Category Archives for Commentary.
The last Director of National Intelligence says there “quite a few” incidents that are “difficult to explain” incidents “exceed[ing] the sound barrier without a sonic boom.” And in some cases “we don’t have good explanations” for what we’ve seen “all over the world.” Many haven’t been made public before.
Vaccines approved so far in the United States have been highly effective not just against preventing symptomatic infection but more importantly against severe Covid leading to hospitalization and death, and also – we are learning – against asymptomatic infection which means vaccination cuts down on spread of the disease. We just do not know how long this protection lasts because not enough time has passed yet to make this determination.
That’s a problem for policymakers as they consider whether to open up travel without testing or quarantine to those who have been vaccinated., so we don’t know how long ‘vaccine passports’ should be valid.
The CDC tried to revise its guidelines for travel based on the science, but they were blocked by the Biden administration from doing so. CDC guidance still remains not to travel.
But the science tells us something different. Here’s what we know. Tell me you disagree.
The CDC’s new guidelines for people that have been fully vaccinated do not allow for travel. They were going to change that, but the section of their guidance document that would have done so was removed after intervention by the Biden administration.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Monday, “Every time there’s a surge in travel, we have a surge in cases in this country.” But this isn’t actually true, and it misses the point completely.
His FAA has asked its Drone Advisory Committee for “recommendations on how it might use more gender-neutral language” eliminating words like ‘unmanned aircraft’ and ‘airman’. The head of the FAA’s drone integration office wants to see “the adoption of gender-neutral language…in aviation generally.”
And the FAA plans to look at updating language throughout existing regulations to scrub gendered words.
There’s so much pent up demand for travel thanks to the pandemic that 38% of Americans would be willing to give up sex for a year to travel freely.
At first blush it seems like ‘giving up sex for a year’ is a high price to pay for travel, but it may not be.
I’m so thankful for so much in the face of the last year. I’ve been able to grow closer with my family, even as I’ve given up so much international travel. Hopefully there are some things that we’ve learned in the last year that can continue to make travel and other parts of life even better.
One Mile at a Time asks “What Does New Vaccine Timeline Mean For Travel?” now that the current expectation is enough doses in the U.S. for every adult by the end of May. What he’s really asking, I think, is once you’ve been vaccinated (and waited two weeks for full protection) and once community spread is significantly reduced (from vaccinations, immunity from prior infection, and seasonality), will you feel comfortable traveling?
Christopher Elliott has naughty and nice list for travel companies during the pandemic. He sees some behaving as though “they think COVID-19 is a hoax.” That seems like an odd position to take considering their billions of dollars of losses. But what he’s saying is that airlines and hotel companies are making travel more comfortable or fun, that encourages travel, and that’s bad. And the self-styled consumer advocate glosses over a company that tried to steal customers’ money because they promise to make employees take vaccines.
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 »
