Tag Archives for coronavirus.
The Biden administration has announced new more stringent Covid-19 testing requirements for unvaccinated travelers and contact tracing requirements for entering the country by air. And as part of that process, passengers will need to document their vaccination status to determine the testing requirements they’ll have to undergo.
At an internal American Airlines employee question and answer session last week, airline President Robert Isom outlined President Biden’s executive orders on vaccination as they apply to employers like American, as well as other vaccination rules.
One pilot asked a question to the airline President about his reluctance to get vaccinated, saying he’s neither an anti-vaxxer nor a conspiracy theorist.
A JetBlue passenger learned he was exposed to Covid-19 and was supposed to fly the next day. Many airlines have dropped change fees from some fares, but this passenger was on a ‘Basic’ fare. He called JetBlue to find out what to do. He had taken a Covid-19 test, but wouldn’t get the results before he was supposed to fly.
He asked to reschedule his trip a couple of weeks into the future. He was told he’d have to pay a difference in fare and also a $100 change fee. JetBlue wouldn’t waive the change fee without presentation of a positive test.
If liberties are going to be restricted, those restrictions should be targeted at those who present a clear risk – and lower-risk individuals should be exempted. In other words, when there are restrictions the government is also obligated to provide for vaccine passports.
We now know that there were Covid-19 linked deaths in the U.S. as early as the week of January 5, 2020. That’s contemporaneous with China’s first reported death on January 9, 2020. And there were January deaths now attributed to Covid-19 in California, Georgia, Alabama, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
Cases could have been brought here as early as November on flights from China.
Australia is caught in a bind. They managed the early stage of the pandemic well, so well that they’ve backed themselves into a corner haven’t had an end game. Lockdowns have increased, frustrations have grown, and citizens haven’t been able to travel abroad – and often even domestically – for a year and a half.
Against this backdrop Qantas has a new commercial: get vaccinated and maybe the government will let you leave the country. I cried watching this.
According to recent polling a vaccination requirement to fly on a plane enjoys broad support from Americans. This is true regardless of political party, age, or income. It’s also true of all races and regions of the country.
Overall support is 2-1, with 64% of respondents approving of vaccine passports for air travel, which is greater than the support for such a requirement to attend concerns or sporting events.
The mom of a 3 year old girl named Delta enlisted the help of Delta Air Lines to petition not to call another Covid-19 variant ‘Delta Plus’ – to please move on from Delta.
Covid-19 self-tests, to be allowed for travel back to the U.S., must be overseen by a foreign call center employee. But wait times for call center employees may stretch into the hours. Be prepared, and consider a work-around.
United Airlines will require all of its employees to be vaccinated. This requirement will be effective the sooner of 5 weeks after FDA full approval of a Covid-19 vaccine, or 5 weeks after September 20.
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 »
