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As China recovers from COVID-19, and hopes to stave off a second wave of infections, they’re testing people entering the country. Even with a low volume of international flights that’s led to long delays and frustrations entering the country. As a result there’s a strong fear of foreigners.
Hyatt is offering 90 days of Explorist status and a fast track to either keep Explorist or top tier Globalist through February 22. The best thing is that you have until November 16 to register and start the 90 day clock. As a result you can use this once your travel is starting up again.
American Express is closing all Centurion Lounge locations starting Saturday, March 21. Here’s detail on the move.
Most coverage has been about passengers – being afraid to fly, not allowed to fly by their companies, being advised to avoid risk. The President of the United States is advising against discretionary travel that is still mostly permitted. Yet day in and day out airline crew continue to show up at airports, get on planes, and interact with passengers. They’ve continued to work flights to Europe and Asia that many passengers have been unwilling to take.
A lot of people are grounded right now. Most of us are going to travel again. And we’re sure going to be itching to do so.
No matter what happens with the business of any of the airlines, we’re going to have big airlines to take us where we want to go. They are going to have tons of empty seats for awhile – which means deep discounts, award availability, and aggressive mileage promotions.
American Airlines, slow off the dime in its moves to protect its business compared to United and Delta, already began major capacity cuts in response to the administration’s ban on non-U.S. residents entering the country if they’ve been to Schengen Area countries of Europe within the past 14 days.
With the government extending that restriction to the U.K. and Ireland, and with demanding drying up more and more each day, they’ve now taken things a step further. They are reduce international capacity by 75% year-over-year. Ostensibly this will apply March 16 to May 6, but many of these cuts will almost certainly last longer.
Hyatt was first out of the gate with an offer of points for customers having to cancel non-refundable bookings. I thought that was generous because they were first and it was something. Of course this is all fast-moving, and other hotel chains have since done more.
So Hyatt has responded, well I think, and is out with a new policy allowing for cancellation of non-refundable bookings, encouraging new bookings, and offering greater flexibility for Hyatt points.
On the heels of the confusing statement by the President ostensibly banning flights from Europe other than the U.K. for 30 days, but really banning entry by non-U.S. residents who have been to the Schengen area of Europe in the past 14 days, the State Department is now warning against all global travel.
My recommendation: It would be a good idea, if you’re an American traveling abroad, for you to arrange to return home as quickly as possible before it becomes more difficult to do so.
United Airlines President and soon-to-be CEO Scott Kirby keynoted the J.P. Morgan 2020 Industrials Conference today. He took a far more aggressive stance on how deep to cut, how bad things can get, than other airline executives. And he was more willing to share specific data on how bad things already are.
United Airlines already announced a 20% cut to its international route network and 10% cut domestically. American is out with route and frequency reductions and I don’t think they are done.
International reduction for summer is 10% (55% reduction in transpacific flying). Domestic reduction in April is 7.5%.
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 »
