Commentary

Category Archives for Commentary.

“Bleisure” Travel Used To Be A Hopeful Myth. The Pandemic Made It Real.

by Gary Leff on April 22, 2022

Apr 22 2022

“Bleisure” is one of the most cringe-worthy words in travel. Journalists have been doing ‘trend pieces’ on business travelers extending their trips and adding leisure days, perhaps with family, and hotels chains started getting excited about selling extra room nights (and offering the ability to combine points stays and paid nights in a single reservation).

Only it never really took over beyond a certain threshold, no matter how much people in the industry talked it up at conferences. Maybe, though, all it took was a pandemic.

Company Selling Covid Tests Demands Testing Rule For Flights to US Remain In Force

by Gary Leff on April 17, 2022

Apr 17 2022

Emed sells proctored Covid-19 tests for travel to the U.S. at 6 for $150 plus shipping. Unsurprisingly, they believe that a requirement for passengers to test prior to flying to the U.S. needs to remain in place.

30 Years Of Open Skies – How U.S. Diplomacy Changed World Air Travel For The Better

by Gary Leff on March 31, 2022

Mar 31 2022

Open Skies became the official policy of the United States thirty years ago. On March 31, 1992, then-Transportation Secretary Andrew Card announced that the U.S. would pursue agreements with Europen countries that would, in turn, allow free access to their aviation markets.

Since then the U.S. has entered into agreements with 120 countries to allow airlines based in those countries to fly here, and giving U.S. airlines the opportunity to operate to each foreign country. This was visionary, it was great policy, and it was politically risky because protectionism almost always polls better.

U.S. Senate Unanimously Votes To End Changing Clocks Twice A Year

by Gary Leff on March 16, 2022

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.

What We Can Say Now About The Future Of Business Travel After The Pandemic

by Gary Leff on February 27, 2022

Feb 27 2022

This 1990 United Airlines commercial really nailed why business travel will return in some form, how a ‘phone call and a fax’ doesn’t replace face-to-face business meetings. And yet business travel will be forever changed.

There are trips that used to happen that won’t, trips that do happen with fewer people on them, and the trips that happen won’t happen on the same days or necessarily for as long.

Lifting All Pandemic Restrictions Makes Sense In Most Places, That’s Not “Let ‘Er Rip”

by Gary Leff on February 24, 2022

Feb 24 2022

Iceland has become the latest of many countries to remove pandemic-era restrictions. One Mile at a Time says they’re “encourag[ing] people to get infected.”

I don’t think that’s right, and lifting restrictions isn’t a “let ‘er rip” strategy as some have argued, either. It’s simply that the condition that made restrictions make sense early in the pandemic are no longer in effect today.

Your Chance To Pick The Best Loyalty Programs Of The Year

by Gary Leff on February 23, 2022

Feb 23 2022

This your chance to have your say on which frequent flyer programs are best.

There are awards where a panel of experts gets together to give out an award based on their own opinion. There are awards where companies pay sponsorship fees and keep winning their sponsored award. And then there’s the oldest and largest consumer-driven awards in airline, hotel and credit card loyalty: the Freddie Awards.

California Announces They’re Regulating Travel Loyalty Programs

by Gary Leff on February 6, 2022

Feb 06 2022

The State of California is putting loyalty programs on notice that provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act dealing with ‘financial incentives’ apply to them, and they’re being given 30 days to come into compliance with the law.

Nationalist Writer Goes After United Airlines For Offering… Too Much Comfort

by Gary Leff on December 27, 2021

Dec 27 2021

British writer Raheem Kassam is the kind of conservative who hates business and free markets, preferring to ‘own the libs’ and take control of government to enforce the values he prefers. He’s hosted a podcast with Steve Bannon, ran Breitbart News London and when he ran for leader of pro-Brexit UK party UKIP he supported lifting their ban on white nationalist parties. He’s also anti-vaccine.

And now he’s going after United Airlines for offering more comfortable seats. Has 2021 finally lost it?

All Travel Is Up In The Air Right Now, Only Spend Miles And Book Cancellable Trips

by Gary Leff on December 20, 2021

Dec 20 2021

I continue to travel, and I continue to make travel plans. But I’m doing the best I can to use miles whenever possible, and book cancellable itineraries. The next couple of months couple be touch and go. I’m not making a prediction of what happens, but I live my life on probabilities and make the best decisions I can given the knowledge I have at the moment. And right now I’m giving myself as much optionality as possible.

What I’m really saying is that many people seemed to have calmed after the initial scare over Thanksgiving about the Omicron variant, and I don’t think we’re really internalizing what the next couple of months could (not will) look like.