Back in May the process for entering Hong Kong was one of the most excruciating things I’ve seen in travel, taking the better part of a day. It involved being bused to the EXPO Center, long waits for testing and results, and receiving a monitoring bracelet.
While transit has opened up in some cases, the process for actually entering Hong Kong is still stringent – but has been substantially streamlined.
Right now airlines will take any money they can, and employees may be looking for metrics and wins to justify their jobs, so it doesn’t surprise me – whether corporate policy or individual initiative – to see the airline going after violations that can extract incremental revenue, and to do it in a way that maximizes likelihood of payment.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named the late John Murtha one of the most corrupt members of Congress, in part for earmarking government money for campaign contributors. His legacy, though, is the John Murtha Johnstown–Cambria County Airport, the ‘airport for no one’ which – before the Covid-19 pandemic – saw an average of 17 passengers per day.
The airport wants to kick out the incumbent airline and bring in SkyWest – which promises 50 seat regional jets to Chicago and Washington, DC.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Delta has confirmed banning Robert O’Neill, the Navy SEAL who was part of the raid at Abbottabad and claims credit for shooting Osama bin Laden, over his refusal to wear a mask inflight (and bragging about it on social media, putting down others who wore masks).
He’s expressed the opinion online that as a hero he should be exempt from rules – and, in a now-deleted tweet, offers this put-down of Delta for requiring masks in the first place,. Delta is acting more like the Naval Special Warfare Development Group than he even realized.
U.S. hotel occupancy for the week of August 9-15 hit 50.2%, the first time it’s been over 50% since mid-March. In a normal year 50% occupancy is what hotels look like the at the beginning of the year, after the holidays but before business travel starts back in earnest.
The bad news for hotels though is that occupancy usually peaks in August and then begins to decline, with a brief interruption, but largely for the rest of the year.
Regular readers might imagine that I’m not the most popular guy at American Airlines, and certainly not the most popular in Corporate Communications. And despite all our ups and downs one person I’ve come to respect a great deal is Ross Feinstein who leaves the airline this week. There are two things about Ross that make him an outstanding communications professional.
Ross Feinstein will be missed at American Airlines. Selfishly I hope his next role is in the travel industry. For his sake, I hope it isn’t.
Around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening a woman approached TSA screening at Pittsburgh airport, through water on a TSA employee when asked for her ID, and then ran through the checkpoint.
Police rushed her and subdued her. She broke free, “started fighting with them and ran for the airport train” but was detained again.
Star Alliance member Air Canada has a limited partnership with oneworld member Cathay Pacific. Brand new today, it’s now possible to redeem Air Canada Aeroplan miles for Cathay Pacific flights online. And best of all, you can easily combine Cathay Pacific flights with other flights.
Nine years, seven months, and 20 days after the September 11th attacks that took 2977 American lives, United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (“Seal Team Six”) executed Operation Neptune Spear, along with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and the CIA’s Special Activities Division, raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
During that raid, bin Laden was killed. Now, nearly a decade later, the member of the SEAL team on that raid who says he’s the one that pulled the trigger refuses to wear a mask on a Delta flight, posts to social media about it, and gets banned.
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 »
