The Sunday Round-Up | August 8, 2021

Good morning! It’s gloomy here along the coast in Southern California and I was feeling that way before I looked out the window since the Olympic games are officially over. I’ve been fortunate to go to the Olympics once (in London, thanks to British Airways) and it was an amazing experience (here’s my 2012 trip report).

But even before attending the games, the Olympics have always been a highlight since there’s so much hype leading up to it and then when it’s over, it’s just blah. Similar to Christmas.

But having all the top athletes and normally, their families, friends and fans from around the world, come together in one city is really cool. Oh well, the good news is that there are just 180 days until the Winter Olympics in Beijing and three years until the Paris Summer games. Then, we will be gearing up for the 2028 Summer Olympics here in Los Angeles! Mind-boggling, eh?

This week, there’s been a ton of travel news and as per usual, it’s a mixed bag. The TSA has seen record pandemic highs and lows this week, the Delta variant is still running rampant and Florida and Louisiana claim two of three the most cases in the world. Botswana is third. The United Kingdom opened this week to vaccinated Americans and Canada does tomorrow. 

It seems the new trend in travel will be requiring vaccines to travel. United Airlines and Frontier just announced they’re requiring all employees to be vaccinated by October. Delta Air Lines is flirting with the idea of mandating it for passengers once the FDA gives it full approval. More and more restaurants, museums, theatres, cities (NYC), islands and countries (France and Italy) have followed suit. 

For all the news stories, scroll down to 12 Things To Know in Travel today (I keep a week’s worth of the news on one page) and all my tips and posts from this week and last are below. 
 

Today's Travel Tip
Yesterday, I wrote a tip about “How to Save Big on Money and Miles When Booking Flights.” The tip featured two tricks that can save you a lot of money and miles. If you noticed, one of the screenshots that I used as an example, happens to be the best deal to fly first class, nonstop, in a lie-flat bed between Southern California and New York. Here it is, including how to get the deal.

12 Things In Travel You Need To Know Today
— Yesterday's TSA checkpoint numbers
— Border guards resolve dispute with Canada poised to reopen to Americans
— Woman Says American Airlines Lost Her Cats in Video Viewed 4.7M Times
— Planning a Canada Visit With Border Open? Here’s What to Expect
— Ground stop causes disruptions to air travel across East Coast
— American Airlines pilot upset his photo was used in story about unhinged pilot
— IQAir ranked Denver as most polluted major city on earth Saturday afternoon
— Need to share proof of vaccine? Here's how to store your COVID-19 vaccination card on your smartphone 
— Boogie Boarding Babes catch rides into their 90s
— TIME’S The World’s 100 Greatest Places of 2021
Read it all here in today's travel news round-up as well as the 84 other top travel news stories from this past week!