Category Archives for Destinations.
Brazil has said that U.S. tourists will have to obtain a visa starting October 1, since the U.S. continues to require Brazilians to obtain a visa. The country scrapped the requirement in 2019 but it’s being re-imposed as a reciprocity measure.
Brazilians are flying to the U.S. to buy computers and then flying home. The cost savings on their purchases more than funds the trip. And some buy more than one, sell the second at home, making the whole thing ‘free’.
A tourist carved “Ivan+Haley 23” into the Roman Colosseum, the elliptical amphitheatre at the center of the city just to the east of the Roman Forum. It was completed in 80 AD under the emporer Titus.
Facing five years in jail and a $16,000 fine, 27 year old fitness instructor and British resident Ivan Dimitrov was tracked down by Italian police in England after a five day search. He has apologized, saying he didn’t realize the Colosseum was so old. Presumably if it dated only to the twelfth century the carvings would have been alright?
The U.S. government is warning Americans not to travel to China over laws and practice there allowing for arbitrary detention for political reasons, and for prosecution over the contents of private emails.
New legislation went into effect July 1 allowing the government to take even greater steps. But what about Hong Kong? And transit through the airport there?
The President of Belarus flew over Russian airspace – but his plane’s transponder was turned off until he had cleared it. Belarus is a vassal state of Putin’s regime. And Putin is facing a coup led by the boss of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
With Prigozhin’s forces targeting military aircraft, VIP aircraft movements taking steps not to be tracked seems… wise.
This was a failure of U.S. authorities – suspecting someone as a drug courier over behaving like an airline employee. It was a failure of Canadian authorities, arresting someone based on a fallible test and locking them up for a week while slow-walking a real test. And it was a failure of the passenger, who didn’t secure legal representation (though as a 22 year old kid on an airline income that’s not surprising).
A passport with X or U as gender is ineligible for entry into or transit through the United Arab Emirates.
An intermittent fruit roll-ups shortage in different parts of the world has apparently been slowing building over the past couple of years, peaking in the past two months, thanks to what’s been described as a viral ‘hack’ from TikTok of wrapping up a small scoop of ice cream into the snack and eating it. The ice cream freezes the fruit roll-up and gives it a crunch.
That’s created… a black market in fruit roll-ups.
Days after the CDC updated its Covid-19 vaccination requirement for visitors traveling to the U.S. by air, the Biden administration announced that its vaccine requirements – including for airline passengers – will end at the ‘end of the day’ on May 11.
The New York Times runs a trend piece on women traveling abroad to find romance. They say that dating in the United States is awful, and meeting men abroad is much better – that people marry later so the dating pool isn’t limited over 30; that men are more serious; that potential mates are more adventurous (while in the U.S. all men are the same archetypes).
The first thing to know about any trend piece is that there isn’t really a trend, although the pieces themselves might create one. All you need is a little anecdata.
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 »
