News and notes from around the interweb:
- In January this passenger flew either American or British Airways to Dallas while symptomatic with B.1.1.7 Covid-19.
- 4 men arrested in for opening 54 Amex Business Platinum accounts in a year using fraudulent information.
They used fake employment and income information to a obtain total of 54 American Express Business Platinum cards between them, all in 2017. Besides signup bonuses, they also maximized their new accounts with referrals by accomplice Takada Masaki. They used information for non-existent businesses to get approved for the cards. And that got them in trouble four years later.
- Cloud of uncertainty hovers over new national airline for Nigeria Very bizarre happenings.
- Singapore looking to open to vaccinated travelers from countries with low and moderate levels of Covid-19 infection. By summer infection levels in the U.S. may well qualify, but I wonder whether Singapore will like CDC cardstock as proof of vaccination. Let’s hope, because then hawker stalls here I come.
- Those who know Kyoten in Chicago should be excited that Chef Otto Phan is opening his second restaurant in the Windy City next month, Hinoki Sushiko.
Like you, I’m trying to plan my trips for the next 6-12 months, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult because the CDC/US government/state government isn’t issuing any vaccine passport or hologram ID card (or whatever it takes to pass muster). Right now I can predict what countries will be open to US visitors, but I cannot predict what types of documentation will be required–and how the heck to obtain it if there is no standardized US policy.
My son moved to Singapore, and I have been trying to go visit him for almost 2 years now. 🙁
“Moderate” to Singapore probably means sub-100 infections a day, or maybe for really big countries like USA or China, sub 1,000. Doubt the US will get there by summer, but can always hope. I’m just hoping they allow vaccinated citizens and PRs to bypass quarantine by the end of summer, but I doubt it.
The problem is that the current quarantine policy in Singapore (and Hong Kong, and probably some other Asian countries) is propping up the hotel sector. Hard to find any recent data, but last year over half the hotel rooms were being used for isolation and quarantine facilities, according to the Straits Times. Sure, vacation travelers would pick up the slack, but it’s tricky to tradeoff guaranteed income for potential new travellers.
Singapore won’t accept CDC cardstock, though. Download the IATA TravelPass- I’ve got a beta version, but it should be available in both Android and Apple stores by the end of March. It syncs with the Singapore registry- not sure how US clinics upload their data, but it will become the defacto standard for international travel.