On the more turgid days, I practice booking flights.
I go through all the motions of booking a trip to Lisbon in April, only to stop myself just in time.
Who knows what the world will look like then? Who knows if a vaccine will have reached enough people? Who knows if Portugal will even let me in? (I'm sorry about that incident last year at Restaurante Raízes[1] in Lisbon. I promise it won't happen again.)
Some business travel does seem to be occurring. Why, The Information reported[2] that Apple[3] is paying its employees a $500 bonus for undertaking business trips to China. That's $500 a day.
It's clear, though, as those in charge of corporate travel budgets realize how much money they're currently saving their overlords thanks to Zoom[4] and Microsoft Teams[5], that flying won't be quite the same.
I was moved to a peculiarly twisted posture, therefore, on hearing of a little experiment United Airlines[6] perpetrated just before Thanksgiving.
As The Points Guy reported[7], the airline began to charge additional baggage fees on flights to Bogota, Lima, Quito, and the San Jose that it's in Costa Rica.
The fascinating -- or, depending on your perspective, annoying -- feature of this was that these additional fees were only levied for a limited period. The Holiday period, beginning December 1 and ending January 15.
I was uplifted by such a dynamic posture.
It may well be that some Holiday travelers -- these fee hikes were limited to those in coach -- like to take liberties with their baggage during this time.