Senator Ted Cruz left the country on Wednesday, flying United Airlines with his family to Cancun, as millions of Texans were without power during a once-in-a-generation weather event and near collapse of the state’s power grid. Many more (including me) are without water.
While there’s arguably little he could do as a federal officeholder to help state regulators, the state’s power grid, or local utilities, his departure was controversial. On the way out, he didn’t get the upgrade. (His family doesn’t seem to appear on the upgrade list.)
Looks like they do, since this was the outbound flight. pic.twitter.com/OU1GfCoLqT
— Lauren Roberts 💞 (@galaxybloom_) February 18, 2021
Some folks were imagining this is what was happening down in Cancun:
— Becca Cetta (@Bectacular2) February 18, 2021
However it appears that Cruz turned around and flew home to Texas today on United and it looks like everyone else on the upgrade list cleared while United left Cruz in back.
Here’s the upgrade list for this afternoon’s flight from Cancun to Houston.
Looks like @tedcruz is on his way back, @danpfeiffer. He’s just narrowly missing the upgrade list
That’s assuming that “cru, r” is him. And I do. pic.twitter.com/CqfKa5rJfG
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 18, 2021
It’s possible that Cruz always planned to fly his family down to a resort in Mexico to wait out the unpleasantness that the rest of Texas was in the middle of, returning back to the U.S. right away. Does it matter if his absence from the U.S. was only a day, and that he wanted his family not to have to endure the cold others are facing?
Either way, missing his upgrades, Cruz or his staff probably needs to pay more attention to how much easier United is making it to earn higher levels of status in 2021.
Looking at the cleared list flight left with 19 of 20 first class seats filled with 5A the empty seat. I have a feeling Ted declined an upgrade for the optics.
So?
I mean so what? -what is this article really about?
Claire, this article seems to be that Cruz figured out he better pretend to carry about his less-than-wealthy constituents as they do sometimes vote. You could also say that it is about the arrogance of those who are temporarily entrusted with some power.
Not sure if anyone follows the comment threads on some of Gary’s other stories, but this would fall into one of those completely worthless stories that has absolutely no journalistic substance other than to string together a bunch of unrelated facts to get a rise out of stupid ignorant people to increase ad revenue! Thanks for another wonderful turd of a story there Gary, keep polishing away!
“Care about” I meant. Anyway, his timing stunk and the optics were just terrible. Somebody must have explained that to him. He apparently wants to be president. Stunts like bugging out in a crisis will not help.
Ok, I’ll bite on the Cruz clickbait. If Texas wants to beg for federal level funds and wants to bogusly claim the “New Green Deal” which was tossed around at the federal level in the House (and doesn’t exist) is the source of the problems there, then their Senator at the federal level can cart his useless, shameless husk back to the US. Coach is just fine for him. Perhaps right next to the lavatory where a bad burrito was just deposited. Next month Texas will be back to bleating about secession anyway.
This is the most Gary-core story possible. I knew he wouldn’t disappoint in writing it up posthaste.
Gary, I think Ted is almost certainly on flight 1015, not 1832. The upgrade list for 1015 matches Jake Sherman’s list, whereas 1832 shows different people there.
I am curious if he got tested before he left the States and was w/in the 72 hour rule or if he actually got tested in Mexico.
Also, I’m almost certain the reason Ted didn’t make the upgrade isn’t because of his status level, but because he probably bought his ticket this morning after his team stressed how bad it looks to be galivanting off to Cancun while your state is having a pretty serious emergency with dozens dead. The others on that list likely already were upgraded when he purchased the ticket and could request the upgrade.
What about a negative covid test????
We all know that if the man had a (D) next to his name there wouldn’t have been a peep in the media or elsewhere. As it was, so shall it ever be.
@RyanWaldron – Well, it looks like it did get a rise out of a stupid ignorant person. Mission Accomplished!
Why is the airline attached to this traitor of our constitution? Let him stay in Mexico.
I loved this story. Keep um coming!
Boring
Ryan Waldron, do you have a beef with Gary? Do you really read his blog in search of “journalistic substance”? It’s a blog with one man’s opinion based on what is already out in the news. If you want more “journalistic substance” then read the WSJ. I have no idea why you read Gary’s blog when all you do is complain about him and his writing. YOU are not providing anything substantive in your comments – just the same opinion every time. Stop reading and you’ll live longer!
Way to go Gary. That apology for a Senator, who should really be a town hall crier, is not worthy of a mention. He needs to move on in life and become a shoe shine boy at Mar-O-Logo and help polish the shoes of the twice impeached individual, who kicked Teddy Bear Crruuiissee around like a soccer ball!
Real easy to spot the opinions of right wing and left wing on these opinions. I am glad he was in economy with his family.
@ Gary — He was clearly on a mileage run. What better time to do one that when you have no electricity or water at home?
Quick, Ryan Waldron, head to Texas where everything is frozen solid. It’s a great place for snowflakes like you!
Why do you constantly refer to the senator as “Cruz” rather than just using the straightforward pronoun “he”? Are you emphasizing his Cuban heritage to link his questionable behavior to his otherness and validate your own privilege?
Dear Mr. LEFFT,
Your prejudice against Ted Cruz as a Republican US Senator is showing… What would you propose that Senator Cruz do about a record cold spell in Texas? Burn down his house to warm up his adjacent neighbors? It’s really none of your business where or when he chooses to travel! ERCOT is responsible for providing a reliable power grid and they have been forced to purchase INTERRUPTIBLE AND UNRELIABLE power from wind farms that could not and SHOULD NOT be built with Government Subsidies funded with Taxpayer Dollars! Notably the Board of Governors at ERCOT (probably Democrats) have removed their own names from the ERCOT website to protect themselves from LIBERAL HARASSMENT. The ONLY generating assets that can respond rapidly enough to such a massive cold front are the facilities powered by natural gas. To put it in terms that even you can understand – natural gas fired turbines can be started almost as fast as the engines on the airliners that you enjoy joy-riding around on while pretending to “work”. Both coal and nuclear can be brought on line for such emergencies but the take much longer to spool-up and they are hated by the liberal tree huggers as you obviously attest. Solar and wind are unreliable and the liberal legislation to subsidize their uneconomic construction and force Utilities to purchase the power at “avoided cost” prices serves ONLY to weaken the reliability of the distribution system and displace reliable alternatives. How well does that Chinese Manufactured Solar Panel on your work and how many years longer will it take to pay for itself? Would you have bought it with the subsidy?
By the way, “VIEW FROM THE WING’ IS TRASH AND OBVIOUSLY SO ARE YOU SO I’M DELEATING BOTH!
Ryan Waldron…… SPOT ON!
Gary
I am sure the Corporate Heads at UNITED are not to pleased with type of publicity. Snubbing a US Senator doesn’t help UNITED when they need all the friends they can get on Capitol Hill. – Then Again – I am sure the Lobbyist for United has already informed them of this stupid move. Airlines should leaning backwards for Republican AND Democrat Congressmen and Senators during this crisis. But, if UNITED official position is ANTI-Republican – that’s good for all of us to know as well.
so what, this is what you are wasting your time on???WTF!!
Welp. Now that Trump’s no longer POTUS (but you’d almost never know it) guess Gary has to move on to doing his part to help help his fellow liberal hacks demonize the next conservatives in line for destruction. But that’s o.k. because we all know we’ll see this kind of political cheap shot post about Queen Nancy because Gary’s not a partisan hack or anything. (lol) He really needs to “Thought leader in travel” to “Thought leader in travel and completely unrelated liberal/democrat talking points”
Keep up the great work, Gary!
Dear Jeff- Thank you for leaving the VFTW blog. Without people like you, the rest of us can enjoy this blog more.
BTW- Wind only contributes 10% of the power for Texas. While they did have issues with these, it is not because they are wind turbines but rather because they are not the insulated types that can withstand such unusual cold weather. The Dakota’s use a lot of wind power and where the temperatures reach below zero every year, but they do not have such issues with wind turbines because they use the ones that are appropriate for such cold weather. Oh and here is more news that you seem to either be oblivious to or choose to selectively ignore. The main reason for the power grid issues are the natural gas plants that went down because of the weather. Natural gas accounts for a much larger proportion of the power in Texas.
The sad part are people that hate without knowing all the facts
We Californians remember Cruz Boy mocking us this last summer:
Karma is a bitch!
California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity.
Biden/Harris/AOC want to make CA’s failed energy policy the standard nationwide.
Hope you don’t like air conditioning!
I guess Cancun didn’t have good enough air conditioning either!
Apparently Gary doesn’t think CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC…etc., etc., ‘s incessant demonizing of the Right is enough so he must help out and dutifully disseminate these cheap shots like a good liberal lap dog media member. Do ANY of these people have ONE original thought? One huge echo chamber is all they are. But Gary doesn’t think it’s quite huge enough. What a shame that an alleged “travel blog” feels the need to lecture their readers and leave a sour taste to an activity that should provide literal escapes from this sort of petty political crap going on nearly everywhere else.
Thanks Gary for helping to spread the deranged mindset of the Left: “If I’m not happy, nobody else should be happy.” Makes for such a wonderful world. smh
@ Jeff It’s never too late to get your GED.
Cruz might as well go to Cancun considering the Biden administration’s new political strategy of Mexico First.
I want to personally thank @Jeff for his fact-free post. For those living in the real world, the windmills that didn’t freeze up actually over-produced electricity compared to per-unit projections and solar delivered more electricity than projected. During the Sunday-Tuesday period, renewables output was down just 1%.
To me, left or right has nothing to do with this. This would be like the captain of a ship jumping ship while it and everyone else were going down. It is called being a decent human, especially when the people who are going down, voted you into this office. We all love to vacation or we wouldn’t be reading this blog. Most of us have given up our travel the last year because it was the right thing to do. He was flat out wrong in his decision to “jump ship” and take his family on vacation!
Did his “fat and ugly” wife and kids stay behind or did they retreat back to the US with him?? If they would have opted for Mar-a-Lago instead of Cancun, perhaps the optics and tone deafness would not have been quite as blatant. Still bad though.
@Jeff
Iceland is100% dependent on renewable energy including wind turbines/farms. And if you don’t know, Iceland is a very cold place but they never had a failed energy grid as seen in Texas. This is yet another failure of GOP governance blamed on the wrong corner (remember the GOP poisoned water in Michigan). Less than 18% of Texas power is generated by Renewable Energy. The key here is well managed and well maintained Renewable Energy that will always be dependable.
Let’s not forget that this is God’s punishment for Texas voting for Cruz & tRump! 😀
I think for those of you who aren’t living here in Texas, actually experiencing the situation, I don’t think you can grasp the anger that people feel (which I’m sure Gary would be included in). I don’t care what your political leanings are, as an elected leader, there is an expectation of representing your people. Mr. Cruz in particular has made his interest in becoming president crystal clear. What can he do? Show some leadership. Get out there in his community. Instead, he does something that is anything but presidential.
Party aside, I think there is no clearer example of the utter narcissism this displays. If he was actually intelligent, this would have been an awesome opportunity to look presidential (I would point to Beto’s social media posts at what he could be looking like). Get out there and deliver water, meet with the citizens…. feel our “pain” because as a Texan who had no power for 38 hours, there is a lot of pain going around, and I count myself luck at ONLY 38 hours. Frozen pipes, spoiled food, the few grocery stores open are picked clean, boil water advisories. All because it hit -8 and it snowed a little. I get if there was an ice storm and there were power lines down… but it was beautiful fluffy snow and cold temperatures…. what is even worse is this exact same thing happened in 2011…. but I digress as that isn’t Mr. Cruz’ fault.
The issue at its core, no matter what your party affiliation, is there is an expectation that leaders are supposed to show leadership. Leaving town in the middle of multiple crises (can’t forget about the COVID pandemic) by any politician is, quite frankly, beyond tone-deaf. I don’t believe that Texas is going to move blue, there are primaries, and I for one will not forget freezing my ass off, boiling water because it’s undrinkable, and Mr. Cruz jetting off to Mexico…
I will say thank God he didn’t get an upgrade because that would have truly been the icing on the cake.
This doesn’t relate to Mr. Cruz, but If you are from Texas I recommend checking out the Report on Outages and Curtailments during the southeast cold event of February 11. It’s 500 pages, but just check out the introduction (officially page 1 of the doc, not of the PDFs) and the Executive summary (page 7-10). This exact situation happened back in 2011… here we are again:
“While extreme cold weather events are obviously not as common in the
Southwest as elsewhere, they do occur every few years. And when they do, the
cost in terms of dollars and human hardship is considerable. The question of what
to do about it is not an easy one to answer, as all preventative measures entail
some cost. However, in many cases, the needed fixes would not be unduly
expensive.”
https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/08-16-11-report.pdf
This goes to the top of the list of “Worthless Garbage.” You should stick to reporting on issues that impact the airlines not become some political tool for the liberal busy bodies who, like the current disgraceful government – want to run everyone’s life!
You’all got it wrong. You got a “in your dreams” scenario.
It’s “T” for Ted Cruz.
The only R. Cruz is Rachel Cruz….Dave Ramsey’s daughter.
The moral thing is that if you .GOP PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT YOUR LEADER WILL COME DOWN AND HELP YOU IN TIME OF NEED. . YOU ARE SCREWED . YOU DONT REMEMBER THE STORY OF THE 10 ACRES AND A HORSE. THE GOP OFFERED. TO PEOPLE. WE THE PEOPLE
Just report the facts and leave your opinions out of a news story.
I hope Texas soon gets back the electricity needed for all those homes without power still.
Water off to avoid a pipe burst and the associated flood in the house that comes with burst pipes?
If you’re not used to being without running water at times at home, being with a young child at home without running water can be quite the different experience.
@Kalboz
Texans are way too proud, for some reason, to admit fault or mistakes. They blame. You’re wasting your time. I didn’t vote for Cruz or tRump or Texas governor Greg Abbott (Trump’s other boot licker), but I really don’t think God chose to punish the GOP, as we all suffered during this moronic power outage / grid failure. BTW, Gary Leff isn’t the only journalist to write about Cruz’s stupid jaunt to Mexico while Rome burned. People and animals died as a result of this and regardless of what @IP says, IS NOT “worthless garbage” reporting.
@SeeBee “Rafael Edward Cruz is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator for Texas since 2013.” (Wikipedia)
Republican or Democrat, I’m always interested in what these “leaders” are doing to help us while collecting the huge salary WE are paying them.
If you don’t care, don’t read the articles.
The comments here rank as more entertaining than female mud wrestling. I think Gary and others should sponsor an all star miles blog followers wrestling match in Vegas next fall. They can set up a used and scrapped 737-200 in the desert, rope everyone in, and let em loose. I’d pay a premium for front row seats.
Dear Butthurt Republican Snowflakes – we, the nonplussed regular readers of VFTW, invite you to depart and go start your For Conservatives Only Travel Bog (probably more in the Newsmax/OAN vein these days, vs. the gone-soft Fox). I’m sure it will do boffo ratings.
Nice addition to your Ted Cruz library. I’m thoroughly enjoying each episode of Ted’s adventures. Considering the spin he applied to this one, the dizzyingly rapid roundtrip isn’t surprising. By the way, amazingly gentle for a writer working without heat or water.
Great read!