Omni Air is a profitable ‘deportation airline’ operating charter flights for the Department of Homeland Security, and before securing the $67 million bailout they were awarded a new $78 million Defense Department contract.
They take deportation charters no one else will, billing the government as much as $11,000 per passenger. Their CARES Act funding appears to cover more payroll per person than any other airline receiving government funds.
Several routes where $39 one-ways are available, including Baltimore – Charlotte, Charleston, Detroit, Hartford; Chicago Midway – Indianapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati; Phoenix – Las Vegas, Albuquerque, San Diego; Houston Hobby – New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Dallas Love Field, San Antonio; Detroit Chicago Midway, Nashville, St. Louis.
The President has indicated support for a $4000 domestic travel credit where you’d get half your money back from airfare, hotels, restaurants and related spending on domestic trips.
That’s now morphed into Martha McSally (R-AZ)’s “American TRIP Act” which would provide a tax credit of $4000 per adult ($8000 to a couple filing jointly) and $500 additional per dependent child to spend in 2020 or 2021 on domestic travel 50 miles or more from home, as well as $50 million to Destination Marketing Organizations to promote tourism to their region. This is insane.
Right now much of the world is closed to U.S. tourism. On the whole the Caribbean is opening, and the Maldives opens July 15. Turkey and Serbia are open. But most of the world that will accept Americans at least requires coronavirus testing on arrival or two week quarantine.
The E.U. is trying to come up with a list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter starting July 1. The U.S. isn’t expected to be on it.
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The independent Association of Professional Flight Attendants represents cabin crew at American Airlines. They have been dysfunctional for years and to Sara Nelson, the supposed ‘most powerful flight attendant in America,’ they look like a juicy target for her Association of Flight Attendants which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America and AFL-CIO.
Air travel hit bottom April 14, with just 87,534 people clearing TSA security checkpoints in the United States. TSA data shows that Monday, June 22 exceeded 600,000 people – for the first time since March 19.
Maybe airlines could reward passengers with frequent flyers for mask wearing, if they’re refusing to serve alcohol to limit payment transactions they could comp alcoholic beverages to people who wear masks (though the masks have to be taken off to drink them). Maybe it’s time for a carrot as well as the toothless stick?
One man couldn’t handle Hawaii’s mandatory quarantine on arrival. Ten days in he hit the ocean, and that’s where he died. The 39 year old man, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was found by a fisherman at Diamond Head near Honolulu.
Starting Tuesday LAX airport will begin to do temperature screenings at the Tom Bradley International Terminal as people enter the airport and in the arrivals corridor using thermal imaging cameras. This is similar to what I’ve experienced, for instance, in Hong Kong for over 15 years.
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 »
