GWAM

Update: Members of the two unions involved are now to vote - from today until June 23rd - on a restructured pay deal. Accordingly, the first strikes scheduled for June 24-26 have been cancelled. Union officials have recommended that members accept the new terms. Looking promising that accord has been reached. Here's hoping. Ballot result not likely until June 24, mind, which is awfully close to the next scheduled dates of strikes which are due, as things stand, to commence from June 28-30. Anyway, the following is from today's FT, which puts a more hopeful context on the overall sketch: The new offer from Heathrow — which said it was 'pleased' to have seen unions recommend — consists of a 10 per cent pay rise for this year, backdated to January, which would increase by a further 1.5 percentage points to 11.5 per cent from October. The airport added that it was guaranteeing an inflation-linked pay rise for 2024, with a minimum of 4 per cent. It was previously offering a 10.1 per cent increase for the whole of 2023. The extra increase from October addresses a complaint from Unite that the previous offer fell short of retail price inflation (RPI), now running at 11.4 per cent. Heathrow had insisted the increase amounted to a real-terms pay uplift because it exceeded the rate of consumer price inflation, a more widely used measure, now at 8.7 per cent. The guarantee of an above-inflation rise in 2024 is linked to CPI, which is forecast to fall sharply in the coming year. [A spokesman] said the new offer had been put forward after “extensive negotiations” between the union and management last week. “Members will now be balloted on the latest offer and they will decide whether or not it meets their expectations,” he said. Unite said that if members rejected the offer, the remaining 29 days of strike action would go ahead. The ballot on the pay offer runs from June 13th to June 23rd. The Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents some other Heathrow staff but had not been planning walkouts, is also recommending the offer to members. Heathrow has insisted throughout that it can minimise disruption from the scheduled stoppages. The company, owned by a consortium led by Spain’s Ferrovial, indicated on Monday that it still had “robust” plans to handle any stoppages if Unite members rejected the deal. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023

Starting June 24 and pretty much every weekend thereafter until August. Terminal 3 as well as 5 now to be affected. The last wave was just T5. Could have especial disruption potential for Cunarders flying Heathrow-JFK prior to embarkation, especially if same day. Heathrow say that "disruption" will be "minimised". IOW, there will be disruption just a question of what "minimised" means. Hmm. Anyway, Cunard are aware and monitoring. Just thought it best to heads-up on here for any TA voyagers who may be – potentially – affected. BBC News link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65831998

WHO now officially declare pandemic over. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/who-ends-covid-s-global-health-emergency-status-after-more-than-3-years/ar-AA1aMIBj

...and just like that we finally have clarity. Everything to be lifted. https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/travel-insurance/2023/05/02/travel-latest-news/

Very gracious clarification moses0. Yes, quite baffling all this.

Well, whilst I agree that the whole picture is riddled with ambiguity (and that's rather the point), the basic facts of the matter are that the CDC, even as late as this stage (i.e. post January 8th, and April 9, and just 10 days pre-May 11; indeed the calendar has now tipped over into May since my post a few hours ago) has yet again chosen to review its advice and implemented yet another new round of revised stipulations. If anything was to be expected last week - and frankly nothing was - it was surely that it would have called time on restrictions. Instead it has gone the opposite way - yet again, as per Jan 8th (or arguably April 9th). Certainly the TSA expiry date of May 11 is still in force but last week's CDC restatement is at least rum by introducing yet more protocols so late in the day. As things stand, then, the wording of my original post - which I chose very carefully - is accurate. And the contents of the DM link are, in my view, a fair summation of the mess which is indeed ongoing and seemingly open-ended. I thought it pertinent to let CC Cunarders know the very latest, especially given that last week's update was yet another one that was very quietly released (again as per Jan 8th). Put it this way, given the last two review stages, Flytrippers (below) is being equally circumspect and not ruling anything in or out. The only thing now certain about May 11 is that it's the day before May 12th. Watch this calendar space. https://flytrippers.com/usa-vaccination-requirement-travel/

US is now to continue with its vax requirements, despite declaring that the national emergency will end on May 11. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12025279/CDC-RENEWS-Covid-vaccine-requirement-travelers-coming-US.html

True, but there are three, potentially overlapping, elements to consider in what is now a pretty quick-moving picture, likely to be clarified pretty imminently. Firstly, the US block on un-vaxxed travellers was extended in January – to most people's surprise, certainly the US travel industry, who'd expected it to then be lifted – but only until April 10th, theoretically another review. The take-away point, though, was that it was the shortest extension yet, possibly indicating that restrictions will be lifted immediately after Easter. It just sounded like a final belt on some last braces and the US keeping a really cautious weather-eye on the Chinese new year and the period thereafter, just in case another major wave reared up. It hasn't mercifully. Secondly, the House voted on Feb 8th (HR 185) to immediately scrap the whole ban on un-vaxxed travel anyway, not even wait until spring. The bill, though, hasn't yet reached the Senate. In any case, the White House, meantime, has declared that all Covid emergency measures – literally everything affecting the US internally and externally – will cease on May 11 regardless. So, essentially Covid-over-and-out, certainly in terms of pandemic status. Even Djokovic has basically been given the hint that he'll be okay to participate in the US Open later this year, whereas he had to miss Indian Wells. So, it's just a case of what comes first now: the House bill reaching the Senate before April 10 (unlikely) thus immediately ending the restriction; or the ban being lifted by the CDC on April 10 (likely), and I think this may be what Cunard is expecting; or the whole sketch finally ending anyway on May 11 (a certainty). I really wouldn't be surprised, though, if the WHO declaration confirming the end of the whole emergency also comes in May, choreographed emblematically around the US ending everything. Tellingly, the DG at the WHO briefed only last week, following a first communique in September, that the pandemic will certainly be declared over in 2023. The direction of travel (pun intended) is heading only one way, just a case of very soon, quite soon or soonish.