Category Archives for Destinations.
In a huge blow to the testing industry, a negative Covid-19 test will no longer be required to fly to the U.S. for departures starting Sunday at midnight. The rule made little sense, and contributed little, but created hassle and uncertainty for travelers.
Did you know that foreigners cannot visit the United States and then make Canada or Mexico their next destination, at least if they’re from a Visa waiver country in Europe or somewhere like Australia (and not actually getting a Visa, something almost no one does)?
One Australian learned the the hard way that the rule is onward travel must be to somewhere “other than a contiguous territory or adjacent island unless they permanently reside there.”
An employee at Disneyland Paris destroyed a park guest’s wedding proposal by “snatching [the] ring and ushering them away” while the man was in the act. The suitor says he was given permission to be there, while the worker saw the couple in a restricted area.
The Obama administration opened up travel to Cuba. President Trump tried to roll that back. Now President Biden will reinstate much of what the Obama administration tried to do eight years ago.
Consider that Airbnb no longer allows positive Covid test refunds, and United Airlines no longer runs APUs during boarding and deplaning. The travel industry is moving on from its pandemic policies. And that means travelers are increasingly on their own – especially if they test positive for the virus during travel and aren’t allowed to fly home.
Requiring a negative Covid-19 test to fly to the U.S. did not stop the Omnicron variant from entering the country, and it didn’t stop the Omicron wave. Requiring testing for travel but not for anything else makes no sense at all. The antigen tests that are accepted are hardly a guarantee against a passenger carrying the virus. We aren’t pursuing an ‘eradication’ policy against Covid like China is. Barely-piecemeal efforts are largely symbolic.
But the Biden administration says lifting the testing requirement for international travel is off the table.
Cancun, recently the site of resort shootings, had chaos break out at its airport on Monday morning. What may have been an explosion in the baggage claim area was interpreted as an active shooter. Terminal 3 at the airport shut down, and passengers went running, as armed officers stormed into the building.
Singapore will remove most pandemic restrictions April 1. Vaccinated travelers will be able to visit, arriving on any flight and any airline, and no testing on arrival will be required. Scrapping of pre-departure testing is under consideration, and no booster shots will be required.
But perhaps the most underreported element of Singapore’s re-opening is that they’ll begin accepting paper vaccination records.
Disney World is the happiest place on earth, right? I’m not so sure. I recently took my toddler there, and she loved it – she was most excited to see Buzz Lightyear. She also didn’t want to get leave rides when they ended. I know I’ll make several more trips there, and my daughter will love it. At the same time Disney just costs a lot of money and isn’t actually that good.
Fuel prices are at record levels, and that’s bad for airlines. It’s also bad for transportation to and from the airport and hotel It’s bad for heating (which means it’s bad for hotels in chilly weather). It means higher prices for travel, but let’s look at airfare first.
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 »
