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I’m curious how the “vaccinated Americans can travel to Europe this summer” will work. Does the US even have a central database of vaccinations?
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Apr 29, 2021 13:05
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smackfu posted:I’m curious how the “vaccinated Americans can travel to Europe this summer” will work. Does the US even have a central database of vaccinations? We do not, but many if not all states do. There's still a lot to be fleshed out here, and with multiple entities trying to vye for the market share (including the ICAO). Whatever the EU picks is going to have a leg up on the other options, but the integration points within the US alone would be staggering thanks to the cornucopia of system implementations in each state. Add the rest of the world to that and it's a cluster. My guess is there's going to be a two step process where you (somehow) verify your vaccination status with the state's system of record, thereby providing that in the form of a token of some kind that can be accepted and stored by the vaccination passport solution. This is somewhat analogous to MFA where your identity provider gives you a token (most often in the form of a QR code) that you can use with authenticator apps from Microsoft or Google to represent your ability to authenticate with external services. But I don't know anything for sure. 
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Apr 29, 2021 16:53
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We already have the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP, Yellow Card, whatever), I don't think we need to overengineer this solution.
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Apr 29, 2021 17:08
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Jeoh posted:We already have the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP, Yellow Card, whatever), I don't think we need to overengineer this solution. I agree, but this virus is a bit different so I don't know how many governments in fear of losing power are going to see it that way.
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Apr 29, 2021 17:58
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Also the yellow card isn’t digital so I guess you would have to have the airlines check it at check in. Honestly a passport stamp would probably be the easiest option.
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Apr 29, 2021 18:00
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smackfu posted:Also the yellow card isn’t digital so I guess you would have to have the airlines check it at check in. Sure, but how would you acquire one that is certified unless the government started maintaining all that data which they've expressly said they had no plans to do (via a combination of  and  I'm guessing) is providing it? Same challenges exist.
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Apr 29, 2021 19:12
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The US was allowing arriving flights from India up til yesterday, so I will not be surprised if summer plans get cancelled. Otoh, my cousin's missionary visa to Italy got approved so Europe is making all the bad decisions x_______x
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May 4, 2021 23:48
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We're US Citizens looking to go on a 2 city European trip this fall. We've found a deal on an aggregation site to go from Chicago -> Dusseldorf (one of the locations) and back. We were going to take that, then book a separate flight on the day we arrive from Dusseldorf to Zagreb (the other location). Since the trip isn't all one itinerary, will we have to go through customs in Dusseldorf, then go back through security for our flight to Zagreb? If so, how long should we allocate for that stopover? Is this very dumb? It will save about $600. EDIT: Reading this has laid out why it is probably a bad idea. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 17:56 on May 6, 2021 |
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May 6, 2021 17:37
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Grumpwagon posted:We're US Citizens looking to go on a 2 city European trip this fall. We've found a deal on an aggregation site to go from Chicago -> Dusseldorf (one of the locations) and back. We were going to take that, then book a separate flight on the day we arrive from Dusseldorf to Zagreb (the other location). Unprotected connections are not necessarily a bad idea, but there are most certainly risks and they're fairly well outlined in the article you linked. The real key here is flexibility; if you can give yourself a day up in the 'dorf between flights, you have plenty of time to absorb any delays or other issues that crop up. Go check out some of the Alt houses and see how many marks you can get on your coaster; it's a good time. Taking that approach means that you may lose a night of hotel cost if something goes tits up, but that's a lot less than $1200 in savings on the plane tickets. If you do this with the shorter connection, you'll clear immigration at DUS and go into the arrivals area like you were staying there. Go back upstairs and go through security for your flight to ZAG.
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May 6, 2021 19:46
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Grumpwagon posted:We're US Citizens looking to go on a 2 city European trip this fall. We've found a deal on an aggregation site to go from Chicago -> Dusseldorf (one of the locations) and back. We were going to take that, then book a separate flight on the day we arrive from Dusseldorf to Zagreb (the other location). I don't recommend doing that for the reasons your link says. I'd go with Mackieman's solution of taking a day in Dusseldorf between flights. Get over your jetlag, walk around a bit, be guaranteed to not have issues with the connection if your flight is 3 hours late, etc. That said, you would not have to clear immigration ("customs") in Dusseldorf under your initial plan. This is a major difference from the US, where all international arrivals have to clear immigration, even if they are taking a subsequent international flight. Just don't check your bags, as then you would have to clear immigration to get to baggage claim, and then go through security again from the start of the airport! Croatia is not in the Schengen zone until ~2024 (it being in the EU is not relevant for this type of travel), so your connection would stay in the "international" parts of Dusseldorf airport for an airside transfer, meaning you won't have to clear immigration until you get to Croatia. For security, often you have to clear it again if doing an international to international transfer, sometimes not. I think it depends on which country you're arriving from? Customs is also a different area from immigration -- customs is the last thing when you leave the airport after baggage claim in the EU, and like the US, it is not a serious check (no scanners, and I've never seen them do a spot-check, ever). Actually-implemented customs checks are much more common and stringent in poorer countries, because they tend to have high import tariffs on electronic goods, and thus where smuggling is much more common. Saladman fucked around with this message at 20:06 on May 7, 2021 |
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May 7, 2021 17:51
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What happens in that kind of connection if they lose your luggage for a day? We had that happen connecting from Amsterdam to Dublin on our way home to the US and luckily we had a day booked in Dublin so KLM could find our luggage but what if we didn’t?
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May 10, 2021 14:18
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smackfu posted:What happens in that kind of connection if they lose your luggage for a day? We had that happen connecting from Amsterdam to Dublin on our way home to the US and luckily we had a day booked in Dublin so KLM could find our luggage but what if we didn’t? Generally the airline will forward your baggage on via their metal or a partner carrier; most airlines have fairly liberal baggage interline agreements band a lost bag usually opens the doors to any number of options because your bag is being handled by a person.
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May 10, 2021 14:58
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Is there a thread like this for rental cars I'm missing? I am flying to ATL next month but my destination is hours away from Atlanta itself so I kind of need a rental car, but holy cow even the cheapest option I'm finding right now is going to be $400, which is as much as my flight and my AriBnB together. I assume there's no last minute deals since once you're there you either rent something or are stranded? E: Okay turns out that with my company's employee discount program I can cut that down to $260 which is much more palatable. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 02:14 on May 11, 2021 |
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May 11, 2021 01:41
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Is there a thread like this for rental cars I'm missing? I am flying to ATL next month but my destination is hours away from Atlanta itself so I kind of need a rental car, but holy cow even the cheapest option I'm finding right now is going to be $400, which is as much as my flight and my AriBnB together. I assume there's no last minute deals since once you're there you either rent something or are stranded? I don't think there's a thread for that. I think it just ends up tending to be too local to have any sort of sweeping international suggestions about how to get the cheapest rental car. I usually just check rentalcars.com, then pick the cheapest vendor and go to their website, and usually book there, although sometimes rentalcars.com gives you a free CDW or something, which is occasionally handy. There are a few generic tips (e.g. one-ways are more expensive, a week often costs the same as 4 or 5 days, 3 days is usually cheaper than 2, ...) but if your dates and location are fixed there's not much you can do really besides use a consolidator and see what prices different places offer. The only other trick is to look for non-major-international-chain car rental agencies, but I don't think I'd trust those in the US for the most part. In some countries that's a great way to save a ton of money, e.g. in Turkey I was able to get an SUV with a Turkish brand for 1/3rd the cost of any of the big internationals.
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May 11, 2021 12:23
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There’s also been news stories lately about how hosed the car rental market has been with car shortages and Hertz actually going bankrupt there for a bit so it’s certainly not business as usual.
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May 11, 2021 13:19
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Saladman covered the rental topics fairly well; I'll also throw out a plug for https://autoslash.com as I know a couple of the guys that run that service and they're prompt with responses. Corporate codes are indeed very helpful and I use them regularly with National to save a few (or sometimes many) bucks. For 22 Eargesplitten's specific situation, I'd also consider taking the MARTA into town a ways and see if you can find a local rental office. In many cases, airport rentals have seriously high tax rates that can be avoided by not renting from an airport location.
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May 11, 2021 14:34
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smackfu posted:There’s also been news stories lately about how hosed the car rental market has been with car shortages and Hertz actually going bankrupt there for a bit so it’s certainly not business as usual. Yeah i wanted to rent a car in Denver and it would have cost over 1k for a week.
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May 11, 2021 14:38
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Just booked a week-long car rental in Oahu for $1300 after taxes and fees  Thankfully work reimburses most of that as a travel benefit. It ain't great at the moment.
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May 13, 2021 23:16
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Nur_Neerg posted:Just booked a week-long car rental in Oahu for $1300 after taxes and fees I figured Oahu would be high simply because getting an updated fleet there requires more effort than, say, Salt Lake City.
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May 14, 2021 17:42
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Nur_Neerg posted:Just booked a week-long car rental in Oahu for $1300 after taxes and fees Are you renting that soon? I just reserved a rental at the end of July for $250.
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May 14, 2021 17:58
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dalstrs posted:Are you renting that soon? I just reserved a rental at the end of July for $250. It's in August, gonna check back in occasionally, I always pay at the counter so I can cancel and re-book if need be. I think my previous trips to other islands were in the ballpark of ~$400 for a full week, so was definitely a bit stunned.
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May 15, 2021 23:25
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The tripadvisor Maui forums (I'm not going, but I was doing some research on the island) had a thread a few weeks ago, apparently there are huge car shortages and they're getting tourists back in droves so it's driving the prices up significantly.
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May 16, 2021 02:12
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Nur_Neerg posted:Just booked a week-long car rental in Oahu for $1300 after taxes and fees I hope your car is at least like a 5-series or something, because otherwise that's insane, that's even more than renting an SUV in Cuba over Christmas, or an SUV in Iceland in the middle of summer, which I think are the two most expensive rentals I've ever done... and they were like 1/2 to 2/3rds your Oahu price.
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May 16, 2021 09:55
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HookShot posted:The tripadvisor Maui forums (I'm not going, but I was doing some research on the island) had a thread a few weeks ago, apparently there are huge car shortages and they're getting tourists back in droves so it's driving the prices up significantly. Circumstances have changed, but Turo was way cheaper than normal rental cars when I needed a car for a week or so in Hawaii.
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May 16, 2021 11:49
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HookShot posted:The tripadvisor Maui forums (I'm not going, but I was doing some research on the island) had a thread a few weeks ago, apparently there are huge car shortages and they're getting tourists back in droves so it's driving the prices up significantly. Tourists were renting U-hauls to tourist around the islands in
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May 16, 2021 22:00
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Beef Of Ages posted:For 22 Eargesplitten's specific situation, I'd also consider taking the MARTA into town a ways and see if you can find a local rental office. In many cases, airport rentals have seriously high tax rates that can be avoided by not renting from an airport location. That's a good idea, I always forget that bigger cities (sometimes) have practical public transportation options, I had thought of getting a lyft/uber to a place farther out but the price of the ride seemed like it would negate the savings. If I can find a car rental place near a MARTA stop that would be a lot more practical. I had to wait until my next paycheck to feel comfortable reserving a car and now the cheapest price with my work benefits is more expensive than I can find on Expedia, gently caress. I guess I'll look for a few more days.
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May 16, 2021 23:41
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Nur_Neerg posted:Tourists were renting U-hauls to tourist around the islands in Road to Hana in a U-Haul sounds great. Although looking at Google Street View, it looks like the Road to Hana is now more or less all pretty wide and with perfect paving and would be totally fine to do in a U-Haul without any effort.
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May 17, 2021 12:02
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Speaking of car rentals, I made a reservation for a car rental at Enterprise in Portland but due to flight changes, I'll be arriving 5 hours before the actual pickup time I set in the reservation. Do you think I'll have any issues when picking up the car? I tried modifying the reservation online but it will force me to make a whole new reservation and the prices have gone up by 50% already.
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May 29, 2021 06:02
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you could try calling them 
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May 29, 2021 08:14
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Associate Christ
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other people posted:you could try calling them I tried yesterday but the Enterprise call center wouldn't transfer me to that specific office because they said they weren't taking calls at that time. And to be honest, I want to keep my current pickup time in the reservation in case the flights are cancelled and I need to rebook again so I can have some flexibility. Last time I checked, if you are an hour+ late to pick up your reservation, they cancel it.
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May 29, 2021 08:52
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I expect the answer is, “you can take the car if it’s ready, and we can’t say if it will be ready.”
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May 29, 2021 14:24
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Yeah arriving 5 hours early is a doozy, it depends on how many cars they have in stock and how rented out they are, but if they've gone up by 50% they're probably pretty heavily rented. You might be lucky and "your car" was returned the evening before, or you might be unlucky and your car gets returned 2 hours before you wanted it, making you wait around as they clean it and etc. YMMV but it's probably worth calling and trying to change your time if you can do it without fees (which could mean you'd have to return your car on the final end 5 hours early, or pay an extra day, depending on what your reservation already had). 5 hours is a long time to potentially sit around in a Hertz parking lot. OTOH sometimes big rental agencies at airports don't even have a "your car" and you just walk up to the lot and take any car in that class, and whichever one you drive out with is "yours", so it depends how big the rental agency office at Portland's airport is too. Too many variables here for anyone to give you anything other than an educated guess, unless someone here knows a lot about Portland airport specifically.
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May 29, 2021 20:10
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Since we're in car rental chat, I'm gonna need to rent a car in august in Atlanta, from the airport, probably for at least a week or more. I already have the tickets. Is it worth making the reservation now? In normal times I wouldn't have ever bothered but all this talk about the rental market being hosed is making me nervous.
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May 31, 2021 20:39
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:Is it worth making the reservation now? There's no reason not to, with the major players. You can cancel 24 hours in advance, you don't pay until you get the keys, and you can watch for price drops in the meantime. Anecdote, I know, but I just watched the weekly rate in NC in October jump $100 in the week between when I checked prices and when I booked it. Going direct to the company got me the best rate, better than Priceline or Kayak. The airline had the best daily rate of all, but I really only needed a car for half the trip so I still saved money (plus hotel parking is $rear end).
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Jun 1, 2021 10:25
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Yeah with rental cars there's really no penalty to reserving early, there's almost always a way to cancel it without fees or penalties, unless you take the "save 5% and pay now upfront!" option that they sometimes offer. One benefit you can sometimes get with kayak or rentalcars.com or whatever is that they'll sometimes get you a CDW (full insurance) coverage at a much lower cost than the rental agency itself. I don't usually get the CDW, but every now and then I'm going somewhere where it's nice to have the extra comfort of mind, like a roadtrip with lots of gravel / unsealed roads, and in that case the third party websites are sometimes a much better deal. I did have to make a claim once with a car that I rented and insured through rentalcars.com where I'd done a couple hundred dollars of damage on the wheel well, and it was fine. Well, mostly. The car rental company did contact me a couple months later to say I had an unpaid car damage bill and they'd send it for collections, but I was able to get that sorted with just one email to them and Rentalcars.com, and I never had to pay anything. On that note, American Express also has a fantastic car rental policy -- it's a fixed price of something like $25/rental and you get full CDW, so it's a no-brainer to get. I've almost always gotten that in the past few years. Never had to make a claim, but AmEx has the best customer service ever, so I'm pretty confident in them if I ever did have an issue with a rental car.
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Jun 1, 2021 11:30
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Whats the best way to get notified about good deals on flights to specific locations? I set up an alert with Google flights but it just emails me every day that prices haven’t changed, and I hate it. I just want to know if prices drop below a certain price.
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Jul 7, 2021 20:04
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Snowy posted:Whats the best way to get notified about good deals on flights to specific locations? Kayak offers alerts but I don't know if they're daily like Google or triggered. Skiplagged has a notification feature through their app that is triggered, I believe.
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Jul 8, 2021 14:12
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Hey all, I have a ticket on Delta (Main Cabin [Q]) for an International flight in mid-august that I'd like to change to a slightly earlier date. Talked with Delta customer service and they said the earlier flight is fully booked. Fair enough. However, departure is from a country that is still undergoing COVID lockdowns and flights are getting constantly reshuffled. I asked customer service if I could get waitlisted for the earlier flight in case other passengers dropped out and they said it as impossible. Is my only alternative to try and go to the airport on the day of the earlier flight and see if I can get a seat that way? I imagine there's no "one weird trick here" just hoping to get some insight from more experienced people.
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Jul 12, 2021 22:58
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:Hey all, What flights are you looking at? I'm assuming you tried making this change online and the website wouldn't let you? Schedule changes with Delta sometimes do weird things like zeroing out flights for changes even though they're available for sale but there's no rhyme or reason to it that I've been able to discern. In any event, a schedule change on your existing flight should open the doors to fee-free changes to just about anything.
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Jul 12, 2021 23:11
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Beef Of Ages posted:What flights are you looking at? I'm assuming you tried making this change online and the website wouldn't let you? Schedule changes with Delta sometimes do weird things like zeroing out flights for changes even though they're available for sale but there's no rhyme or reason to it that I've been able to discern. I'm flying EZE-ATL on Aug 13 and I'd like to switch to the Aug 11 flight. Yeah, Delta isn't allowing changes through the website or app, at least for my tickets. Argentina has put some pretty strict restrictions on flights so poo poo is getting constantly rescheduled. The restrictions affect mostly locals and incoming flights (although obviously airlines don't want to fly in empty planes so it affects outgoing too). My hope is that people will end up canceling close if they aren't confident that they can't get a return flight, and I can essentially take their seat.
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Jul 12, 2021 23:36
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