A RAND Corporation study looks at travel patterns to estimate “China’s reported COVID-19 caseload was undercounted by a factor of nearly 40.”
In fact based on outbound air passenger numbers, to have just an even (50/50) chance of COVID spreading to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and the United States – as it had by January 22 – you’d need an infection rate 37 times greater than China officially reports.
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American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees this week that his airline will soon copy others (such as United) that are requiring passengers to complete health screening questions as part of the check-in process, to keep people with COVID-19 off of planes.
Doug Parker has shared with unions this week that American Airlines expects to be a 10%-20% smaller airline in summer 2021 than before the coronavirus pandemic. In the fall they’ll have 20% – 30% too many people on staff, and they’ll have to reduce the flight attendant work group based on that number – while retaining pilots based on where they plan to be by mid-2021.
Before the global pandemic, Apple was United’s largest corporate customer spending $150 million with the airline. Unsurprisingly United’s San Francisco hub captures a large amount of Northern California tech business, and Apple is one of the biggest spenders on travel.
With significant suppliers and manufacturing in China, Apple had been booking one quarter of total company spend on just the San Francisco – Shanghai route, a total of 50 business class seats a day.
Temperature checks are health security theater. It’s one thing for airlines to require it themselves, another thing to make it an extra-legal government mandate that’s hard to turn back.
The solution is to make it easier for passengers who get sick not to fly, not to make passengers show up sick and infect others in order to get a refund.
Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue are limiting the number of seats they sell on each flight so there’s no need for passengers to occupy middle seats. Sometimes middle seats will be taken, but that usually means families traveling together. American Airlines has been limiting loads about half as much as others – but that ends July 1.
United Airlines, in contrast, has been happy to sell a ticket for any seat on any flight and fill all the middles throughout the COVID crisis. Starting July 1 even more of those middle seats will be filled.
Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue are limiting the number of seats they sell on each flight so there’s no need for passengers to occupy middle seats.
American Airlines does not. They cap capacity, but still sell enough seats so about half of middles might be occupied. American’s much lesser restriction will end July 1.
A passenger noticed an American Airlines employee at Washington National airport offering a prayer over the PA system at one of the gates and videotaped it. They sent it to a friend who shared it to twitter with outrage. Although I don’t really see anything wrong with offering a prayer right now, it may even bring some comfort during difficult times.
Marriott has about 100 hotels in China. To do business there is to acquiesce to the country’s leadership. Marriott has consistently towed the party line, as it did two years ago when spanked by the Chinese government for listing Taiwan as a separate country. They fired an hourly worker who ‘liked’ a tweet supporting Taiwanese independence and proactively removed banned books from hotels.
Now the CEO of the hotel chain Arne Sorenson is giving interviews on China’s effectiveness in containing the virus, adopting the country’s talking points and effectively assisting President Xi Jinping shore up a key vulnerability as he prepares for re-election by the Communist Party.
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 »
