Air Travel

A Pakistan International Airlines flight flying from Lahore with 99 people on board crashed into a residential neighborhood in Karachi, Pakistan, as it was landing at Jinnah International Airport on May 22. At least 97 people were killed, while eight people on the ground were injured. Two passengers were found alive.

The flight was approaching the airport when the pilot reported engine trouble, issuing a mayday before losing contact with the airport tower. The cause of the crash was under investigation at press time.

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Dear Globetrotter:

The US airline jetBlue announced that, starting on May 4, face masks will be required for all passengers. Frontier Airlines will require face masks starting on May 8, both on flights and at ticket counters and gates. At the time of the announcements, no end dates were given. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines both now offer passengers face masks upon boarding but at press time did not require them.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Argentina announced on April 28 that it was banning arrivals and departures of all commercial flights, both international and domestic, until Sept. 1 — the longest such ban in the world at press time.

American Airlines is extending the validity period of all elite-status frequent-flyer-mile memberships — those of gold or platinum levels — to Jan. 31, 2022. Gold and platinum status is earned through reaching milestones in money spent on tickets and miles flown, and those milestones must be reached each year to maintain that status.

In addition to extending the validity period for elite-status members, American has also reduced the minimum expenditure and mileage levels required to reach elite status in 2020.

I read the account of the traveler Michael Burge and his wife (March ’20, pg. 52), who took an around-Australia cruise with Oceania Cruises and felt that $109 per person, each way, was too much to pay for the cruise line’s airport/port transfers. They found alternative transportation.

The South American airline conglomerate LATAM is leaving the airline alliance oneworld on May 1. Due to separately negotiated bilateral agreements, LATAM will continue to allow passengers to redeem miles from most oneworld airlines for LATAM flights, as well as allow members of those mileage programs to earn miles for flights purchased from LATAM.

My wife and I were about to take our first trip with Odysseys Unlimited (Newton, MA; 888/370-6765, odysseys-unlimited.com), and on Dec. 26, 2019, we made a deposit on the tour “Norwegian Splendor,” starting on May 17, 2020, to visit Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Then we discovered their very rigid air policy. For one thing, we could not book a day-early arrival at our first stop before the main tour due to, as they claimed, “our airline contracts.”