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U.S. Won't Impose New Omicron Testing For Travelers From Southern Africa

U.S. Won't Impose New Omicron Testing For Travelers From Southern Africa

By Peter Szekely and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have not imposed any new screening or tracing requirements in response to the newly discovered Omicron COVID-19 variant that prompted the Biden administration to restrict travel from southern Africa.

Starting Monday, the United States will bar most foreign travelers from South Africa and seven other southern African countries in an attempt to curb the spread of the Omicron variant, which was first identified in South Africa on Friday.

However, the travel restrictions do not ban flights or apply to U.S. citizens and lawful U.S. permanent residents. Until the ban starts at 12:01 ET Monday, flights from South Africa have continued to carry foreign nationals.

Airline passengers entering the United States from abroad are already subject to stringent CDC COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements, but are not generally monitored by health officials after they leave flights and are not required to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in the United States.

Nearly all foreign nationals entering the U.S. need to be vaccinated to enter but Americans do not need to be vaccinated to return home.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, the two airlines that fly direct to Johannesburg said on Friday they do not plan any changes to their South Africa-U.S. flights after the variant was discovered.

Fully vaccinated travelers must provide proof of negative COVID-19 tests taken within three days of their departure but those not fully vaccinated must have had a negative test result within one day.

The CDC did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on how its requirements are enforced, or if it will issue additional requirements since the emergence of the Omicron variant prompted the U.S. travel restrictions.

No cases of the Omicron variant were identified in the United States as of Friday, the CDC has said. But infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said this weekend it was likely already in the United States.

The CDC said Friday it expects to identify the B.1.1.529 variant quickly if it emerges in the United States.

United currently operates five flights per week between Newark and Johannesburg. Delta operates three from Johannesburg to Atlanta.

Two flights from South Africa that landed in the Netherlands Friday had 13 passengers with the Omicron variant on board, Dutch authorities said Sunday, and cases are being discovered in countries around the world.

The Netherlands Omicron cases were among 61 who tested positive for COVID-19 out of about 600 passengers on the two flights.

A spokesperson for KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France, said the passengers on the flight had either tested negative or shown proof of vaccination before getting on planes in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Peter Szekely, David Shepardson; Editing by Heather Timmons and Diane Craft)

Delta, Coke Facing Boycott Campaigns Over Georgia Election Law

Delta, Coke Facing Boycott Campaigns Over Georgia Election Law

Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, two of Atlanta's biggest brands, are facing consumer boycott threats after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed new voting restrictions into law last week. Social media posts carrying the hashtags #BoycottDelta, #BoycottDeltaAirlines and #BoycottCocaCola proliferated on Twitter as critics of the Republican-backed legislation accused the two Atlanta-based companies of not having done enough to stop its passage. While voting rights advocates called for companies to condemn the Republican initiative in recent weeks, Delta issued carefully worded statements on the importan...

Many Club Members Clueless About Delta, United Frequent-Flier Changes

Many Club Members Clueless About Delta, United Frequent-Flier Changes

By Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Two of the nation’s largest airlines, United and Delta, have adopted major changes to their loyalty reward programs that experts say will benefit the airlines at the expense of passengers. But most reward program members are unaware of the changes, a survey found.

Of the reward club members who are aware of the changes, the new rules may be chasing off more travelers than it attracts, according to an online survey of more than 1,000 reward club members who have flown in the last year.

“They have upset more people than they have pleased with these changes,” said Brian Karimzad, director of the website that sponsored the survey, MileCards.com, which monitors and rates reward programs.

Starting Jan. 1, Delta’s SkyMiles program was overhauled to offer members reward miles based on how much money they spend instead of the number of miles flown. United’s MileagePlus program switched to a similar system March 1.

The changes mean that high-paying fliers in the front of the plane earn more points than passengers in the economy section of the same flight.

But Karimzad’s survey found that 67 percent of United fliers and 69 percent of Delta fliers were unaware of the changes.

“People have some real choices here,” he said. “If people sit down and look at what they earn, they might twice think about booking United or Delta on their next flight.”

According to the survey, 26 percent of United fliers who knew about the changes said they were less likely to book with the carrier, 11 percent said they were more likely, and 63 percent said the changes to the program made no difference.

For Delta fliers, 23 percent said they were less likely to book on the carrier because of the changes, and 16 percent said they were more likely to book, with the balance saying it made no difference, according to the survey.

In response to the survey, Delta said the airline had increased award seat availability and improved the online shopping experience. United said the carrier made a serious effort to notify MileagePlus members about the changes, adding that “these changes provide additional value to our most loyal members.”

Faster, Satellite-Based Internet

Starting next year, passengers on Delta Air Lines’ long-haul domestic flights and routes to Latin America and the Caribbean will get to log on to a faster satellite-based wireless Internet.

The new system replaces an older air-to-ground system, giving passengers 20 times the bandwidth to stream movies, music and other entertainment.

The new system, built by GoGo Inc., of Itasca, Ill., is expected to deliver peak speeds of 70 megabits per second, faster than some home cable Internet connections, according to GoGo.

Delta said some of the funding for the Wi-Fi upgrade comes from the record profits the airline has reported over the last several months, thanks to lower fuel prices.

Boosting Wi-Fi speeds makes good business sense. About 66 percent of travelers say the availability of Wi-Fi on a plane influences their choice of airline, according to a 2014 survey of more than 1,000 adults by Honeywell Aerospace.

No U.S. Help Over Cheap-Fare Mistake

Bad news for travelers who booked ridiculously cheap flights with United Airlines: The federal government won’t force United to honor the fares.

The problem started when United’s website for Denmark travelers offered first-class trans-Atlantic tickets, from England, for as little as $51, among other super-cheap fares. United said the mistake was due to a miscalculation in the conversion of the Danish krone. The airline said it would not honor those tickets.

Thousands of travelers who booked the cheap tickets contacted the U.S. Department of Transportation, pointing out that federal rules forbid airlines to raise fares after they have been booked.

In a memo issued last week, the department’s enforcement office said the erroneous fares appeared on the United website for travelers from Denmark. The agency said it enforces only rules regarding fares that are marketed to U.S. consumers.

As for those U.S. travelers who booked the super-low fares by logging onto the website and identifying themselves as from Denmark, the federal agency said it wouldn’t get involved because such manipulation and misrepresentation demonstrated bad faith.

© 2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Image:Travis Wise, Flickr

Delta Suspends Flights To Israel, Cites Safety Concerns

Delta Suspends Flights To Israel, Cites Safety Concerns

London (AFP) — U.S. airline Delta said Tuesday it was indefinitely suspending flights between the United States and Israel, citing security concerns.

In a statement, the carrier said it had diverted a flight bound for Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport to Paris on Tuesday after “reports of a rocket or associated debris near the airport in Tel Aviv.”

The announcement comes as an Israeli assault on Gaza entered its third week, and world powers pushed for a truce between the Jewish state and Hamas militants.

“Delta has suspended service until further notice to and from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv and its New York-JFK hub,” the airline said in a statement.

“Delta, in coordination with the US Federal Aviation Administration, is doing so to ensure the safety and security of our customers and employees.”

The carrier said the diverted flight was a Boeing 747 with 273 passengers and 17 crew on board, adding it was “working to reaccommodate these customers.”

Working in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and others, Delta said it would continue to monitor the situation.

AFP Photo / Karen Bleier

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