Covid Tests For Travel To U.S. Could End By Summer

May 14 2022

There’s an argument for slowing down spread when you’re on the cusp on prophylactics and treatments, or when hospital capacity is overwhelmed. Neither is the case today, so while a test prior to travel reduces the likelihood a given individual is infectious at time of flight it doesn’t have a material affect on the broader public health situation. And we don’t require testing prior to domestic travel, or for large gatherings.

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Computers Now Tell American Airlines Agents When Passenger Bags Must Be Gate Checked

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May 14 2022

The only positive part of the American Airlines project to cram more seats into its domestic aircraft is that they’ve also added bigger overhead bins – big enough that each passenger should be able to bring one regulation-sized carry on bag onto the plane and stow it in the overhead.

Yet American Airlines still tells agents to make customers gate check bags on planes with these bigger bins.

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People Now Believe It’s Ok To Fly When They Have Covid

May 13 2022

We’re in a strange place in the pandemic where increasingly people think it is ok to travel while infectious with Covid-19. It is not ok to travel when you are sick and that was true before the pandemic, even though CDC advice used to say that it generally is ok for many people.

“[O]ne in four people who follow a cautious doctor who writes frequently about Covid..think that a known symptomatic Covid case should still go to a terminal and get on a flight.”

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What American Is Telling Its Gate Agents About Automating Clearing Upgrades And Standbys

register
May 13 2022

Processing standbys earlier does make it possible for customers to get a main cabin seat and then be eligible for an upgrade 40 minutes out. However processing standbys earlier makes it tougher for a customer to run up to the gate, trying to make an earlier flight, and still get on. Non-revenue customers may be cleared onto a flight ahead of paid customers trying to fly earlier.

I’m happy with the tradeoff because when the algorithm decides who gets the seats I shouldn’t need to worry about rogue agents.

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Holy Moly, I’ve Been Writing This Site For 20 Years

May 13 2022

I started blogging one weekend day in May 2002 on a lark. I had several friends with blogs back then, and I thought I’d try my hand at it. Only I didn’t have anything truly original to say on politics and current events, which is what other blogs I knew about were doing. So I decided to write about travel and miles and points along with an eclectic amalgamation of offbeat news. I focused on what people came to me for help with and just things that amused me. I was writing for myself, not for anyone else.

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Second Time In Days, Plane Has To Abort Landing Because Another Plane Was On Mexico City Runway

aeromexico plane
May 13 2022

This keeps happening at the Mexico City airport, described in the media as “panic over Mexico’s air safety” as Aeromexico flight 762 from Bogota had to abort its landing on Wednesday.

Mexico’s airspace navigation service director resigned over this past weekend’s Volaris incident. The Aeromexico incident seems more common if indeed it’s attributable to a slower than expected moving aircraft, and there don’t seem to be allegations that air traffic control handled the situation improperly.

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