Category Archives for Destinations.
U.S. Covid-19 travel bans make no sense. They are about politics, not science. Lifting travel restrictions looks weak, and the administration needs to appear to be ‘doing something’.
With Australia reducing the number of international passengers allowed to enter the country each day in half, American is running many of its Los Angeles – Sydney flights as cargo-only until August 31, while the return Sydney – Los Angeles flight carriers both cargo and passengers. On days where American has an allocation of allowed passenger arrivals, they’re carrying passengers to Australia.
After this period American Airlines will exit the Australian passenger market for two months, although of course this suspension of service could be extended based on facts on the ground in Australia.
Only 215 people per day are allowed to enter Sydney, Australia from overseas between July 14 and August 31.
As a result American Airlines will stop operating a passenger flight Los Angeles to Sydney starting July 12th (arriving the morning of July 14). They will, however, continue flying Sydney – Los Angeles.
A US passport is now as powerful as one from Rwanda thanks to Covid restrictions.
In normal times a U.S. passport offers “access [to] 187 destinations around the world.” That’s been cut to “fewer than 60 destinations – a passport power equivalent to that of Uzbekistan. US passport holders have a passport power equivalent to Rwanda.”
Australia, like several island nations, won the first phase of the pandemic. They managed to contain the virus through strict lockdowns and border restrictions, and for much of the last year and a half life has been relatively normal. Now they’re losing the long phase, and the nation’s Prime Minister laid out a re-opening plan that could stretch years. I do not expect it to take nearly as long.
Keeping the U.S. – Canada border closed makes no sense. Infection rates and vaccination rates are roughly similar on both sides of the border. There are variants spreading already on both sides of the border, besides the restrictions weren’t tight enough to stop those anyway. The border has remained closed out of a desire to signal that the government is doing something (fear of foreigners plays in here) and bureaucratic inertia (status quo bias prevails when no one wants to be responsible for a mistake, outbreak or case cluster).
There’s finally some hope on the horizon.
There’s a surplus of vaccines in the U.S. Any American aged 12 and up who wants one can get one. Doses are even on the verge of expiring unused. So tiny Guam – which is just 212 square miles – is turning that surplus into support for its tourism industry while doing good for residents of Asia.
The European Union is recommending that borders be open to Americans, and to residents of several other countries, based on reduction in Covid-19 prevalence in these places. This is separate from the plan to re-open to vaccinated Americans, who – once this change is implemented in the next few days – will be able to visit and move within Schengen zone countries without quarantine. These guidelines – which also now apply to visitors from Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Lebanon, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong – would allow tourists with a negative Covid-19 test regardless of vaccination status. The ban on Americans will be lifted Europe-wide and it’s certainly time to lift restrictions for traveling to the U.S. as well. The U.S. 14 day moving average of cases per 100,000 has moved below 75 and so…
Testing is no longer needed for people entering the U.S., if it was ever helpful at all. The current testing rules do little to assure people entering the U.S. are negative, and it doesn’t prevent spread of variants. Now that vaccines are available there’s little reason to impose the requirement, which has amounted largely to theater – whether it’s people shopping for a negative test after testing positive, or receiving tests that don’t actually collect or analyze a sample.
A man in Sydney, Australia is trolling airline passengers arriving into the city. He’s painted “Welcome to Perth” – which is the capital of Western Australia, and on the other side of the country – onto his roof. Passengers admit being fooled.
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 »
