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What we can't see at the moment: Skies over Suva, Fiji
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Hello travellers,
Self-isolation can be fun
I have been out of the house once, maybe twice in 7 days. That was to get bread from the delicious Bourke Street Bakery, and possibly some ginger crème brûlée tarts, which I will only admit if you saw me.
But I have enjoyed myself. Not by playing stupid internet games (The son's name is 'What'), or indulging in some push-up challenge (although aren't personal trainers muscles pretty?), but by getting along with work, and catching up on some streaming services series (Leavenworth and Tiger King - excellent documentary making).
Other than that, I am a bit bored with coronavirus this and COVID-19 that and exasperated by the decision making of some politicians (you know who you are) and the inability of older people and twenty/thirtysomethings to obey self-distancing guidelines.
As well as trying to keep up with (lack of) travel news, I've been catching up on some photo editing, so expect a minor avalanche of flight and hotel reviews over the next weeks.
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What happened last week?
Australia announced a total international travel ban; Qantas launched its partnership with BP, which I will report on later and airlines slashed capacity and frequency of both domestic and international flights, except for Qatar that increased some, and Emirates, which has grounded everything.
Most airlines have now extended status, re-booking deadlines, no fee exemptions etc. They have also started standing down staff, and closing lounges. We are experiencing game-changing decisions that will have impacts on travel for the longterm.
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What's coming up?
It's hard to know precisely, but inevitably more cities and states will be locked down here in Australia and overseas. More borders will be closed, and fewer people will fly, stay in hotels, etc.
One appeal I would make is to support hospitality workers as much as you can. It's hard if not impossible to do this for hotel and airline staff, but you can do it for restaurant and bar staff. We head out to a medium-priced restaurant at least once a week, so with some of our favourites offering take-out and/or home delivery, dive in. Spend what you would if you went out, and keep those workers employed.
Also, ZOOM is a great conferencing app, which will allow you to video and audio hook-up with a bunch of friends. It works and can be a lot of fun, as well as keeping you in touch with your isolated nearest and dearest.
You can catch up on posts from last week below. Until next week . . .
Happy Travels,
Stephen
2PAXfly
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Updates from
2PAXfly – Travel News, Airline Flight and Hotel Reviews
Love to fly? So do I.
In the 03/29/2020 edition:
*|MC:TOC|*
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By 2paxfly on Mar 27, 2020 11:13 am
Introduction Qantas up until now has offered no-fee cancellation if taking a flight credit for flights booked through until May 31 2020. Today, they have extended this, along with some other changes summarised below. Qantas Flight Credits now offered on flights to 31 July 2020 Qantas is now offering no-fee flight credits for any Qantas […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 26, 2020 09:12 am
Introduction With nearly every airline slashing flights or shutting down completely during this COVID-19 crisis, there is one airline that’s actually ramping things up. Qatar Airways adds flights Like many other airlines, Qatar recently shut down its A380 fleet. Well, now it is upgrading capacity on some routes by swapping out other aircraft, and replacing […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 25, 2020 02:26 pm
Virgin Australia has just grounded 125 aircraft, cut its network by 90%, sent 8,000 out of 10,000 staff home, and closed its lounge network, all this until May 31. It doesn’t stop there. Tiger Airways – the budget airline of the Virgin Australia group is downing wings immediately. Virgin Australia is trying to preserve its […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 25, 2020 12:11 pm
Introduction Qantas CEO has spent a bit of time recently slagging off the financial viability and management capabilities in the Virgin Australia Group, to the extent that Virgin CEO Paul Scarrah has complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). According to the Guardian, the ACCC Chairman: ‘[Rod] Sims slapped down Qantas CEO Alan Joyce for […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 25, 2020 11:10 am
Introduction Previously Virgin Australia announced it was cutting its capacity by 50%, now it is upping that to 90%, and that includes the suspension of TigerAir Australia domestic flights immediately. From midnight 27 March, until 14 June 2020, Virgin Australia will suspend services to 19 Australian destinations, temporarily: Albury Alice Springs Ayers Rock (Uluru) Ballina […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 25, 2020 10:26 am
The Prime Minister of Australia (Scott Morrison) announced a total travel ban on Australians travelling out of Australia from MIDDAY Wednesday 25 March. “There is a ban as of midday today for Australians leaving the country, other than for essential or compassionate grounds.” Greg Hunt, Health Minister Australian citizens who are permanent residents overseas will […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 24, 2020 08:00 am
Australian State and Federal Governments are closing things down. With several states ‘closing’ their borders, most particularly island Tasmania and South Australia, with Queensland talking in similar tones, it is likely that all airlines will be clipping their interstate wings. Virgin Australia As well as ceasing international routes, Virgin has made a statement that it […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 24, 2020 07:00 am
Introduction Before today’s announcement, Singapore Airlines was looking at reducing capacity by about 50%. That sounds very comfortable and relaxed in the light of the barely suppressed panic of their announcement today. Capacity cut, aircraft grounding Singapore Airlines will cut 96% of the capacity that had been originally scheduled until the end of April. This […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 24, 2020 04:00 am
UAE government suspends all passenger flights for 2 weeks from 25 March 2020 I’m writing this now because if yesterday is anything to go by, this information could be out of date in the next couple of hours! Yesterday Emirates announced it was shutting down all flights, and then 90 minutes later, reframed that to […]
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By 2paxfly on Mar 23, 2020 04:14 pm
Virgin Australia has withdrawn from its international routes and is substantially reducing its domestic schedule as part of its efforts to reduce domestic capacity by 50 per cent until 14 June 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Frequency reduction has been the main pathway to reducing capacity, but Virgin has now decided to […]
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