Halleluiah! – Travel Testing is Toast

Hopefully, you have heard the great news from late last week that the U.S. government no longer requires COVID testing prior to returning back into the U.S.  This is amazing news for people who travel internationally as the cost and the hassle cost millions and provided little benefit to COVID spreading. Now that masks are gone and testing is gone millions of people will start looking at traveling internationally again. The only fence left is vaccination card requirements to enter some countries. My guess is that by the end of this year that requirement will end as well.

United Club Credit Card is killing the United Club experience – United Airlines has been heavily promoting the United Club Visa credit card, focusing on how it provides free access to their many United Club lounges around the U.S… This promotion has been so successful that hundreds of thousands of people now have United Club access and they have filled every United Club to capacity.  Some Clubs have standing room only; others have a hard time keeping food stations stocked, even the bathrooms require standing in line. Ironically, sometimes it is less crowded and more comfortable outside the lounge than inside it. The United Club lounges used to be an oasis for connecting travelers to make the travel experience better with a refreshing drink, a snack, and a comfy chair while you waited an hour for your connecting flight. Today, they make you hope your connecting flight is only 30 minutes away so you can avoid one more line at the United Club.

Traveling in July will be a hot mess – The weather will be hot, the planes will be full, and flights will be expensive, delayed, or cancelled. Car rentals will be sold out, and even airport parking will be hard to find. If gas was not $5 a gallon I might recommend you drive instead of fly this July. Better yet, this might be the perfect summer to stay close to home. Maybe you should pull the golf clubs, the fishin’ pole, and the picnic basket out of the garage and just “Roll out those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy days of summer, those days of soda and pretzels and beer. CLICK HERE to sing along with Nat King Cole.  

Here is my recommended perfect 60-day window to travel this year – As I said above, traveling by air this summer will see pent-up demand unleashed like never before in the history of the travel industry. The good news is that I can see the airline, car rental, and hotel industries all becoming more normalized after Labor Day. The airlines will be receiving new planes, thus allowing more seats for higher demand. Children will be back in school so family travel will subside and the heat of summer will transform into the fresh breeze of fall. Once again, I recommend traveling during the 60-day window from September 15 to November 15 and you will find the perfect balance of price, weather, and fewer crowds.

IRS makes rare midyear increase in business vehicle tax deduction to 62.5 cents a mile – In a very unusual move, the IRS made a midyear increase in the vehicle tax deduction businesses can use by upping the rate 4 cents a mile from the original 2022 rate of 58.5 cents a mile to 62.5 cents a mile. This, of course, is to address the dramatic increase in gas rates in the last several months. The 4-cent increase seems a little wimpy to me as the price of fuel has doubled from two years ago. Logically thinking, the tax deduction should probably be more like $1 a mile if they want to truly reflect the cost of driving today.  CLICK HERE to read more.