U.S. President Joe Biden wants American lawmakers to limit certain airline and hotel fees. Speaking before a session of the White House Competition Committee, Biden said Congress should restrict airline seat-assignment fees imposed on families trying to sit together, so-called resort fees that many hotels now tack on to the bill, excessive service charges on tickets for concerts and sporting events, and fees to switch or cancel internet, cable or cellphone service. These unfair fees add up,” he said. “Some airlines charge extra to pick your seat, including for parents who just want to sit next to their child on Read more
Canada
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA – Canadians are flocking back to Florida in near-record numbers. Following nearly three years of declining numbers, Canadian visits to Florida are very nearly back to 2019 levels, tourism officials have announced. Speaking to media at this year’s Florida Huddle tourism event in West Palm Beach, VISIT FLORIDA executives said a surge in Canadian visits to the Sunshine State last fall resulted in 1.04 million visits from Canada. That’s just 4.5% below the fourth quarter figure of 1.09 million for 2019. It’s also the first quarter since the start of the pandemic that saw Florida attract Read more
The Trudeau government is extending its testing requirements for visitors arriving in Canada from China and Hong Kong. Ottawa last night (Feb. 2) put out the following statement: In response to the increasing spread of COVID-19 and its variants in the People’s Republic of China and limited epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data available on these cases, the Government of Canada announced temporary pre-boarding test requirements and arrival screening effective January 5, 2023, for most travellers arriving on flights originating from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong or Macao. On February 4, 2023, at 12:01 a.m. EST, we are Read more
A new era has launched for Porter Airlines, and for Canadian travellers. Toronto-based Porter on Wednesday (Feb. 1) began flying jets for the first time as part of a massive expansion effort that threatens to shake up the industry. Porter on Wednesday flew its new Embraer E195-E2 jets from Toronto Pearson Airport to Montreal Trudeau and Ottawa International, its first ever jet flights. Until this week, Porter had flown exclusively out of the Toronto Island/City Centre Airport using De Havilland propeller planes. Service on the Toronto Pearson-Ottawa route has four daily, non-stop return flights. Porter is offering three daily, non-stop Read more
The federal government admits it spent nearly $400 million of taxpayer dollars over on its designated COVID-19 quarantine facilities during the pandemic. Figures supplied to the media by the Public Health Agency of Canada state that the government spent more than $388 million to run 38 designated quarantine sites across the country between March 2020 and September 2022. The facilities were consistently criticized as overpriced and badly managed, with people complaining bitterly about poor food, cold meals and crowded lobbies with would-be quarantine passengers mingling together. “DQF’s (Designated Quarantine Facilities) and alternate sites were active in a total of 14 Read more
