Category Archives for Commentary.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 It’s simply that the condition that made restrictions make sense early in the pandemic are no longer in effect today.
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.
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.
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?
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.
There’s good reason to think that Omicron spreads more rapidly than previous versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. That would be both because of inherent transmissibility and because of greater likelihood of breakthrough infections for those that have had Covid-19 before as well as those fully vaccinated (and even boosted) against it, though boosters do appear to provide greater protection than mere vaccination.
With Omicron appearing headed towards dominance in parts of Europe, outcompeting Delta, and with cases rising rapidly we are facing a conundrum.
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 »
