7/22/20 News Roundup: Israel Flights, COVID-19 Thoughts, Cuomo, AA Adding Flights, JetBlue Ditching Long Beach, Hertz “Improvements”, DOT Complaint, Elon’s Negative Fine, And More!

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In case you missed it, bumping for your Sunday reading pleasure 🙂

Some stories and deals don’t get their own post, but should get some coverage. Here are some quick takes on stories that caught my eye.

View previous roundups and commentary here.

Featured Trip Reports Of The Day

  • DDF Trip Report:

DDF member ponash123 writes about an awesome trip to Sri Lanka. Plus, it’s not every day that you connect somewhere via the Maldives!

 

  • DD Trip Report:

I flew in DeltaOne Suites to Amsterdam with DDF member AJK last year for just 98K Skypesos, though it feels like it was a decade ago. I’m pretty sure I’m going through withdrawal symptoms.

I haven’t stepped on a plane in 139 days, which is the longest I’ve been grounded since I was a teenager.

COVID-19, Weekly Flights To Israel-18

There were supposed to be a record 101 weekly flights between North America and Tel Aviv this summer:

  • Boston: 3 weekly flights on El Al (777-200)
  • Chicago: 3 weekly flights on El Al (787-9)
  • Dallas: 3 weekly flights on American (787-9)
  • JFK: 14 weekly flights on Delta (A330-300), 17 weekly flights on El Al (787-9)
  • Los Angeles: 5 weekly flights on El Al (787-9).
  • Las Vegas: 1 weekly flight on El Al (787-9).
  • Miami: 4 weekly flights on El Al (787-9).
  • Montreal: 3 weekly flights on Air Canada (A330-300)
  • Newark: 14 weekly flights on United (787-10, 777-300), 11 weekly flights on El Al (777-200, 787-9)
  • Orlando: (1 weekly seasonal flight on El Al in 2019 on 777-200 or 787-9).
  • San Francisco: 7 weekly flights on United (777-300), 3 weekly flights on El Al (787-9).
  • Toronto: 7 weekly flights on Air Canada (787-9), 3 weekly flights on El Al (787-8).
  • Washington DC: 3 weekly flights on United (777-200)

With more than half of those flights operated by El Al, who would have thought that there would now be zero El Al flights?

Currently there are just 18 flights between North America and Tel Aviv:

  • JFK: 5 weekly flights on Delta (A330-300)
  • Newark: 7 weekly flights on United (787-10)
  • San Francisco: 3 weekly flights on United (787-9)
  • Toronto: 3 weekly flights on Air Canada (787-9)

More flights will be coming online in the coming months, but they will pale in comparison with what should have been a banner year for flights to the holy land.

Next year’s numbers are anyone’s guess, but a lot will depend on the trajectory of El Al’s recovery from their current lows.

Delta Calls The Bluff Of People Requesting A Mask Exemption

While all US airlines require a mask for travel, some people have been falsely claiming a medical exemption in order to avoid having to use a mask.

Delta is now asking these people not to fly or if they do want to fly, to show up at the airport for a process that can take over an hour to get medical clearance to not wear a mask. They will have to have a virtual consultation with a healthcare professional who will have to give clearance.

Delta also warns that false claims will result in being added to a no-fly list until mask restrictions have been lifted.

COVID-19 Thoughts

It’s depressing to see how the disease has become so politicized.

Many of my readers have seen firsthand how devastating it can be as NY metro was hit fast and furious. The US doesn’t seem to have the will to tackle it as one nation. Many countries have successfully crushed the curve, but it took a joint and united effort. It will be a long time before Americans are welcome into places like Canada and Europe once again.

The WSJ discusses the benefits that any kind of mask provides (here is a non-subscriber link). That of course leads to the question, why did the CDC originally say not to wear a mask?

Dr Fauci says that before we knew about asymptomatic and presymptomatic spread, there was no need for a mask. If only he read DDF in early March… But when that became clear, the top priority was to get all masks into medical hands and not have civilians buy up the supply, so they continued to advise not to wear a mask even when it would have helped.

I still don’t understand why that couldn’t be made clear, as it was when Americans were told to use cloth masks, but c’est la vie.

Somehow masks have become one of the most dividing issues in our country, but of one thing there’s no doubt. Asian countries with strong mask protocols have done really well at breaking the COVID-19 curve. Simple experiments shows that masks work and they work well.

Based on comparing 2 cruises, one before masks were worn, and one with masks, it seems like masks may also decrease the viral load that is transmitted. Without masks only 18% of those infected were asymptomatic, but with masks 81% of those infected were asymptomatic. Total viral load transmitted has been thought to be a reason why some cases are so much more severe than others.

On the other hand, Switzerland is warning that face shields do not work when used without a mask.

Then again, America is uniquely poorly suited to combat an enemy like the Coronavirus. The federal government isn’t able to just impose its will on the states even if it wanted to.

If the federal government could mandate anything, the right move would have been a 2 week complete lockdown, all flights grounded, and then a reopening that required mask usage. The real problem is that we entered a lockdown under panic without an exit strategy, which drove people to despair. And now we have a record number of cases and high positivity rate along with people wary of further lockdowns.

While there are certainly some deaths blamed on COVID-19 that may not have been caused by the virus, the fact is that far more people are dying this year than we would normally expect. The excess death rate in Florida implies a severe undercounting of COVID-19 deaths. But Florida isn’t alone. Many states and countries are undercounting their COVID-19 death rate based on the extremely high death rate seen around the globe over the past several months.

In the meantime, while we are better able to treat the disease, the mortality rate remains stubbornly high. Part of the problem is that Doctors can’t reach a consensus on how to best treat patients.

The current infection fatality rate is estimated at somewhere between 0.5% and 0.8%, with the CDC’s best guess currently at 0.65%. That’s many times deadlier than the flu and it’s close to the 0.75% mortality rate that I guesstimated back in April.

Also worrisome are the long-term effects, of which there are many:

I know of several people that still don’t have normal smell and taste back, months after being infected.

DDF member mickeyg, who fought for weeks against COVID-19 in the hospital, reports that he lost his hearing and has tinnitus. Hearing loss is a symptom of COVID-19 that has been overlooked.

People like Richard Quest have shared the long-term issues they have.

It all may result from brain disorders found even among people who had mild COVID-19 cases.

And then there are the autopsies from COVID deaths all show severe blood clotting. In Israel, researchers think they may be able to tackle that aspect of COVID-19.

Unfortunately I haven’t seen any great studies looking at what percentage of people have long-term issues. But as usual, the death rate gets the headlines over the injury rate.

There’s still depressingly little that we understand about COVID-19.

How is it possible that my friend and I both were infected in February and neither of our spouses caught it? Both of our wives tested negative for antibodies and none of our combined 10 kids had any symptoms. It’s a common question that people ask on DDF as well.

It certainly gives credence to the super-spreader theory that 5-10% of people infect 80% of the population. The NY Times writes more on the super-spreader theory of COVID-19. But why are some people able to infect hundreds while most people don’t spread it at all? And if so few people are spreading it, why can’t we get this thing under control?

Also interesting, Chase figures that there’s a direct correlation between in person dining and COVID-19 spikes:

You can find lots of incredible graphs on the 91-DIVOC site here.

In the more surprising department, the American Academy of Pediatrics is strongly pushing for kids to go back to school. The long-term effects of kids having to do another year via Zoom are hard to compare with COVID-19, but as a parent I sure hope our kids can get back to physical school. Unfortunately there may be consequences in either direction no matter what local districts decide.

But if they have to keep all of the kids quarantined in school for the whole year, then so be it! 😉

Cuomo Vs COVID-19 In NY: Epic Failure Or Epic Success?

Perhaps nothing is as divisive as the case of COVID-19 in NY.

Governor Cuomo crows repeatedly about how the state crushed the curve and what a great job he did. He has ordered a quarantine for 31 other states that are now battling rising COVID-19 numbers.

But praise for crushing the curve goes to countries like New Zealand that did it without massive loss of life. The mortality rate in NY was worse than in Italy and the mortality rate in NYC was worse than in Italy’s epicenter of Lombardy.

The WSJ writes about his many failures during the actual crisis.

The NY Times writes about the thousands that died in NY nursing homes due to Cuomo’s orders.

The NY Post writes that it’s nuts to praise NY as being successful against the Coronavirus.

The governor took his show on the road to educate Georgia on how to win the battle against COVID-19. Why not educate via zoom? Because rules apply for thee, but not for me as he won’t quarantine upon his return. It must be nice to be able to classify yourself as essential.

After all, NY and NJ were home to some 50,000 COVID-19 deaths, about a third of the total in the entire country.

The JTA writes about how the Jewish community in Brooklyn has long since gone back to normal, as the assumption is they already reached herd immunity. Here’s to hoping that immunity is long lasting or else all bets are off. While there are reports of igG antibody levels dropping off after a few months, the hope is that T-cells will remember how to develop new antibodies for lasting immunity. Those spreading doom and gloom about immunity dropping off are hopefully wrong or talking about one-off situations, but we won’t know until it’s potentially too late to react.

DDF member biobook gives an excellent rundown on the different types of immunity that the body has.

The 1st wave of Spanish Flu in the spring of 1918 was bad, but the 2nd wave of the Spanish Flu in the fall/winter of 1918 was devastating. But diseases spread much faster now due to air travel and so once again, here’s hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.

It certainly seems plausible, but reaching herd immunity in NY creates a very different narrative than the one the governor is pushing. With about 23,000 COVID-19 deaths in NYC out of 8.4 million residents, that’s a fatality rate of 0.274% of the total population, one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world. If that’s what it takes to reach herd immunity and we extrapolated that rate across the country, it would mean 900,000 dead Americans, versus the current total of 144,000.

Based on those numbers, the country is nowhere close to herd immunity.

The Vaccine Front Looks Promising

The best chance for things to go back to normal remains an effective vaccine.

Things are looking up there. Never before has so much money and man hours been put into developing a vaccine and those investments appear to be paying dividends.

Moderna’s vaccine shows that it provides immunity, as do vaccines from Pfizer and from Oxford and AstraZeneca. Those are all part of Operation Warp Speed investments approved by President Trump that will grant early access for Americans.

You can follow vaccine progress here.

Mass trials and studies from all age groups are underway and assuming that all goes well and the vaccine proves to be both safe and effective, we’ll hopefully be able to make a return to the good old days early next year.

Israel is looking into locking up several vaccines as well, so hopefully things will get back to normal there in the not too distant future.

But one thing is for certain, we’ll never forget the century known as 2020.

Do We Really Trust Hotels To Keep Us Safe?

Airlines and hotels keep on telling us how they’ve stepped up their cleaning efforts to keep their guests safe from COVID-19.

Inside Edition put some NYC hotels to the test. I wish I could say I was surprised, but sadly, I’m not. The results are depressing and gross.

I do love that the Trump Hotel said fake news in their response. Very on brand!

Where Are The Preemies?

The NY Times has a fascinating article on the extreme drop in premature deliveries in many locations that were locked down, and continuing even after lockdowns were lifted.

Premature births have massive financial and long-term health costs, so are there any lessons for the future about why the preemie numbers dropped so much?

Stress can cause premature labor, so the dropoff seems even more odd as people were more anxious than ever.

Could it be as simple as more rest during lockdown?

That might answer for first time mothers, but if a mother has kids at home from school, she seems less likely to get rest than she would have otherwise.

Or as the joke went during lockdown:

 

Lower air pollution is one theory.

Another theory that makes sense to me is that pregnant women simply caught fewer viruses.

With our kids home from school, it was very obvious that we had a big drop in the typical seasonal bugs and runny noses. Viruses have been knows to cause expectant women to go into premature labor.

Not mentioned in the article, but another possibility is that women are more reluctant to go to the hospital for delivery during the pandemic unless they are truly in active labor.

What’s your theory?

United’s New CEO Attempts To Justify Trying To Cheat Customers

The WSJ sat down with new United CEO Scott Kirby to discuss flying through COVID-19 (here is a non-subscriber link).

I’m not exactly a fan. Nor do I think he’s the right man to lead United out of a pandemic, try as he might to cut his way to profitability. Or as former Continental CEO and author of “From Worst to First“ Gordon Bethune put it, “you can make a pizza so cheap, nobody will eat it.”

The DOT called out United’s pandemic practices as unfair and deceptive.

When the WSJ asked Mr. Kirby about whether he regretted making that decision he gave this non-answer, “You have to judge decisions in the moment when you make them with what you know. If we were doing it again, we know a lot more about it so we might make a different decision. But we just didn’t know much.”

The instinct to try to cheat your customer based on a lack of knowledge is telling.

He goes on to justify not blocking middle seats as it’s impossible to socially distance. But while it’s true that 6 feet is likely impossible, surely having a couple feet is better than a couple of inches?

He says the air filtration helps and that’s true in general, but it doesn’t help if your seatmate sneezes of coughs right on you.

But I guess that’s not a surprise from an airline that says kosher meals are only safe if you’re flying to Tel Aviv.

Delta is going to come out of this pandemic looking better than ever in the eyes of the consumer.

Why Is American Adding Flights While Delta And United Are Cutting?

The WSJ has a great story on why American keeps on adding flights (here is a non-subscriber link).

While Delta and United have been aggressively cutting flights, American has been adding them back and bringing their planes back online.

Does American know something that Delta and United don’t?

Apparently so.

Their flights are 70% full and they only regret not adding more flights in July.

But American also has pressure that no other US airline is facing. Over the past booming decade they plowed more than 100% of their free cash flow into stock buybacks that left the company saddled with more debt than their peers. American was livid at Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun when he suggested that a US airline could go under because of COVID-19 and American CEO Doug Parker let him know his displeasure.

The article points to Brian Znotins as the mastermind behind American’s strategy.

I met Mr. Znotins at United’s Chicago Headquarters back in 2012 and was blown away by the route planning session he gave us. His passionate airline industry knowledge and insight was such a pleasure to listen to. He predicted back then that we would see Chicago-Tel Aviv when the 787-9 came online. It took a while, but in September that aircraft type will indeed fly that route.

Mr. Znotins has since moved to American and he pointed out that American could make money by having just 20% of a flight’s full capacity occupied.

In normal times, airlines need about 80% flight occupancy to turn a profit, but these are not normal times. The government is paying for airline employee salaries through September regardless of whether they work or not. Planes are parked and they need regular maintenance regardless of whether they are flying or not. The main variable cost is fuel, which is not as cheap as it was a couple months ago, but is still relatively inexpensive.

Mr. Znotins sold Mr. Parker in just 10 minutes and the rest is history. Mr Parker summed up the session by saying “It was completely contrary to what others were saying at the time, but it sounded really smart.”

That sums up Mr. Znotins pretty well!

American Won’t Budge On Middle Seats, But They Will Add Touchless Checkin

I’m not quite sure why American is taking all the flak for selling of middle seats when United never blocked middle seats, but some senators aren’t happy. Will this be the condition they add onto the next airline bailout?

 

The NY Times writes about airlines having empty rows while crowding people together in other rows.

It’s just absurd.

But in the meantime, you can now check bags on American without touching a screen:

Goodbye To The Queen Of The Skies

The Boeing 747 can’t catch a break.

Qantas recently flew their final 747 flights.

 

They even drew a kangaroo in the sky:

https://twitter.com/Qantas/status/1285873193840816130

 

And now British Airways will be retiring their fleet of 31 747s. That retirement is effective immediately. The airline and its predecessor has been operating the aircraft type for over half a century.

Boeing has also quietly retired the venerable plane. The era of powerful 4 engine passenger planes has officially come to a close. It’s a sad day for AvGeeks.

When the pandemic is over, it will nearly impossible to fly on a classic 747-400 aircraft, but luckily Air China, Korean Air, and Lufthansa fly the newer 747-8 aircraft, so the beautiful queen will (hopefully!) live to see another day.

Alaska Will Join OneWorld This Year

Earlier this year I wrote about my fears of Alaska joining OneWorld in 2021.

More bad news. Due to COVID-19 this has been fast-tracked and will happen this year.

If you want to take advantage of Alaska’s amazing award chart, now is the time to book travel before that is devalued.

JetBlue Wishes Long Beach Adieu 

I was in yeshiva in Los Angeles when JetBlue started flying nonstop between JFK and Long Beach. They were really a great airline back then, before they forced their founder out and started copying the cuts from the major network carriers.

American was so scared of JetBlue that they too started service between JFK and Long Beach and they offered a free ticket anywhere in the world if you flew the route twice. I wound up earning 7 tickets to anywhere that American flew!

AA eventually gave up and JetBlue took over, but the city of Long Beach was never really comfortable or happy with JetBlue’s operations there. The city fined the airline for curfew violations and residents never liked the extra noise and flights. Long Beach never did become the powerhouse west coast hub that it could have been as Boston, Fort Lauderdale, and JFK are on the east coast for JetBlue.

Long Beach is a great little airport, but JetBlue has had enough of their shenanigans. JetBlue will cease operations at their one-time west coast hub as of October 7th.

As of 10/7 they will fly over 30 daily flights from LAX to Austin, Boston, Bozeman, Buffalo, Fort Lauderdale, JFK, Newark, Las Vegas, Orlando, Reno, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle. Routes in bold will have Mint business class available.

JetBlue hopes to operate 70 daily flights from LAX within the next 5 years. They’ll need to find more gate space to do that.

JetBlue will continue to fly from other SoCal airports: Burbank, Ontario, Palm Springs, and San Diego.

Hertz Is Just Too Good To Me

I used CLEAR Fast Lane at Hertz in January to book it from the plane to my nephew’s bris in under 15 minutes and make it right on time for tip-off.

They now let me know that they are taking the time to improve my experience by removing the CLEAR Fast Lane and delinking my account!

Thanks Hertz!

Imagine a world where companies were just honest with their customers: “Sorry, we’re too broke to pay CLEAR for Fast Lane anymore! Good luck making it out in less than half an hour next time!”

Friends Don’t Let Friends Fly Spirit

You can fly from Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia on American for dirt cheap right now.

Or you can fly Spirit from Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia…

 

Or Spirit from Puerto Rico…

I said it last week and I’ve said it before, Friends Don’t Let Friends Fly Spirit.

OK, Not Everything Is Bad At Spirit

When a 4 year old had a medical emergency in the air flying from Puerto Rico to Philadelphia, Spirit diverted the flight to get her medical help.

But after she recovered, they were stuck in Providenciales without a passport and the airport was closed due to COVID-19.

Incredibly, Spirit sent a plane to pick her up. Good PR? Sure, but I’m happy to give credit where credit is due:

As American Pulls Back In LA, United Steps Back Up

Earlier this year it seems that United would pull back from LAX and close their pilot base there.

But after American announced that they would end most long-haul flights from LAX, United jumped right back into things:

No Shock: American DOT Formal Complaint Is Withdrawn

After American’s shocking response to a formal DOT complaint, it’s no surprise to see that the complainant has asked the DOT to withdraw the original complaint.

Word to the wise, don’t file a formal complaint unless you have nothing to hide.

American Moves To LHR T5

American once planned on building out a flagship lounge at London Heathrow’s T3. Instead they have moved to T5 in order to be with OneWorld partner British Airways.

That will make connections easier, but it means American passengers lose out on Cathay and Qantas lounge access in T3 in favor of crowded BA lounges in T5.

While Some Airlines Threaten Furloughs, Southwest Gets Buyouts

US airlines are threatening to furlough hundreds of thousands of employees as they lobby for another bailout.

Southwest has proven that there’s no need to do so. By offering a generous buyout package, they were able to get 28% of their employees to take an early retirement.

Besides for not needing a bailout, the advantage of getting employees to take an early retirement is that you get older, more expensive, and less enthusiastic workers off of your payrolls. When airlines need to lay off employees, they have to fire the youngest workers that get paid the least due to union rules.

Congress should tell the airlines to copy Southwest when they come hat in hand looking for a 2nd bailout.

Gogo Inflight WiFi Will Work At Lower Altitudes

While Gogo’s 2Ku service has speedy gate to gate service, the previous generation of Gogo inflight WiFi currently doesn’t work below 10,000 feet. That means on a short hop there is very little usable time.

Gogo says they will start enabling aircraft to have usable Wifi above 3,000 feet. That will mean an extra 20 minutes or so of browsing, which sounds great to me!

Finally: E-ZPass Will Work Throughout Florida

A major pain point of toll transponders is that they don’t work across the country. They were supposed to years ago…

Flying into Miami and renting a car is always a pain as you’ll get slammed with massive fees for using a rental car’s toll transponder for the airport road toll.

But E-ZPass is now saying that they will work throughout Florida by the end of 2020.

Being able to bring my E-ZPass transponder to Florida sounds pretty great, here’s hoping it gets done this year as promised!

Europe Misses Americans

2021 should be a good time to tour Europe.

While Europeans famously give Americans poor service and mock the stereotypical American tourist, the WSJ writes about how the continent is reeling from this summer’s dearth of Americans (here is a non-subscriber link).

While American tourists might expect everyone to speak English and stand out like a sore thumb, we also spend more money and tip much better than tourists from other countries. Europeans are realizing that now with American tourists being told to stay away and many places on the brink of closing down.

Hopefully we’ll have a vaccine widely distributed and things can go back to normal for next summer. Except perhaps with better service for American tourists coming to save the day?

Pssst…Want A New Passport?

With Americans locked out of travel to most countries, Caribbean countries are discounting the price of their own passports.

For example, St. Lucia normally awards citizenship to a family of 4 if you buy a $600K bond for 5 years. It pays no interest, but you’ll get passports right away and your money back at the end of the term. Due to COVID-19 they’re offering 50% off that fee and it would allow you to travel to countries that have banned Americans.

Buying a passport to skirt current travel rules like that might bring the ugly American stereotype to a whole new level!

Europe Will Start Enforcement Actions Against Airlines Refusing Refunds

The European Commission announced that they will start enforcing their rules against airlines that have been avoiding handing out refunds for cancelled flights.

The US DOT already announced that they would do the same.

Here’s hoping the airlines of the world realize that cheating your customer and holding their cash hostage is a really bad long-term play. I’m looking at you Air Canada and El Al.

Canada Won’t Let The Blue Jays Play Ball In Toronto

Canada crushed the COVID-19 curve with a low loss of life. Now they’re making it clear that baseball won’t be an exception to the country’s strict entry ban.

With a hotel attached to the stadium, I figured that there might be a way to quarantine visiting players, but that won’t happen in 2020.

But Toronto’s loss looks to be Buffalo’s gain as that city is the favorite to host the team for the 2020 season.

Don’t Expect To Attend NFL Games Either

The NY Giants and Jets won’t have fans at their games this fall. I doubt other teams will have fans either.

Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that there will be home games in a high contact sport like the NFL, but we’ll have to see how things look in the fall.

Athletes aren’t immune from COVID-19. Atlanta Braves All Star Freddie Freeman thought he was a goner when his temperature hit 104.5.

Elon Musk’s SEC Fine Is Now Negative $107 Million

The SEC fined Tesla and eccentric Tesla CEO Elon Musk $20 Million each for this infamous tweet:

 

At the time, Elon bought $20 million in Tesla shares to make up for the $20 million fine handed to Tesla. Tesla was selling for about $260 a share at that point, which would net him about 77,000 share.

With Tesla trading at $1,650 per share at the time that I’m writing this, that $20 million fine is now worth $127 million!

Now that’s #TooMuchWinning

Meanwhile, Tesla fans are having the last laugh as many have struck gold with Tesla’s stock.

Twitter Is Mum On Last Week’s Attack

Last week an attacker hacked Twitter and spammed verified accounts such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett asking their followers to send Bitcoin and get back double the amount of Bitcoin in return.

Twitter took away the ability for all verified accounts to send Tweets for a period of time, including our @DansDeals account (all the more reason to get Telegram alerts!)

The scammer got 12.87 BTC, which is currently worth about $118,000, which begs the question, how many people are savvy enough to send Bitcoin, but gullible enough to fall for a scam like that?

But the scarier question is how much more damage could have been done. Imagine how much more money the scammer would have made if he had Gates or Buffet say they were dumping all of their stock in a company? Or if they had President Trump declare war?

Scary.

Coin Shortage? Bring Back The Dollar Coins!

Banks can’t get their hands on enough coins these days and some banks are paying people more than the face value of their coins to turn them in!

Some retailers are asking for exact change only.

I can’t be the only person who has watched someone in line pay with cash and wondered if I could ask them to swipe my card and give me the cash instead! 😀

For years I racked up hundreds of thousands of miles buying dollar coins from the mint on my credit card and then deposited them at local banks. If the mint restarts its direct ship program I’ll be happy to sell them at a premium to local banks!

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

The New York Mets pay Bobby Bonilla $1,193,248.20 every July 1st.

They have since 2011 and they will annually through 2035.

Why?

They owed him $5.9 million in 2000 and the Mets owners were making so much money on their “investments” with Bernie Madoff that they thought they would do better agreeing to pay Bonilla $30 million over 25 years starting 11 years from when the money was owed.

Lucky guy!

Share your thoughts on these stories or post a comment about other stories that I missed!

Previous roundups

Catch up on what you missed!

75 COMMENTS

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  1. Shmuel Lange
    Link Reply

    Is Senator Merkley wearing a Kippah???

  2. Avi
    Link Reply

    The REAL ID deadline has been extended: Now starting October 2021

  3. Abey
    Link Reply

    Regarding your comments about herd immunity: it does not necessarily mean 1 M deaths in the US, NY came hot and fast chaos in the hospitals unknown symptoms which all contributed to the death rate in NY . If you paid close attention to fauci and others they never said we can eradicate the virus (only with vaccine) all they said was to slow it down in order to not overwhelm the system. The only way to have avoided the virus was wuhan style which would never fly with Americans “freedom”

  4. united
    Link Reply

    Gotta love Fauci! His opening pitch tonight made Dan’s look like a Cy Young candidate!

  5. Wondering
    Link Reply

    Can less preemies be simply due to telehealth visits and less doctor intervention and inductions? Just my theory…

  6. dovi
    Link Reply

    Is hertz still renting to 19 y/o?

  7. ?
    Link Reply

    Liking the non subscriber links to WSJ. Thanks.

  8. More Bang for your Buck
    Link Reply

    Am I missing something? Why would the mint bring back dollar coins? There isn’t a dollar bill shortage. Is it just wishful thinking and reliving the memories?

  9. zow
    Link Reply

    LOL: make it right on time for tip-off.

  10. gemarakop
    Link Reply

    At the height of the pandemic the fbi was running around confiscating masks from people competent to get them while government agencies got scammed. Our government is simply a bloated incompetent bureaucracy.

  11. gemarakop
    Link Reply

    dont know where the hate for spirit they leave on time and unlike every airline they readily market themselves as cheap pay to breathe airline

      • gemarakop
        Link Reply

        Dan you probably never flew spirit so your missing vital piece of info. Spirit probably has the most efficient boarding due to the fact that everyone on the flight is flying with minimum baggage. I recently flew with boarding started 30 min late and the flight still landed early on a packed flight. If you have a united card and you need luggage your right. Also the seats were much roomier than the united flight I recently took though that depends on the plane.

        • Dan
          Link Reply

          Unless you’re in a special seat, they most certainly are not roomier than United.
          Standard seats on Spirit have the least legroom of pretty much any airline in the world at just a 28″ pitch.

          • Cham
            Link

            This is from The State Dept (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports.html) :

            “To prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect our workforce and customers, we significantly reduced passport operations in March 2020. We temporarily suspended expedited passport processing and restricted service to cases involving life-or-death emergencies. As global conditions evolve and U.S. states begin to reopen, we are resuming operations in phases. We ask for your patience as we safely work on your application.

            As of Monday, July 13, a total of 12 passport agencies and centers are in phase one, and 5 agencies and centers are in phase two of our three-phase reopening plan. Go to our Passport Agency and Center page for more information.

            You can apply at an acceptance facility or renew by mail now, but unless you have a life-or-death emergency, you will experience delays before receiving your passport and the return of your citizenship documents such as previous passports, and birth and naturalization certificates.”

            I wouldn’t bet the time and gas money to go down there it will be a success to try and pull some yeshivishe shtick and convince the secretary to magically make you passport, or she will be so nice and convince the person she mails the application to please do something they dont do for anyone…

          • Dan
            Link

            In my life I go with the attitude of lechatchila ariber.
            If you don’t, that’s perfectly OK. I’m just saying what I would do.

  12. Cham
    Link Reply

    Dan- Not sure if you addressed this elsewhere but there is a major passport crisis. Kids going to Israel have no way of getting a passport. The agencies are closed.
    Also under a certain age kids need to come with both parents to the agency, which is closed.
    any ideas?

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      Many agencies have reopened. Try booking a refundable ticket for travel in the next 48 hours and walk into one to try to get a passport.

      • Cham
        Link Reply

        Called them. many offices are open.
        The wait time now for a passport is 3-5 months.
        The expedite service is closed.
        they are only offering passports within 72 hours for life and death situations.
        all this is on the dept of state website. if ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS PLEASE POST.

        • Dan
          Link Reply

          Try showing up there with a ticket for within 48 hours and see what happens?

          • Cham
            Link

            Thats EXACTLY what I said to them.
            Response: This has nothing to do with us. We send it out. We dont make it here, and have no control of when its made. The wait is 3-5 months. unless its life and death. Its all on the website. If you have a flight in 2 days cancel it. They wont let you on the flight without a passport.”
            Many people with kids going to Israel are seriously stuck…

          • Dan
            Link

            What they say in person and over the phone are not the same.
            YMMV.

  13. CR
    Link Reply

    Hey Dan,
    Firstly, I always enjoy reading your posts, very informative and your perspective very often offers a deeper look that is hard to come through mainstream media.
    Frankly, being a New-Yorker, I am quite surprised at your comments on Cuomo. Not only his response was catastrophic on every level, he also blocked citizens and victims from suing him and the hospitals in NY! Astonishing that this is not spoken about. I have personally heard first hand accounts of negligence in the hospitals that would not be an exaggeration at all to say there was mass murder at the “height of the pandemic”.
    What about banning hydroxychloroquine? What about the successful use of Budesonide with nebulizer by Dr Bartlett with NO side effects?
    It is very clear to all – politicians want to control the masses by spreading fear, and possibly affect the elections.
    Also, I find it very surprising that you’re so confident on vaccines for Covid. (I am not an antivaxxer by any means). There are so many issues with these vaccines, all the experts will admit. What better proof do you need than the failure of the Flu vaccine, it is widely known not to immunize for Flu.
    Regarding your piece on kids going back to school…
    It’s one thing if social distancing would work, but since we can see it doesn’t, then why all this craziness? It seems that your opinion is out of touch with people that live in metropolitan areas, with small living space etc, it’s not such an easy undertaking to have kids on top of each other for extended periods of time. I mean, without even taking the parents mental health into consideration, it is absolutely unhealthy for kids to be locked up the whole winter in small apartments. Unfortunately, this is the reality for the vast majority of NYC families…

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      You misread pretty much everything I said. Try again.

      -My comments on Cuomo are negative and skeptical of his claims, not sure how you read that section otherwise.

      -The flu famously mutates every season, so the vaccine against is only an educated guess that is effective some years and is not effective other years.

      COVID-19 has shown no signs of massive mutations like the flu, thus I’m quite hopeful for a vaccine and studies on candidates so far are very positive.

      -Who says social distancing doesn’t work? By definition if everyone remain distant the virus dies out. It may be impractical in major cities, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
      But I said I want to see kids in school this fall as the pitfalls of keeping them home likely outweigh the benefit, so once again I’m at a loss as to what you read.

  14. Adina
    Link Reply

    Which hotels would you stay in??? That we can trust cleanliness especially now

  15. Heshy
    Link Reply

    Is anybody else disgusted from that inside edition video? Pretty horrible that you’ll never know if your linen was changed… Will that make you think twice?

    • Michoel
      Link Reply

      I’m hoping that it’s fake news. I don’t understand how hotels can have a cleaning staff and yet they are not changing the linen. If they have the staff why not just change the linen.

      • Dan
        Link Reply

        Because they’re lazy or aren’t allotted enough time to clean.

        I’ve always heard rumors of it, but this doesn’t leave any doubt.

  16. Mendel
    Link Reply

    I, for one, am simply shocked at the Spirit airlines flight to help someone in need.
    I thought they had never even heard the words ‘positive pr’

  17. Michoel
    Link Reply

    Great roundup once again! Just curious as to how Elon Musk buying $20,000,000 worth of stock helped Tesla, if he was getting equity in return?

      • Michoel
        Link Reply

        He caused them a $20,000,000 loss plus a loss of $20,000,000 worth of stock and all they got in return was $20,000,000 from him. Not exactly a fair deal.

  18. yossi
    Link Reply

    after the deep dive yesterday into bos-lon and the very comprehensive roundup today it is clear you have really spent a lot of time and effort to bring us quality content
    thank you
    it is much easier to send emails and press releases that you are keeping hotel rooms clean then actually cleaning them
    on another note i hope you can tell me the rules with the following case

    i have a joint business with my wife and applied for both myself and my wife under a ein . They gave me the bonus but refused to give it to my wife (We received a letter denying the bonus after complaining that we had opened the card and completed the required spending without getting a bonus) as the business has already received a bonus in the last 48 months. Is that correct that only one bonus per business even though it is 2 separate cards for 2 separate people?

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      Thanks!

      I don’t see any language that says that. Have you called to appeal that?

      • yossi
        Link Reply

        yes I spoke to a supervisor he said that i should get it because it should be per person and not capped at 1 per the business but he has no authority to release me miles he needs to send it to the rewards desk but i will definitely get the bonus sign up miles . A few days later I got the letter saying i am not eligible because the business already received miles within the last 48 months.

  19. chana k
    Link Reply

    EZ Pass – Best to input your rental car licence into your EZ Pass account on line. Occasionally there’s been issues if not. And then be sure to remove it when you return the car.
    When packing your transponder, you may want to keep it in an RFID blocking bag.
    If the rental car has a Sunpass sticker, be sure to get it deactivated. You don’t want to pay each toll twice.

  20. Andy
    Link Reply

    The study you link to on fox 6 is very poorly done and confusing to most people. The pictures are showing bacteria and not the SARS 2 virus. Bacteria are 1000x larger than the virus. Standard surgery masks were specifically made to prevent bacteria from entering your surgical incision. They are ineffective on viruses. That’s why hospital personnel are wearing the N95 masks. These were made to filter viruses.

    • biobook
      Link Reply

      It wasn’t a research study, but simply a demonstration. He wanted to show how masks can block respiratory droplets, and needed a tool for showing how many droplets fell, and how far, with singing, coughing, etc. Respiratory droplets may contain both bacteria and viruses, but only the bacteria could produce visible colonies, so that’s what he chose to show. It’s true that the mask would not filter out an aersolized virus, but if the virus were released in a respiratory droplet to the inner mask surface, it would probably stay there, and not crawl off and aerosolize itself, no?

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      Yes, N95s are best. That doesn’t mean regular masks are worthless, plenty of studies show they do a lot.

      • Andy
        Link Reply

        Unfortunately dan there has not been any direct controlled studies demonstrating effectiveness of masks in regards to Covid 19. Ethical reasons would make those studies very difficult. Everything is only observational. Almost all is in the health care setting and there’s plenty of studies showing cloth masks don’t do anything. That’s why we are still debating it now in the medical community. But the bacteria in that experiment definitely have no relation to water droplets. There’s plenty of normal flora bacteria that can survive drying.

        Water droplets can be as small as 0.5 microns. That’s plenty small enough To pass through the mask but large enough to carry many viruses. So the plates with no bacteria while wearing a mask mean absolutely nothing. I can tell you from personal experience that barriers provide little protection in dealing with other corona viruses. In pigs, even a solid wall and door between two groups was not effective at preventing spread between groups. It’s too contagious. All treatments are aimed towards developing herd immunity.

        Finally Dan, I really enjoy reading your posts. Thank you for all you do. I would just warn you about using the mainstream media. There’s a lot of bad information out there that we need to correct. Try to stick with the peer reviewed professional studies.

  21. Sam
    Link Reply

    You write “if that’s what it takes to reach herd immunity and we extrapolated that rate across the country, it would mean 900,000 dead”

    You are missing the fact that Florida and other states are protecting their most vulnerable unlike New York, and this is therefore a meaningless statistic.

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      Protecting the elderly is easier said than done. Plenty of elderly dying there as well.

  22. chacam
    Link Reply

    can i buy from the mint regular coins quarters nickels dimes? with bank account not cc if so please tell how to buy or where i can get new regular coins.
    thanks

  23. abraham
    Link Reply

    Thank you very much dan!! I look forward to these news roundups and enjoy reading them immensely!
    I am thinking maybe for the next one to print it out and save for shabbos!

    • NW
      Link Reply

      The hyperlinks (and videos) don’t work on paper

  24. confu
    Link Reply

    Didn’t Delta also avoid furloughs with buyouts, perhaps to agreater extent than SWA?

  25. yitz
    Link Reply

    Great round up as always! But I really dont understand your infatuation with Dr Fauci. He has turned himself into a political hack. The proof is that he is saying that NY is a model for us. Uh huh! So having 30,000 people dead is a model… Fauci said back in March not to wear masks. Maybe he had good intentions but that was a lie. How do you believe a word that comes out of his mouth when maybe he has ulterior motives for anything he might be saying (positive or negative)? See this 1 min video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRa6t_e7dgI. Its all lies! Its crazy also tht now they say that you need masks or else when the mask box says on it of course that the masks do not stop viral transmition (though based on reality they do..?)
    But the point I am making is that I tuned out Fauci when he stopped making sense. He has been wrong about so many things. I think Trump is fully entitled to feel the way he does about Fauci at this point. But you seem to feel “he is a breath of fresh air” (your words from another post). Why?

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      I criticized Dr. Fauci in this post. Yes, we did learn more after the video, but you can see even at the end of the video you link to that he’s saying to save masks for Doctors. He absolutely should have been more honest and I do respect him less because of it

      Or as Scott Adams put it at the time:
      https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1235186696062267392

      In March he was the main source of good information about the virus and how it works. Not sure why you’re asking me in July about what I wrote about him in March?

      • Dante Ferman
        Link Reply

        Dr. Fauci knowingly lied, I don’t trust him anymore. It’s ironic that we’re living in the information age yet the information can’t be trusted.

        I was personally offended by the creep-in-chief’s insensitivity when he said “we had two beautiful wars”. I’m counting the days till he’s no more.

        • Dan
          Link Reply

          He certainly lost the trust of many people. Like I said in the post, I wish he was more honest back then.

  26. tulli
    Link Reply

    was the supposed 101 flighs in for both direction in total or thats the the number for outgoing only

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      The flight numbers are for each direction.

  27. Lcm
    Link Reply

    Thanks for the non-suscriber links!

  28. David G
    Link Reply

    @dan you plainly state that masks work and cite Asian Countries as evidence. If so, explain why there’s a Covid19 resurgence in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Evidence doesn’t seem to correlate mask wearing with Covid19 spread.
    What is actually true is that masks are very disputed in the scientific community as to how effective they are, if at all (there are other Drs except Fauci). Out of caution, people should still wear them, but to say that it’s guaranteed is just wrong.

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      Masks themselves are not foolproof and you’ll never have 100% compliance. I never said anything about them guaranteeing anything, so please don’t put words into my mouth.

      By all accounts, masks are a strong weapon in the war against COVID. And when you’re at war, you utilize all of the weapons you have.

      All countries are going to keep having resurgences until this war is over. But some will be able to keep them at bay before they become widespread. Masks help with containment, and they also appear to help that the spread not be as deadly as they lower the viral load being spread.

      Hopefully the vaccine will be the nuke that ends the war, but that’s also no guarantee. But we can hope and pray that it does.

      • David G
        Link Reply

        This is not correct. It’s not “a strong weapon” by all accounts. There are prominent Drs who say that masks have zero effect on transmission etc. Dr ionidas from Standford, for example, says that he thinks that masks are completely unnecessary and don’t help. Once this is the case, many people are not interested in mask wearing since we all agree they are annoying. I’m not saying they shouldn’t wear masks since caution should be taken, but I can’t fault them if they don’t want to

        • Eric from Dallas
          Link Reply

          Please don’t put words into people’s mouths. Dr. Ioannidis did not say that. Early in the pandemic he questioned the stay-at-home orders, but he has since adjusted his thinking based on new data:

          https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2020/07/09/a-conversation-with-john-ioannidis/

          Remember that scientists change their minds when they get new information. That’s how science works.

          https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/23/why-scientists-change-their-mind-and-disagree.html

          Best data is that masks help. Sakanas nefashos!

          • David G
            Link

            I’m just saying that it’s a discussion. For example, Canada doesn’t wear masks by and large (as per surveys) and they haven’t been hit nearly as bad. I agree that one should wear it since it’s not clear if they work. But to say that they help by best data is trying to make yourself feel better by doing something, but it’s not at all guaranteed. I understand the psychological need to wear it, but let’s not pretend that it’s for sure

  30. DDFer
    Link Reply

    I can’t be the only person who has watched someone in line pay with cash and wondered if I could ask them to swipe my card and give me the cash instead!
    +1 it’s occurred to me dozens of times!

  31. Yankel
    Link Reply

    If there is immunity doesn’t last long how would a vaccine solve the problem

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      1. The vaccines can take different DNA level approaches that create a longer lasting immunity.
      2. It’s possible that the vaccine will need a booster, as do other vaccines.
      3. It’s possible that we will need an annual COVID booster.

      But either way, it will help get things under control and get like back to something resembling normal.

      • Yankel
        Link Reply

        So the side effects of the vaccine multiply, who knows what’s rather

  32. S
    Link Reply

    Many people that have previously had high antibody levels, have already lost them.
    Also, Dr. Ditchek said that he’s treated people who previously tested positive for Covid, have tested negative since then, and have now been reinfected and tested positive again.
    https://youtu.be/Qjh4WuV94VQ

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      1. As I said, current research shows that while IgG levels will waine, the body retains immunity via T-cells.
      How long those will last if anyone’s guess, but hopefully it will last for a while.

      2. There are always some people who do not get lasting immunity from a virus.
      Typhoid Mary is one famous case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon

      By and large though, we have not seen large scale reinfection so far. That can change and precautions like wearing masks should be taken, but I’m not particularly worried about reinfection as of yet.

      • walter
        Link Reply

        It might be that males maintain immunity for longer time periods than females, after covid19 infections. This due to the same reasons that males had greater susceptibility to the virus and in many cases more serious illnesses. this has been said to be possibly due to the difference in immune respone in male vv female repro organs. So it would follow that duration of immune response to a vaccine, would have the same pattern of response.

  33. Eli
    Link Reply

    I have 4 tickets on delta leaving to Israel Aug 3. Do you know if i can get a full refund or only a credit?

    • Dan
      Link Reply

      If the flight operates you can only get a credit.

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