Tag: Navigate

How to Navigate the Airport if You Have a Disability​

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Airport female officer helping for female passenger in a wheelchair


YakobchukOlena/Getty Images

Tarita Davenock suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, which makes it tricky to navigate airports, where the distances between gates can be measured in football fields. Airports can be challenging for many other travelers as well. A quarter of U.S. adults have a disability, and 14 percent have trouble walking or climbing stairs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The one thing we all have in common is that we want to be accommodated [at airports],” says Davenock, whose MS hasn’t kept her from flying. As the owner of Travel for All, a company that specializes in accessible travel, she has caught many flights at scores of airports.

If you have mobility or other issues (such as dementia or vision loss) that make navigating airports difficult, Davenock and other accessible-travel experts offer some tips.

1. Request assistance in advance

Many accommodations are federally mandated by laws such as the Air Carrier Access Act, which requires that airlines offer assistance to those with mobility issues, visual or hearing impairments, or other disabilities. You can (and should) request such assistance when making your reservation online (or by calling the airline’s special assistance phone line).

As you make your way through the booking process on the American Airlines website, for example, you’ll eventually see a link to “add special assistance.” Click on that link and you’ll find various options, such as “mobility” and “traveling with a service animal.” After checking one of the boxes, you’ll be prompted to be more specific, so the airline understands your particular need. If you check “mobility,” you’ll be asked to specify how much assistance you’ll need by checking another box, with options such as “can walk — need help only if there are stairs.”

Before your departure date, an airline representative may contact you for additional information. But even if you do hear from a representative, accessibility specialists recommend calling your airline a day or two before your flight to confirm that it has your request and understands your needs, and that ticket agents will be able to see the info. There shouldn’t be a problem, because your request is automatically linked to your reservation when you buy your ticket. Still, it’s always best to double-check, says Debra Kerper, owner of Easy Access Travel, who has visited more than 30 countries and taken more than 90 cruises despite facing health-related mobility challenges, including often using a wheelchair. “Everything’s easier when it’s done in advance,” she notes. “At each step, learn to be proactive.”

2. Give yourself plenty of time at the airport

“Even if travelers aren’t checking luggage, arriving in advance of the departure time is very helpful for those with mobility issues,” says Alvaro Silberstein, founder of Wheel the World, who’s paralyzed from the waist down. He and the airlines offer similar advice. “I recommend arriving two to three hours in advance of an international flight and one and a half hours ahead of a domestic flight,” he says, “just to give ample time for moving around the airport and making sure that requested accessibility assistance is in place.”

Specialists say the labor shortage created by the pandemic means that in some cases, there will be fewer wheelchair attendants, which means you might have to wait for one.

“The process itself is fairly simple and straightforward, but the level of quality is all over the place,” says Laurent Roffé, general manager of Tapooz Travel. He salutes airports in Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando as “big tourist destinations that are eager to accommodate elderly travelers with mobility limitations.” On the flip side, New York’s LaGuardia Airport has historically been harder for his clients to navigate.

3. Be vocal at check-in

When you get to the airport, promptly identify yourself to a skycap or the ticket counter agent as someone who requested help when you bought your ticket. Wheelchair assistance will then be summoned if that’s what you need, or perhaps a guide if you’re visually impaired.

By law, an attendant must tote your carry-on luggage for you if you can’t. Also, the attendant must have your permission to leave you unattended for more than 30 minutes before boarding begins for your flight, even if you’re traveling with a companion.

If anything goes wrong — if, for example, an airline employee tries to charge you a baggage fee for a case filled with and marked “medical supplies,” which should be free — ask to speak to the airline’s complaint resolution officer (CRO), a position mandated by the U.S. Department of Transportation to promptly address disability-related air travel issues. If there’s no CRO on-site, you’ll be connected to one by phone.



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Discussing Family Legacy Plans? 5 Tips to Navigate ‘the Talk’

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Passing wealth through generations can be fraught with complexity. Money is often an emotionally charged topic, and an older generation’s plans and intent for transferring wealth can trigger an array of reactions from younger family members.

Recent projections show that by 2045, $72.6 trillion will be passed on to heirs, and another $11.9 trillion will be donated to charities. The sheer magnitude of this generational wealth transfer amplifies the need for families to develop, and talk through, detailed legacy plans.

I often work with clients to coordinate a comprehensive multi-generational meeting where family members can come together in a safe, neutral space for the older generation to communicate their financial and non-financial plans to younger generations. For families – regardless of wealth level – looking to utilize a similar concept, below are five tips to make this meeting successful.

Preparation is key

For older generations interested in bringing their family together to discuss legacy plans and the future passing of wealth, the preparation before the meeting is paramount. Not only should the legacy plan be mapped out well in advance, but thoughtful consideration should go into the actual meeting. Who from the family should attend? Where will multiple generations meet? Is travel involved? Is it best to conduct the meeting around the holidays when families will be near one another?

Prepare for – and even practice – specific conversations that are critical to have, and determine the level of detail to share with family members. Doing this legwork upfront allows the older generation to be in the driver’s seat during the meeting.

Plan to have an objective third party present

Ideally this will be a trusted financial adviser, an attorney or an estate planner. A third-party, objective partner will be able to guide a productive conversation, helping the older generation to articulate their plan and prepare younger generations for their future roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

Anticipate problematic conversations

Ahead of the family meeting, visualize how certain family members may react to decisions. For example, if a sibling is likely to become upset over an unequal inheritance, anticipate and prepare for how the conversation should be navigated. Share specific insight into why that decision was made. Flagging sensitive conversations in advance, and preparing a response with your trusted adviser, can help determine the best strategy for the family discussion to come.

Understand the meeting doesn’t have to disclose dollars

While the older generation may feel tempted to outwardly define exactly how much money will be passed to heirs and charities, it can be more beneficial to keep the conversation high-level, so families don’t get caught up in discussions around who gets what.

Talk about goals rather than dollars, and most importantly, know that an inheritance can be equal, but not equalized. Meaning, perhaps one sibling (who is single) receives an outright inheritance while another sibling (married with children) has a trust set up where they can withdraw funds to support, for example, their children’s future college needs. The ongoing trust can continue the generational legacy planning should this child have descendants.

Walk away from the meeting defining clear roles and responsibilities

The overarching goal of the meeting is for the older generation to lay out their financial and non-financial wishes and have family members clearly understand future roles and responsibilities. The older generation should consider younger family members’ interests, time commitments and other factors as they coordinate who is most appropriate to tackle different roles within the legacy planning process.

For example, is one adult child more equipped to serve as a trustee, managing their parents’ legacy plan and executing their future wishes? Will another adult child be better equipped to handle non-financial matters, such as vetting future living arrangements and taking this older generation to doctor appointments? This emotional support is an important role to define but can often go overlooked.

While this initial multi-generational meeting is foundational to the wealth transfer process, it is a conversation that likely will not start and end with one session. Older generations should continuously mentor younger generations to educate, inform and align them on future family values and goals. That said, the overall legacy plan is something that should be reviewed annually or when larger life events trigger the need to reassess the plan. 

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Senior Financial Adviser, Vanguard

Julie Virta, CFP®, CFA, CTFA is a senior financial adviser with Vanguard Personal Advisor Services. She specializes in creating customized investment and financial planning solutions for her clients and is particularly well-versed on comprehensive wealth management and legacy planning for multi-generational families. A Boston College graduate, Virta has over 25 years of industry experience and is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia and Boston College Alumni Association.





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How to navigate changing COVID restrictions for your next trip

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The longer the pandemic drags on, the harder it is to navigate COVID-19 restrictions around the world. While some countries such as the United Kingdom have dumped pre-departure testing requirements, others still require a negative test and records on file just to pass through the country.

I’ve learned this the hard way. I somehow got all the way to my departure gate at Logan International in Boston just after New Year’s before I was asked for proof of a negative COVID test. I didn’t have one. I was scheduled for a connecting flight through Portugal, which still required a negative test. This mistake easily could have cost me hundreds of dollars, but I was lucky. I paid $35 to move my flight to the next day, my family picked me up at the airport, I took a self-test at home, uploaded the result to a lab for certification, got my results PDF, and the next day I was on my way across the Atlantic.

I have a hundred excuses for how I failed here, but the reality is this: Health and safety restrictions can change rapidly, they may be different for every destination you visit, and they can be confusing to navigate even when you know where to look.

If you’re traveling soon, here’s where you can check guidelines to make sure you’ll get on that airplane — and not have to quarantine when you get off.

Check COVID-19 restrictions on your airline’s website.

Some airlines have a restrictions “calculator” that lets you enter your route for a list of current entry guidelines and restrictions. I caution against trusting these systems because it’s easy to forget to add a layover destination — this is how I missed the restrictions for Portugal when using TAP Air’s guidelines checker — and you don’t want to assume airline personnel are monitoring each country’s rules and updating the guidelines daily. But this is a good starting point, and gives you a to-do list to double- and triple-check.

Check the U.S. Department of State’s guidelines.

The State Department has a robust and easy-to-navigate website that documents entry requirements for U.S. residents and citizens from every country in the world. If you’re traveling between multiple countries, don’t forget that you need to check two types of restrictions: restrictions for your country of residence/citizenship and restrictions for your point(s) of origin within the last 10 to 14 days.

Check entry requirements on your destination’s government website.

Government websites for other countries’ travel restrictions can be tricky to navigate if you don’t know where to look, especially when there’s a language barrier. Check them anyway, if only for the peace of mind that your list of necessary documents tracks with theirs.

Subscribe to email updates from a government entity.

The United States has a traveler registration program called STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) that allows you to sign up for alerts like safety concerns, updates from the local embassy, and changing COVID restrictions. The United Kingdom also issues email alerts for changes to entry requirements. I recommend signing up for these sort of alerts for all countries you’re planning to visit — even for transit — so you know as soon as possible if restrictions change before or during your trip.

Read the local news.



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This Doctor Thought She Could Navigate US Health Care. Then Her Autistic Son Needed Help.

Posted on | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment on This Doctor Thought She Could Navigate US Health Care. Then Her Autistic Son Needed Help.


Noam N. Levey

Alexander Roodman was packing up his room, preparing for a gap year before college, when I met him at his family’s Washington, D.C., townhouse.

The room was a typical teenage disaster zone, with clothes and books strewn everywhere.

Then, Alex picked up an origami sculpture that rippled with dozens of ridges and depressions. “It’s kind of a repetitive pattern,” he said. “First, you make the diagonal folds and these lateral folds to cut the paper in half.”

It’s pretty complicated. Alex, a slim teenager with long black hair and penetrating eyes, is gifted with the focus for this. But the way his brain works can be a challenge.

Alex is autistic.

And like many parents of children with autism, Alex’s mother and father have spent years trying to find a doctor or school or therapist who could help.

“I think he always believed we were on his side. But he could also see that we were sometimes helpless,” said Dr. Mai Pham, Alex’s mother. “It’s a little bit like hot potato. Is the school supposed to counsel me? Is the pediatrician supposed to counsel me? … Am I supposed to figure that out?”

The U.S. has made major strides in recent decades in raising awareness about autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities, which affect as many as 1 in 20 Americans.

Improvements in screening, new therapies, and burgeoning specialty clinics have made available care that was unthinkable a generation ago. But the health care system is still failing millions of Americans from the time they are children, experts and advocates say.

When Alex was born, this world and its frustrations were an abstraction for Pham and her husband, David Roodman, a Harvard-trained policy analyst.

There were signs their second child was a little different. Pham remembers taking Alex on a trip when he was 3 months old.

“In a hotel room in Miami, we put him on the floor thinking, ‘OK, we have five minutes now before the baby acts up,’” Pham said. “He actually spent 20 minutes being nearly still, just his eyes tracking the shadows of a palm frond on the walls.”

In preschool, Alex had difficulty connecting with other kids and sometimes became agitated when classmates didn’t seem interested in what he wanted to talk about.

Still, Pham and Roodman were assured by their pediatrician and others that there was no cause for alarm. Even when a school assessment established that Alex was autistic, Pham and Roodman received few warnings about the challenges ahead.

As Alex got older, he attended a private middle school that specializes in working with students like him. He did well, according to his parents.

The transition to high school proved more difficult, however. Although a gifted math student, Alex increasingly struggled with subjects like English and history that require explaining the perspective of others.

His autism fueled crippling anxiety. Alex had trouble sleeping and picked at his hands until they bled. There were frequent breakdowns.

“He might slam the wall with things. … He broke the tip off a knife,” Pham said. “He always felt contrite afterward. He just didn’t have any other avenue for, you know, adequately expressing how frustrated he was.”

Pham thought she’d be better prepared than most parents to find help. She’s an internist and former senior Medicare and Medicaid official with degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins.

Pham scrambled to find help, tapping a wide social and professional network around Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area boasts the highest concentration of child and adolescent psychiatrists in the country, 10 times the level in some rural parts of the country, according to one analysis.

Yet, as Alex struggled, Pham said, their family was lost. Time and again, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and therapists minimized Alex’s symptoms or shuffled him to someone else.

That’s a common experience, said Monica Adler Werner, a counselor who works with patients with autism around Washington, D.C. “The odyssey that parents have to go on in order to find what their children need is really a shame of our society,” she said.

Long waitlists for therapy remain the norm nationwide. So are medical bills that can reach tens of thousands of dollars.

“We were lucky we could afford those services,” Pham said. “We have health insurance. … I had the kind of jobs where I could hop in the car once or twice a week and drive 50 minutes each way to get him to therapy.”

Millions of Americans face even bigger barriers to care. Families in rural areas often travel hours for services. Many Black and Hispanic families face persistent inequities in the U.S. health care system.

Nationally, parents of children with autism are 10 times as likely to say they’re “usually or always” frustrated in their efforts to get services.

Primary care physicians — a convenient option for many families — could fill some of those gaps if the doctors had better training, said Dr. Kristin Sohl, a pediatrician who teaches these skills at the University of Missouri. “We’ve got to make this accessible so that people can have access to what they need when and where they need it,” Sohl said.

But many physicians feel ill equipped to provide this care.

In one survey, just 40% said they were very confident that their care for patients with disabilities was as good as for other patients. Only about half strongly agreed that they welcome patients with a disability.

Training remains one barrier. Even though as many as 16 million Americans have autism or another intellectual or developmental disability, the subject is a small part of the curriculum at most medical schools.

Another obstacle, Sohl and others say, is a tendency in American health care to simply refer patients to specialists. “It’s so hierarchical,” Sohl said.

Changing that has become Mai Pham’s life’s work.

She quit her job at a major health insurer in 2020 to start Institute for Exceptional Care. The nonprofit aims to overhaul the way doctors are trained and paid so they can spend more time with patients with disabilities, instead of rushing through visits because of billing pressures.

“We’ve made huge investments in the science and in some ways the clinical aspects of care,” Pham said. “But we haven’t thought about how to make any of that sustainable.”

Pham said that is particularly important because so many patients are aging — and developing medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.

“How you communicate to someone like my son or how you manage chronic conditions for him will need to be different,” Pham said. “The health system hasn’t thought about that.”

Help for Alex ultimately came from a specialist. Adler Werner, whom Pham found through friends, became what Pham described as an “autism coach,” helping the family understand what Alex was experiencing.

Adler Werner, now a cognitive behavioral therapist, focused on empowering Alex so he could appreciate his strengths and develop tools to navigate challenging tasks like communicating verbally and managing stress.

“What we want to be doing is working with young people to allow them to understand their differences, accept and own them, not have them be seen … as character flaws,” Adler Werner explained. “Alexander is really extraordinary and unbelievably interesting.”

I caught up with Alex not long ago in Vermont. He’s at a program that helps teenagers like him develop skills to live independently. He’s taking math at the University of Vermont. He’s been rock climbing and hiking with classmates in the Green Mountains.

Alex said he’s been enjoying himself. “I’m learning about muscles I never knew I had,” he said.

Pham and her husband have been cheered by his progress. But they still worry about what’s ahead for Alex in a health care system that’s unprepared for him.

[Editor’s note: KHN aims to use “person-first” language regarding people with autism – describing what they have and not what they are — except when a preference for “identity-first” language is known, such as “he is autistic.” This article reflects that nuance and respects the wishes of the family profiled.]

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).



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Families of kids with autism navigate a maze of barriers to find support : Shots

Posted on | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment on Families of kids with autism navigate a maze of barriers to find support : Shots


Dr. Mai Pham is an internist and former senior Medicare and Medicaid official with degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities, but she still struggled to find care for her son with autism, Alex Roodman.

Alyssa Schukar for KHN


hide caption

toggle caption

Alyssa Schukar for KHN

Dr. Mai Pham is an internist and former senior Medicare and Medicaid official with degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities, but she still struggled to find care for her son with autism, Alex Roodman.

Alyssa Schukar for KHN

Alexander Roodman was packing up his room, preparing for a gap year before college, when I met him at his family’s Washington, D.C., townhouse.

The room was a typical teenage disaster zone, with clothes and books strewn everywhere.

Then, Alex picked up an origami sculpture that rippled with dozens of ridges and depressions. “It’s kind of a repetitive pattern,” he said. “First, you make the diagonal folds and these lateral folds to cut the paper in half.”

It’s pretty complicated. Alex, a slim teenager with long black hair and penetrating eyes, is gifted with the focus for this. But the way his brain works can be a challenge.

Alex is autistic.

And like many parents of children with autism, Alex’s mother and father have spent years trying to find a doctor or school or therapist who could help.

“It’s a little bit like hot potato. Is the school supposed to counsel me? Is the pediatrician supposed to counsel me? … Am I supposed to figure that out?” said Dr. Mai Pham, Alex’s mother. “I think he always believed we were on his side. But he could also see that we were sometimes helpless.”

The U.S. has made major strides in recent decades in raising awareness about autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities, which affect as many as 1 in 20 Americans.

Improvements in screening, new therapies and burgeoning specialty clinics have made available care that was unthinkable a generation ago. But the health care system is still failing millions of Americans from the time they are children, experts and advocates say.

Getting to know Alex

When Alex was born, this world and its frustrations were an abstraction for Pham and her husband, David Roodman, a Harvard University-trained policy analyst.

There were signs that Alex, their second child, was a little different. Pham remembers taking Alex on a trip when he was 3 months old.

“In a hotel room in Miami, we put him on the floor thinking, ‘OK, we have five minutes now before the baby acts up,’ ” Pham said. “He actually spent 20 minutes being nearly still, just his eyes tracking the shadows of a palm frond on the walls.”

In preschool, Alex had difficulty connecting with other kids and sometimes became agitated when classmates didn’t seem interested in what he wanted to talk about.

Still, Pham and Roodman were assured by their pediatrician and others that there was no cause for alarm. Even when a school assessment established that Alex was autistic, Pham and Roodman received few warnings about the challenges ahead.

Even after Alex was diagnosed with autism, a parade of pediatricians, psychiatrists and therapists either minimized his symptoms or shuffled his parents, Mai Pham and David Roodman, to someone else in the health care system.

Alyssa Schukar for KHN


hide caption

toggle caption

Alyssa Schukar for KHN

Even after Alex was diagnosed with autism, a parade of pediatricians, psychiatrists and therapists either minimized his symptoms or shuffled his parents, Mai Pham and David Roodman, to someone else in the health care system.

Alyssa Schukar for KHN

Transitions can be tough

As Alex got older, he attended a private middle school that specializes in working with students like him. He did well, according to his parents.

The transition to high school proved more difficult, however. Although a gifted math student, Alex increasingly struggled with subjects like English and history that require explaining the perspective of others.

His autism fueled crippling anxiety. Alex had trouble sleeping and picked at his hands until they bled. There were frequent breakdowns.

“He might slam the wall with things. … He broke the tip off a knife,” Pham said. “He always felt contrite afterward. He just didn’t have any other avenue for, you know, adequately expressing how frustrated he was.”

Pham thought she’d be better prepared than most parents to find help. She’s an internist and former senior Medicare and Medicaid official with degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities.

Pham scrambled to find help, tapping a wide social and professional network around Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area boasts the highest concentration of child and adolescent psychiatrists in the U.S., 10 times the level in some rural parts of the country, according to one analysis.

Yet, as Alex struggled, Pham said, their family was lost. Time and again, pediatricians, psychiatrists and therapists minimized Alex’s symptoms or shuffled him to someone else.

That’s a common experience, said Monica Adler Werner, a counselor who works with patients with autism around Washington, D.C. “The odyssey that parents have to go on in order to find what their children need is really a shame of our society,” she said.

Long waitlists for therapy remain the norm nationwide. So are medical bills that can reach tens of thousands of dollars.

“We were lucky we could afford those services,” Pham said. “We have health insurance. … I had the kind of jobs where I could hop in the car once or twice a week and drive 50 minutes each way to get him to therapy.”

Millions of Americans face even bigger barriers to care. Families in rural areas often travel hours for services. Many Black and Hispanic families face persistent inequities in the U.S. health care system.

David Roodman and Mai Pham at their Washington, D.C., home with their sons, Alex Roodman (left) and Ben Pham Roodman.

Alyssa Schukar for KHN


hide caption

toggle caption

Alyssa Schukar for KHN

David Roodman and Mai Pham at their Washington, D.C., home with their sons, Alex Roodman (left) and Ben Pham Roodman.

Alyssa Schukar for KHN

Nationally, parents of children with autism are 10 times as likely to say they’re “usually or always” frustrated in their efforts to get services.

Training doctors to understand disabilities

Primary care physicians — a convenient option for many families — could fill some of those gaps if the doctors had better training, said Kristin Sohl, a pediatrician who teaches these skills at the University of Missouri. “We’ve got to make this accessible so that people can have access to what they need when and where they need it,” Sohl said.

But many physicians feel ill-equipped to provide this care.

In one survey, just 40% said they were very confident that their care for patients with disabilities was as good as their care for other patients. Only about half strongly agreed that they welcome patients with disabilities.

Training remains one barrier. Even though as many as 16 million Americans have autism or another intellectual or developmental disability, the subject is a small part of the curriculum at most medical schools.

Another obstacle, Sohl and others say, is a tendency in American health care to simply refer patients to specialists. “It’s so hierarchical,” Sohl said.

Changing that has become Pham’s life’s work.

She quit her job at a major health insurer in 2020 to start the Institute for Exceptional Care. The nonprofit aims to overhaul the way doctors are trained and paid so they can spend more time with patients with disabilities, instead of rushing through visits because of billing pressures.

“We’ve made huge investments in the science and in some ways the clinical aspects of care,” Pham said. “But we haven’t thought about how to make any of that sustainable.”

Pham said that this is particularly important because so many patients are aging — and developing medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia.

“How you communicate to someone like my son or how you manage chronic conditions for him will need to be different,” Pham said. “The health system hasn’t thought about that.”

Help for Alex ultimately came from a specialist. Adler Werner, whom Pham found through friends, became what Pham described as an “autism coach,” helping the family understand what Alex was experiencing.

Adler Werner, now a cognitive behavioral therapist, focused on empowering Alex so he could appreciate his strengths and develop tools to navigate challenging tasks like communicating verbally and managing stress.

“What we want to be doing is working with young people to allow them to understand their differences, accept and own them, not have them be seen … as character flaws,” Adler Werner explained. “Alexander is really extraordinary and unbelievably interesting.”

I caught up with Alex not long ago in Vermont. He’s at a program that helps teenagers like him develop skills to live independently. He’s taking math at the University of Vermont. He has been rock climbing and hiking with classmates in the Green Mountains.

Alex said he has been enjoying himself. “I’m learning about muscles I never knew I had,” he said.

Pham and her husband have been cheered by his progress. But they still worry about what’s ahead for Alex in a health care system that’s unprepared for him.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. It is an editorially independent operating program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.



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How to Navigate Covid in California Right Now

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California is undeniably in the midst of yet another Covid-19 surge.

The number of people testing positive for the coronavirus across the state each day has more than tripled since the beginning of the month, according to The New York Times’s tracker. To blame is Omicron, the extraordinarily contagious variant that will most likely keep spreading at a rapid clip.

But how exactly to react to these rising numbers is more complicated than it has been in the past. While more Californians are catching the coronavirus, the number being admitted to hospitals with Covid-19 has increased only slightly, if at all, over the past several weeks.

The vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe illness, and Omicron seems less likely than previous variants to make people sick enough to need hospital care. (Read more from my colleagues about the research on the severity of Omicron infection.)

This doesn’t mean we can forget about the pandemic altogether: Omicron is so contagious that it could infect so many people that even a small percentage needing hospitalization could strain our hospital systems. And for those who remain unvaccinated, the virus can still be deadly.

But vaccinated (and ideally, boosted) people perhaps don’t need to isolate themselves as strictly as they may have last winter. There’s some wiggle room this time around, though how much depends on your circumstances and risk tolerance.

When considering what feels comfortable, check the transmission levels and vaccination rates in your county, which you can find here about halfway down the page. For example, while Los Angeles County is logging about 74 new cases per 100,000 residents a day, the more vaccinated Santa Clara County is logging about 20.

Take into account the vaccination status of you and anyone you’ll come into contact with, your health status and how comfortable you feel catching the virus and being able to infect others, even if your symptoms are mild.

There are no universal answers, but here’s some further guidance:

Is it safe to have a New Year’s Eve party? A Times reporter asked experts this thorny question.

How to travel responsibly during the holidays amid the surge. The seasonal travel rush seems unstoppable, but you can take steps to mitigate the risks.

Federal officials shorten Covid-19 isolation period. The C.D.C. on Monday reduced the period that certain infected Americans must sequester.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

  • Los Angeles shooting: Body camera and surveillance footage shows a man attacking holiday shoppers before police officers opened fire, killing him and a 14-year-old girl.

  • 10 Freeway: More than half a century after the freeway’s construction, Santa Monica will offer affordable housing to the predominantly Black community it displaced, The Los Angeles Times reports.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

  • Homeownership rates: The significant increase over the past decade in the number of Fresno residents who own homes is the third highest in the country, The Fresno Bee reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

For $3.5 million each, three homes in California.

Today’s travel tip comes from Anne Perrigo, who recommends the A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands:

“Mission style, still (I hope!) housing a very fancy grandfather clock with an elaborate moon dial. I pretty much grew up in the children’s section and the whole building was fascinating, then as now, guessing early 1900s or thereabouts.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Our favorite house stories of 2021.

How are you marking the start of the 2022? Are you making any New Year’s resolutions?

Share with us at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

In 1942 in a small town in Germany, a Jewish family asked their non-Jewish neighbors to store a set of cherished porcelain dishes for them.

The family, the Feiners, were being deported by Nazis, and believed that one day they would return to retrieve the dishes. But the father, mother and daughter all died in concentration camps.

The German family entrusted with the plates and serving bowls, rimmed with gold leaf and in near perfect condition, treated them like precious heirlooms. They watched over them for nearly 80 years — until last month.

In June this year, the family located a descendant of the Feiners who was living in Oakland.

And in November, she and some of her relatives flew to Germany to retrieve the plates they didn’t even know existed, and to meet the people who had kept them safe.

This incredible story from J. The Jewish News of Northern California is worth reading all the way through.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Carpenter’s fastener (5 letters).

Mariel Wamsley contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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Advice: Should I use a travel adviser to navigate European restrictions?

Posted on | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment on Advice: Should I use a travel adviser to navigate European restrictions?


For your needs in particular, Re-open EU is an interactive tool that provides information on testing requirements, contact-tracing apps and coronavirus restrictions. Plus, it lets you input a travel plan to see what exactly you need to do if you’re going from, for example, France to Italy and want to transit through Switzerland.



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5 tips to help you navigate international travel right now

Posted on | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment on 5 tips to help you navigate international travel right now






5 tips to help you navigate international travel right now




























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“A very problematic time” — How to navigate holiday travel

Posted on | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment on “A very problematic time” — How to navigate holiday travel


The holiday travel season — which began in earnest this week — is expected to be downright chaotic this year as Americans regain confidence in flying and gather with family again, and as airlines recover from the pandemic’s disruptions. 

Already, airlines have struggled to stay on schedule, resulting in widespread flight cancellations and distressed passengers.

Experts anticipate even more headaches as record numbers of travelers take to the skies during the busiest travel period on the calendar. 

On Friday, the Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.2 million passengers at airports nationwide, marking a single-day record since the beginning of the pandemic.

The TSA also said it expects to screen about 20 million passengers over the Thanksgiving holiday, from Friday, November 19 through Sunday, November 28.

“This is a very problematic time. I really can’t recall a time we’ve seen such sustained problems with flight cancellations,” said William J. McGee, an airline flight operations specialist and aviation adviser to Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. “Airlines are playing whack-a-mole — they are cancelling these flights on a daily basis.”

So, what’s with the persistent delays and cancellations, and what should you expect if you plan to travel over the holidays?


Holiday air travel to hit pre-COVID level

03:05

Widespread delays and cancellations 

Southwest and American Airlines each cancelled thousands of flights last month — before the busiest time of the year — blaming weather and air traffic constraints.

But aviation industry analysts say the cancellations were more likely due to staffing shortages for which airlines should take responsibility. Early on in the pandemic, airlines slashed staff to reduce costs as Americans hunkered down and airliners were grounded. 

“Airlines cut employees, furloughed folks and then vigorously ramped up operations to capture the demand we’re seeing now,” said Willis Orlando, a product operations specialist at Scott’s Cheap Flights, a flight deals platform. “But onboarding and training staff again has been a bigger challenge for some airlines than others. Staffing is a lingering issue.”

The fact that flight cancellations surged before the holiday travel period is cause for concern, too. 

“The cancellations we’ve been seeing don’t seem to stop, and that was before Thanksgiving,” McGee said. “There is no getting around the fact that airlines have not been meeting schedules lately and there are a lot of unanswered questions.”

The group this month sent a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging the DOT to hold airlines accountable for widespread cancellations and changes and to properly reimburse passengers. The group also suggested that staffing shortages were to blame for the issues. 

“According to credible reports, a key factor in all these disruptions is a shortage of crew and other airline employees, due to furloughs, encouraged early retirements, and outsourcing — despite the CARES Act specifically stating that taxpayer bailouts were designed to prevent airline labor shortages,” McGee wrote in the letter. 

If scheduling problems persist, Thanksgiving week will be a difficult one for airlines and passengers. 

“The later holidays, like Christmas and Hanukkah, are spread out and people travel over many different days. But Thanksgiving is so compressed that if you have problems meeting a schedule because you don’t have enough aircraft or crew, you really can’t hide it,” McGee said. 

The best consumer tips pros offer is to always book the earliest flight of the day, which is least likely to be cancelled or delayed, given that flight crews typically spend the night at the place of departure and the plane is there. Book nonstop flights, too, as opposed to connecting flights. “It’s simple math. If you are taking four flights instead of two, it doubles your chances of delays or cancellations,” McGee said.

Insufficient flight refunds 

When a flight is cancelled or delayed, passengers are subject to a given airline’s contract of carriage, which dictates airline responsibilities and passenger entitlements.

When an airline blames weather or air traffic control for cancellations, they are considered unforeseeable circumstances out of the airline’s control. In such instances, passengers don’t receive the same kind of compensation as they do when a flight is cancelled due to a staffing shortage or issue with an aircraft, for example. 

“Your rights are defined by the airlines themselves, not the DOT; so if the airline says the flight was delayed due to air traffic control or weather, the consideration you are given is different versus if there is a problem with a crew member or broken airliner,” McGee said. 

If airlines don’t properly attribute reasons for cancellations, passengers could be owed more money than they have received in refunds. “Tons of people in the last couple of months may be due better compensation than they’ve been told,” McGee said. 

He advises passengers to keep good records of their flights, including the airline, flight number and travel date. “You’re never going to get any kind of satisfaction or compensation if you don’t have all the information collected,” he said. 

Additionally, not all consumers are aware that they may be due refunds.

Under federal law, if a flight is significantly delayed or cancelled before it takes off, consumers are entitled to cash refunds. But airlines will typically offer vouchers or airline credit before they cough up cash.

“Consumers need to push the envelope if they are offered vouchers or an alternate itinerary. Airline agents know you’re entitled to a refund as long as you don’t take the flight,” said Orlando, of Scott’s Cheap Flights.


Doctor on rise in COVID ahead of Thanksgiving…

09:57

Cancelled flights can also lead to incidental costs such as spending on a hotel room, rental car or food — none of which airlines are required to cover. 

Some credit card companies offer trip interruption insurance, although not all consumers are aware of this benefit. 

“It’s there because airlines aren’t required to compensate you for incidentals — just the cost of the ticket. If you want coverage, check out your credit card company’s policies,” Orlando said. 

Another way to prepare for cancelled flights is to book a second flight with a fully refundable fare that departs within two to three hours of your first flight. 

“Keep on eye on the terms and conditions so you can cancel it on time, assuming your first flight goes up,” Orlando said. 

Long lines at airports

If there was ever a year to get to the airport early, this is it. 

Expect even longer lines than usual, with airline personnel now tasked with verifying passengers’ COVID-19 vaccination records, and ever-changing restrictions as COVID-19 cases surge overseas. 

“The way things are going lately, everything points to a very difficult week, not even considering talk of weather,” McGee of Consumer Reports said. 

Also expect airports across the U.S. to be more crowded in general. 

“If you’re worried, heed the classic advice to get to the airport early, at least two hours before your flight domestically even if you have TSA PreCheck or Clear,” said Andrew Gross, a AAA spokesperson. “Those lines are going to be crowded, too.”

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Y-H Spissue: Harvard students navigate new travel, lodging, and cost challenges to attend Yale-Harvard Game

Posted on | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment on Y-H Spissue: Harvard students navigate new travel, lodging, and cost challenges to attend Yale-Harvard Game



Since learning that Yalies cannot host Harvard students the night before the Yale-Harvard game, students are navigating a host of considerations to travel to New Haven and take in the sporting event.

For the 2021 Yale-Harvard football game on Nov. 20, the first since the pandemic, Harvard students will not be permitted to stay in Yale dorms due to COVID-19 restrictions. Harvard students have been encouraged to leave Cambridge for Yale on Saturday morning. For this reason, Harvard’s shuttles that are usually offered on both the Friday and Saturday of the weekend of the game are only being offered on Saturday, and at minimal capacity. Previously, Harvard students would often come to Yale on the Friday before the game and stay in Yale dorms. With restrictions in place, many Harvard students told the News they are searching for alternate lodging. 

“I think this new plan disadvantages students who cannot afford rides [or] places to stay overnight and people who do not know individuals at Yale especially since students from Ivy League feeder schools have more friends at Yale,” Harvard junior Andrea Liu said.

Liu said she has friends who attend Yale, and has friends from Harvard who live in New Haven. She plans to come to Yale on Friday afternoon and stay at her Harvard friend’s New Haven house. Liu believes going on Friday is a “better plan” than taking one of the Harvard shuttles on Saturday; she was worried about not arriving at The Game on time. 

Liu says many other students at Harvard are also coming on the Friday before The Game. Some are planning to rent AirBnBs, and others are looking to stay with off-campus students, she said. 

“[We] are not sure about the consequences and are not worried about them, but rather our larger fear is, what if Yale doesn’t let us in [to dorms],” Liu said in regards to her decision to avoid staying with friends on campus at Yale. 

Kalyan Palepu, a Harvard junior, has a similar plan. He plans to come on Friday and stay with the family of a friend who lives in New Haven. 

“I have to believe that Yale won’t force Harvard students who come on Friday hoping to sleep at Yale to not have a place to sleep for the night,” Palepu wrote in an email to the News.

This is especially worrisome for students on financial aid, Harvard junior Diana Meza said. Meza is a student on financial aid and is planning to stay with friends at Yale. She said Harvard offered free round-trip transportation on Saturday to students eligible through the Harvard Student Events Fund––a program at Harvard that offers qualifying students free tickets to student events, according to Harvard’s website––but those tickets were sold out by the time Meza tried to purchase them. 

Tickets for the Yale-Harvard game were available for pickup at various athletic events throughout the past week and at Payne Whitney Gym.





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