U.S. Covid-19 travel bans make no sense. They are about politics, not science. Lifting travel restrictions looks weak, and the administration needs to appear to be ‘doing something’.
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.
Usually when we talk about fake Covid-19 tests for travel it’s buying a forged test (sometimes to save money on testing), or just going in search of a negative test. Some resorts in Mexico, Caribbean, and Latin America return test results – seemingly always negative – instantaneously, making one wonder whether any testing is really being done.
However in Indonesia one man took fake Covid tests for travel to a new level when he donned a burqa to impersonate his wife, who tested negative.
On Saturday night’s American Airlines flight 1630 from Miami to Austin, the Boeing 737 MAX delivered new to the airline in January took a delay over an issue with the aircraft’s tire. While that was addressed, one of the passengers on board the full flight became antsy and decided to “walk around” the cabin. When the plane was close to takeoff the woman reportedly stated that “something would happen.”
American Airlines is currently in the process of designing the cabins of the brand new Airbus A321XLR and Boeing 787-9 aircraft they’ve ordered, and some details that had previously been speculated on are now confirmed.
Major airlines today seem more worried that some member, somewhere might actually benefit from a promotion than they seem to care the promotion actually incentivizing customer behavior.
American Airlines has had catering issues they’ve blamed on pandemic unemployment and other supply chain disruptions. Their goal now, according to the airline’s managing director of onboard dining, is to have “at the very minimum enough water to go to everyone.”
With Australia reducing the number of international passengers allowed to enter the country each day in half, American is running many of its Los Angeles – Sydney flights as cargo-only until August 31, while the return Sydney – Los Angeles flight carriers both cargo and passengers. On days where American has an allocation of allowed passenger arrivals, they’re carrying passengers to Australia.
After this period American Airlines will exit the Australian passenger market for two months, although of course this suspension of service could be extended based on facts on the ground in Australia.
My award booking service partner Steve Belkin, author of a new book on his 30 years of mileage exploits, has another project that’s launched.
He is launching Scuba Hunt in Cozumel this month.
American Airlines customers, especially, should like flying JetBlue which offers more legroom, seat back entertainment, free wifi and a business class product (on routes where it’s offered) with relatively great seats, food, and friendly service.
However the actual partnership – as experienced by passengers – is quite broken. Several customers, based in both Boston and New York, have shared the problems they’ve faced.
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 »
