Change of plans can happen. When things come up even at the last minute, you might be wondering what you can do, especially if you can’t get a refund. We have previously shared the policies of major US airlines on name changes and transfers. This time, let’s explore hotel policies on name transfers.

There’s no doubt that this pandemic has affected the world’s economy. The airline industry has been turned upside-down by this pandemic. Airlines have been continuously updating their policies to give more flexibility to travelers. As you may have read on our previous blog, airlines have waived change fees in response to COVID-19.

Change fees have been the standard in this industry for decades, with the unique exception of Southwest. On August 30th, United Airlines stunned all of us when they announced a very welcome, but unexpected change - getting rid of change fees permanently. This move makes United the first major U.S. legacy airline to do so. With low demand and fierce competition in the market, American and Delta followed United’s lead. Read on to find out what these changes mean for travelers.

Air travel today looks vastly different from what it was before. The fear of  COVID-19 transmission has significantly reduced the demand for air travel, causing airlines to cut back their flights. We’ve all been adapting to the new normal over the past several months and travel is now slowly coming back. 

While traveling by plane during this time may seem scarier than ever before, according to a recent study, the risk of getting infected on the plane is actually quite low. On a full flight, the odds of infection are just 1 in 4,300, and the odds lower to 1 in 7,700 if the airline has adopted the middle seat open policy. Note that current flights are also generally not full due to low demand in travel.

We will be back to traveling… soon. When that time comes, will travel look the same as before? Most likely not! We have witnessed how travel trends have changed during the pandemic and examined how it might look like post-pandemic. 

When travel does return, what travelers value won’t be the same as before. Surveys were conducted to better understand the preferences and attitudes of travelers - let’s explore the results!

This pandemic has upended the travel and hospitality industry. Some airlines filed bankruptcies while those airlines and hotels that are still running are continuing to update their safety measures to ensure your well-being. The travel industry has been ever-changing during this time - here are some updates from different areas in the industry.