Category Archives for Airlines.
President Biden is set to extend the federal transportation mask mandate out to January 18, 2022.
Even when the CDC lifted its guidance that vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors, the mask mandate for air travel which is generally considered safer than most other indoor congregant settings remained. When the CDC again recommended indoor masking, it seemed clear that the requirement for air travel would remain in place.
Laying out what an endemic Covid-19 future looks like, President Biden’s former White House Sr Advisor for COVID Response suggests that a federal transportation mandate should become permanent.
According to recent polling a vaccination requirement to fly on a plane enjoys broad support from Americans. This is true regardless of political party, age, or income. It’s also true of all races and regions of the country.
Overall support is 2-1, with 64% of respondents approving of vaccine passports for air travel, which is greater than the support for such a requirement to attend concerns or sporting events.
United Airlines, which claims its de-escalation procedures have led to a 50% reduction in passenger incidents, has sent a memo to flight attendants reminding them that they are never to duct tape passengers to their seats.
Rachelle Hunt of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra tried to bring her violin onto United Airlines flight UA4349 operated by CommutAir from Knoxville to Washington Dulles. However a flight attendant on the ERJ-145 aircraft declared this wasn’t permitted.
The flight attendant declared the passenger kept “on saying federal law” but at United “we don’t go with the federal law.”
A vaccine requirement for interstate travel has been discussed inside the Biden administration, but they’re not ready to pull the trigger.
United Airlines recovered from the PR hit that followed passenger David Dao being dragged off of one of their flights and being beaten, and the carrier’s CEO apologizing for this incident inconvenience other passengers. Spirit is better positioned with its customer base than United was to move forward.
My guess is that people choose to fly based on schedule and price and on operational reliability, and that it’ll be a limited number of people at the margin who choose based on a vaccine mandate. Am I wrong?
Six weeks ago I wrote that recovery in travel could be expected to stall out in the fall. With TSA checkpoint numbers stalled, and air travel credit card spend declining, even before school comes back and businesses delay office re-opening it appears the Delta variant is putting a pause on continued air travel recovery.
EU261 is supposed to provide compensation to passengers for flight cancellations and extreme delays. Instead these passengers delayed by Finnair wound up with a judgment against them after the company they used to pursue their claims went bankrupt and the carrier pursued reimbursement of its legal expenses.
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 »
