Travel Week in Review – January 21st, 2022

In the early days of the pandemic, face masks went from being exclusively reserved for healthcare workers to a blanket recommendation for the general population in a matter of months. Now, nearly two years later, our understanding of which types of face masks offer true protection has changed greatly—and has continually been revised as new waves and variants come along. Read More…

For the last month, the travel sector has been hit by a perfect storm of factors leading to cancellations and service cuts in the face of the global omicron surge. The stream of flight cancellations before Christmas that soon became a flood was the first indication of the storm within travel and hospitality being fueled by omicron, an outsize hit in lost jobs, weather, and the fact that, unlike many sectors, most travel and tourism jobs can’t be done remotely. Read More…

On Wednesday, Delta Airlines announced a bit of good news for fliers with travel vouchers on their hands: the flight credits can now be redeemed for travel through the end of 2024. The new expiration date, which went into effect on January 12, applies to all existing Delta eCredits. Fliers will be able to rebook their tickets through December 31, 2023, for travel throughout all of 2024. The same policy will apply to all tickets booked in 2022. Read More…

Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the state is considering a requirement that U.S. travelers get a Covid-19 booster shot to be considered fully vaccinated. Ige said Hawaii could require travelers to get a booster if they completed their initial vaccination “five or six months” before their scheduled arrival in Hawaii. Although the CDC recommends a booster shot five months after completion of the primary series of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, it does not require the booster to be considered “fully vaccinated.” Read More…

The United States is where air travel was born. The United States is also where air travel grew up to become a miserable ordeal. Among wealthy nations, the U.S. has some of the worst airports by almost any measure. Inefficiencies, poor design, endless waits, and an overall sense of chaos abound. But which U.S. airports are the worst of the worst? If you’ve ever endured a hellish layover you might nurse a grudge against your own specially loathed spot, but to assemble our roundup, we considered several factors. Read More…