Commentary

Category Archives for Commentary.

Proposed U.S. Covid-19 Testing Requirement Will Strand Americans Abroad

by Gary Leff on December 31, 2020

Dec 31 2020

An American citizen presenting themselves at the border is entitled to enter the country. They can be questioned, searched, and required to quarantine as a public health measure. But as a general matter citizens cannot be denied entry into the country.

Here the government places a requirement on airlines to prevent citizens from presenting themselves at the border. You can’t even get tested in much of the world. And there are few places where you’re allowed to go enroute in order to stop for a test.

How To Get An N95 Mask And Use It Correctly

by Gary Leff on December 21, 2020

Dec 21 2020

If you’re going to travel, wear a good mask that fits and learn how to use it. N95 masks are available, and increasingly so, I do not believe you should be wearing a cloth mask in the airport or in other crowded settings.

More Companies Can Really Use Loyalty To Turn Themselves Around

by Gary Leff on December 21, 2020

Dec 21 2020

With Four Seasons Hotels even about to launch new elite rewards, it’s become clear: loyalty holdouts lose out. The principles of loyalty marketing apply to all travel businesses, and to other industries too.

How much it makes sense to invest in a customer depends on a product’s margins, and the extent to which elite benefits versus rebates matter to a customer depend on their profile and subjective preferences – but the basic principles are the same across customer groups and even industries. What form the program takes can vary, but recognizing and rewarding customers matters.

Cheap Covid Tests We Could Take Everyday – And Travel – Are Here, But FDA Screwed It Up

by Gary Leff on December 16, 2020

Dec 16 2020

Back in August I wrote that cheap $5, 15 minute Covid-19 tests could really open up travel and other activities.

The good news is that the Abbott Labs BinaxNOW test I wrote about four months ago has finally received an Emergency Use Authorization. The bad news is that this $5 test is now a $30 test because in order to approve it the government required people taking the test to be monitored. And it requires a prescription.

A Theory Of Complaining: How To Get Satisfaction From Airlines, Hotels And The DMV

by Gary Leff on December 6, 2020

Dec 06 2020

If you’re reasonable, nice, and persistent – in other words, if you’re easy to help and easier to help than not help – you’re going to do well complaining in almost any circumstance whether it’s the cable company, an airline, or the DMV.

A bureaucrat may go out of their way because they sympathize with you or at least because you’re nice, nicer than most of the people they deal with. A hotel may offer you compensation because they genuinely feel they’ve shortchanged you in some way, or because it’s cheap to make you feel better about your experience. An airline’s rules are so complex you might get what you want just by finding someone who doesn’t search the rulebook for a reason not to give it to you (call center roulette).

Short-Term Opportunity, Place Sure-Thing Political Bets And Earn Money, Spending Rewards

by Gary Leff on December 6, 2020

Dec 06 2020

Set up an account with PredictIt. Whatever your political stripes, you can still bet that President Trump will lose re-election – and earn your full bet back and then some.

As of this writing betting markets still have Trump with about a 10% chance of winning Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada, as well as a 9% chance of winning the Presidency.

Will 2021 Reduced Elite Qualification Rules Make Status Too Easy, Benefits Hard To Get?

by Gary Leff on December 1, 2020

Dec 01 2020

Whether 2021 status requirements are set too high or too low really isn’t clear yet, because we don’t know what travel is going to look like even as it starts to come back once the pandemic begins to get under control. And not all benefits are scarce, so that more elites mean fewer benefits for those who earn it ‘the hard and usual way’.

If it turns out there are too many elites, how a program handles that is still entirely within their control. But we’re going to have to wait to see how the 2021 travel year develops, and how programs continue to respond. Laying out elite qualifying criteria is the start of this, not the finish.

Gift Card Reseller Gets Over 5 Years Behind Bars For Catch-All “Conspiracy To Commit Money Laundering”

by Gary Leff on November 30, 2020

Nov 30 2020

Stephen McIntyre called himself the ‘Tampa Gift Card King’ and after $10 million in volume faces five years and three months behind bars for “conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

Will Elaine Chao Stay On As Secretary Of Transportation In A Biden Administration?

by Gary Leff on November 13, 2020

Nov 13 2020

Frequently Presidents have chosen a member of the opposite party for one cabinet post. Sometimes it’s been Secretary of Defense (Republican Senator Bill Cohen of Maine under Bill Clinton, for instance). Sometimes it’s been Secretary of Transportation (Republican Congressman Ray LaHood under Barack Obama, former Clinton Commerce Secretary Norm Mineta under George W. Bush).

In a return to normalcy, and especially with a very divided Senate that Republicans have slightly better odds to control, President Biden might choose a Republican for his cabinet – perhaps part of a deal to get a vote on other cabinet nominees.

The Pfizer Vaccine Looks 90% Effective, Great News For Travel!

by Gary Leff on November 9, 2020

Nov 09 2020

Pfizer reports their Covid-19 vaccine, in conjunction with BioNTech, so far appears 90% effective. With 94 people in the clinical trial having gotten Covid-19 so far, that means people in the control group receiving the placebo were about 10 times as likely to get the virus as someone who had received the vaccine.

The drug maker could reach milestone of 2 months since the second dose for half of trial participants in order to apply for Emergency Use Authorization next week. They report no ‘serious’ side effects in the trial. That’s great news, great progress. And it means we should have great optimism for travel.