koch was mayor where this really was necessary.
Maybe that would have stopped two men who have been charged with stealing over $550,000 from U.S. airlines by making false lost luggage claims since 2015.
On Thursday and Friday New York City executed an operation to seize vehicles being rented out as lodging on Airbnb. The vans were often advertised for around $100, lacked bathroom or shower facilities, and racked up tickets for being illegally parked. Guests would receive keys to get into the vans for sleeping, but those keys didn’t start the engines. The law enforcement operation was dubbed “Operation Room Service.”
Thailand will welcome vaccinated visitors to 9 regions without quarantine starting November 1. This includes Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phangnga, Krabi, Hua Hin, Pattaya, and Cha-am in addition to already-open Phuket and Samui.
U.S. residents who are airline elite frequent flyers can get free Air Canada Aeroplan elite status for the rest of 2021, and keep that status for the 2022 program with by booking and flying just one roundtrip on Air Canada (or Air Canada Express or Rouge) by January 15, 2022.
This is huge for anyone with elite status and transferable credit card points, or anyone who also flies United.
Singapore Airlines will re-start it’s ‘fifth-freedom’ routes between New York and Frankfurt, and between San Francisco and Hong Kong, which each flight continuing on to Singapore. These flights will return beginning November 2. This will mean bringing the airline up to about two-thirds of its pre-Covid U.S. flying, and the airline has re-iterated its plan to restart other U.S. services including Seattle – Singapore non-stop and Houston – Manchester – Singapore as well.
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 »
