Tag Archives for travel ban.
The UK is developing a disruptive passenger blacklist that could let one airline’s ban follow a traveler across other carriers. That may sound appealing when someone assaults crew or forces a diversion, but without clear standards, due process, fixed limits, and meaningful appeal rights, it risks turning airline customer-service disputes into government-coordinated travel bans by private companies.
Since 1975 only one fatal U.S. terror attack involved a perpetrator from the twelve fully-banned nations; the annual risk to an American was about 1 in 13.9 billion.
Immigrants from the twelve banned states had a 2023 incarceration rate 70% below that of U.S-born residents.
A former secret service member and “highly decorated military veteran” says he’s lost his career because JetBlue banned him after informing flight attendants that he was (lawfully) carrying a firearm with him on his flight to Florida.
Are there risks to using a dental appointment confirmation email to circumvent travel restrictions? Just show up for your appointment while on vacation. Those who use the dental loophole, and prepay might as well get a cleaning out of it rather than no-showing, even though “current law permits travelers to be charged only at the point they attempt the overseas journey, not after the fact.”
According to a memo that incoming President Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff is circulating, Biden intends to take several actions on his first day in office including a federal mask-wearing requirement for interstate transportation and repealing President Trump’s Muslim ban.
The U.S. government held a call with airlines today discussing a possible Covid-19 testing requirement for all passengers coming to the U.S. following a similar requirement imposed on arrivals from the U.K. on Monday (including U.S. citizens). Airlines hope a negative Covid-19 test will replace an outright ban on non-citizens who have traveled to certain countries in the past 14 days.
The U.S. ban on travel from China was poorly executed, the ban on travel from Europe came too late, and the list of countries chosen for bans was incomplete. Once the virus was spreading, the U.S. didn’t ban travel within the country. Travel bans can work – see New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, etc. – but they have to be absolute and they can’t be lifted until the threat has passed.
It’s a complicated question whether travel restrictions are good policy in a pandemic. The World Health Organization was strongly against them. Many countries adopted them. They seem to have helped in some places and not others.
It’s clearly time that Europeans should be allowed to enter the U.S. There’s no good virus-related reason to keep them out. But what about letting American’s visit Europe? The European Commission is recommending new guidelines for save travel, and the U.S. is on its way towards meeting their criteria.
It makes no sense to ban travel from places where virus spread has slowed to a much lower pace than it’s already circulating here, especially when we’re not banning travel from some of the places in the world where the virus is spreading fastest.
The China travel ban failed because the CDC blew its implementation and the Europe travel ban came too late. Those were policies that might have helped if implemented at the right time and in the right way back in January and February. But they no longer make sense in June.
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 »
