Categories
Health

As soon as Once more, Vacationers Ask: ‘Ought to I Cancel My Journey?’

Despite the hospital intensive care units buckling again and the death toll already surpassing 2020 numbers, officials are reluctant to reopen the lockdowns. The result is arbitrary restrictions that vary by city: Chicago enacted an indoor masks mandate Tuesday, joining Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC; New York City Requires Proof of Vaccination for Indoor Dining; While in Las Vegas, event organizers are exempt from the state mask requirement indoors if they can demonstrate that all attendees are fully vaccinated.

Updated

Aug. 21, 2021, 10:11 p.m. ET

But as sporting events progress, restaurants continue to sit indoors and outdoors, and music festivals like the recent Lollapalooza in Chicago determine whether the shows will go on, the decision whether to travel or not is now a personal one.

The reactions to the delta variant are correspondingly different. Zeta Global, a marketing tech company tracking American travel behavior, reports an inverse trend based on vaccination status: hotel stays in states with high vaccination rates have declined in recent months, and trips to hotspots like Florida are among those against Covid-19 19 are vaccinated, but has gained weight in those who are not.

Southwest and Frontier Airlines lowered their earnings expectations this quarter as flight demand slackened. Many airlines were betting on an increase in business travel this fall, which was only just beginning to recover. But as companies, including Facebook and Coca-Cola, are scaling back their plans for going back to the office in the face of the variant, fears that business travel will return to a full streak.

“We observe two different consumer behavior. One is when you make a decision with your own dollars and one when you make a decision with your company’s dollars, ”said Jan Freitag, senior vice president of Accommodation Insights for STR, a hospitality research firm.

Ron Bension, President and Chief Executive of ASM Global, the world’s largest event management company, said that due to the long lead time of conventions and large business events, Delta has simply extended the status quo created in March 2020 and has already canceled. What we’re seeing isn’t a lot of rebooking, ”he said.

For Americans hungry for travel, the Delta variant has brought back a practice well sharpened by the pandemic: waiting.

Categories
World News

Rising Covid Instances Drive Organizers to Cancel New Orleans Jazz Fest

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has been canceled, officials said Sunday, citing the “exponential growth of new Covid cases in New Orleans and the region.”

The festival, which usually takes place in the spring, has been postponed to October 8-17 in the hopes that vaccinations would make the event possible. Ticket holders will receive emails shortly describing the refund options.

Coronavirus infections hit a record high in Louisiana this month, with the state reporting an average of 4,600 new cases per day over the past week, according to a New York Times database. Hospital stays rose 140 percent to an average of 2,037 per day, and deaths rose 193 percent to an average of 30 per day.

Louisiana reintroduced indoor masking requirements this month in an attempt to contain infections fueled by the state’s low vaccination rate and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus. Only 37 percent of the state’s population, including children under 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccination, have been fully vaccinated, according to the New York Times.

Categories
Business

Airways cancel most NYC-area flights forward of snowstorm

Airlines canceled most of the New York City area flights scheduled for Monday ahead of a strong winter storm that is likely to bring high winds and heavy snow to the area. Local officials also urged people to stay away from streets.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a large number of travel restrictions, flight schedules were already drastically below the norm.

Three quarters of scheduled departures from John F. Kennedy International Airport, or 151 flights, have been canceled, as has 86%, or 102 flights, from LaGuardia Airport, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. Nearly 70% of departures from the United Airlines Hub Newark Liberty International Airport have also been canceled. A snow storm canceled about a quarter of departures from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Sunday.

Airlines stopped charging ticket exchange fees last year in an effort to boost bookings amid the pandemic. However, several major airlines said they will not charge fare differentials for travelers hit by the winter storm.

According to Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, travelers can change their tickets to and from more than two dozen airports in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast without paying a price difference if they can rebook by Saturday. New York-based JetBlue Airways said travelers won’t have to pay the fare difference if they can travel through Friday, while United had a similar policy if customers rebook on Sunday. All airlines encouraged the customer to check with their airline for updated information.