American And United Will Both Fly Non-Stop To Bangalore, But Their Strategies Are Very Different

by Gary Leff

Sep 23 2020

In mid-February, just as the coronavirus pandemic was gaining steam, American Airlines announced a partnership with Alaska Airlines and plans to serve Seattle – Bangalore, India. It was to be American’s return to India, and the first U.S.-Bangalore non-stop.

The flight’s launch as been delayed to next year, but American Airlines President Robert Isom told his airline’s pilots last week that they’re still committed to it – even though United Airlines has just announced plans to fly San Francisco – Bangalore and will likely pick up most of the non-stop tech corridor business, and they’re planning to launch their flight before American begins its service.

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Marriott’s CEO Endorses ‘Hygiene Theater’ And Normalizes Chinese ‘Extraordinary’ Government Power

by Gary Leff

Sep 22 2020

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson endorsed ‘hygiene theater’ explicitly speaking at Skift‘s Global Forum. He knows that some Covid efforts aren’t effective but sees them as important signaling tools anyway.

Sorenson has previously been an enthusiastic supporter of a strong central Chinese government and its response to Covid-19. At Skift he again talks about their success in handling the virus and simply says that the country’s authoritarianism “is what it is.”

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American Airlines Says Business Travel Has Tripled Off Its Low Base, Led By Midwest Manufacturing

by Gary Leff

airport
Sep 22 2020

According to top American AIrlines executives there’s “a lot more consumer willingness to travel especially in the South and Midwest.” These are “small and medium-sized business[es]” in “cities that are smaller cities, Tulsa or Oklahoma City” rather than “places like New York or San Francisco which were the big meccas of large corporate travel.”

Consulting, financial services and entertainment aren’t traveling. Factory and warehouse businesses are.

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With Nearly 2000 TSA Employees Testing Positive For Covid, They Keep Patting Down Passengers Every Day

by Gary Leff

96 year old woman in wheelchair
Sep 22 2020

While flights don’t seem to be significant causes of virus spread the same may not be true of other parts of the travel experience. 1812 TSA employees have tested positive for Covid-19. 92% of those are airport screeners. Miami has had 122 screeners test positive. New York JFK has had 112. And these numbers don’t include the most recent testing.

According to a former TSA federal security director it’s insane that the TSA continues with pat downs which he says are unnecessary.

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Woman Melts Down When American Airlines Kicks Her Two Year Old Off For Not Wearing A Mask

by Gary Leff

Sep 21 2020

Rachel Starr Davis was fleeing a hurricane in Florida last week, connecting to American Airlines flight 5595 from Charlotte to Manchester, New Hampshire. Before pushback a flight attendant approached her and asked how old her son is.

The two year old boy wouldn’t wear a mask, despite in his mother’s words ‘begging, bribing, pleading’ but he screamed and cried as she “tried to hold him and put the mask on.”

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The American Airlines CEO Took A Southwest Flight Attendant To Dinner To Talk About Race

by Gary Leff

Sep 21 2020

In late May American Airlines CEO Doug Parker had a personal interaction with a Southwest Airlines flight attendant over race that went viral after he flew the airline and was carrying the book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism which had been recommended by a board member months earlier, but that he’d put aside distracted by the coronavirus crisis.

He and his wife continue that conversation.

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The 31 Strange Steps Thailand Wants Visitors To Go Through As It Re-Opens

by Gary Leff

Sep 21 2020

There are many things about Thailand that look strange to outsiders but to locals are simply ‘very Thai’. And while there’s increasing pushback against the monarchy (despite lese majeste laws) and against a military junta that last year had to clarify they wouldn’t actually execute tourists for taking selfies at the Phuket airport there’s still much acceptance of things as they are, without reason or justification.

It may even seem perfectly normal that as Thailand looks at how they can re-open to tourism amidst the global pandemic that putting potential visitors through a 31 step process that involves prepaying a 90 day hotel stay can seem perfectly normal.

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