News notes from around the interweb:
- Last month I wrote that I expected some rewards credit cards to become harder to get, especially small business cards and entry level cards, because of the deep recession. Would you want to extend unsecured credit to many small businesses in the current uncertain evironment if you needed to get your money back? Doctor of Credit says it seems to be getting more difficult to get Chase small business cards.
- Changes to the TSA screening process
Airline passengers are allowed to wear cloth face coverings during the #TSA screening process. Be prepared to adjust your mask so that a TSA officer can visually confirm your identity during the checkpoint screening process. pic.twitter.com/bmcyWHX44c
— TSA (@TSA) April 6, 2020
- The Dutch government is considering a bailout for KLM, and the airline had increased compensation for its CEO on its upcoming agenda. That’s been… tabled. It was executive compensation while employees were being asked for givebacks that did in former American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey.
Copyright: flaperval / 123RF Stock Photo - Hawaii is requiring vacation rentals to close even single family homes, which allow tourists to social distance. They don’t want tourists coming and bringing COVID-19 with them, but the ban requires people to leave when their current reservations end, too…
- Emirates A380 dipped below 400ft as crew mistakenly chased glideslope
By Kentaro Iemoto from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - Landings at Princess Juliana International Airport are still incredible.
Arriving from the Netherlands via Gander carrying medical aid to combat the COVID-19 (Ilyushin 76, RA -76511) #stayhometodaytraveltomorrow Government of Sint Maarten #dreamtodaytraveltomorrow#staysafe#beeksphotos pic.twitter.com/koRVnu5lbw
— SXM Airport (@sxmtweets) April 19, 2020
@ Gary — Does this mean no more free massages?
With some oil prices having gone below zero today, we live in interesting times. Welcome to what happens when storage capacity gets maxed out due to too few buyers even at the extremely low prices.
Can these extremely low oil prices stimulate the economy quickly at this point in time? Which travel and transport service providers will gain most from this situation? Delivery/courier services?
@GUwonder: it is oil futures, not oil prices, that have dipped negative. When you buy an oil future of say 1,000 barrels at a certain cost, you commit to buying it at that cost at the date the future matures. When you were just speculating, i.e. you bought the future at $10 in the hopes of being able to sell it at $10+ but below the actual barrel cost at that time, you have made money. But if it goes below your offered price, you will now have to sell the future, or accept delivery of the barrels of oil. Problem is, most future traders are that – traders. Not oil barons. So… they have no physical place to store said shipment, and are looking to off-load their commitments. Because of the enormous surplus in oil at the moment, storage comes at a premium. So the future traders are selling oil at a negative price to just get it off their books. Hope this helps (hat tip to Marketwatch yesterday, who explained this in a way that I understood it).