Emirates Says Bookings to the U.S. Fell by 35% After the First Travel Ban
fortune.com
fortune.com
If anything, I'm thankful to the USA for many things in the last 6 years I lived here. Most of it for the awesome friends I made here. But, my Visa always reminded me that I'm just a visitor, and the ~10 year wait for a green card doesn't really make the USA attractive to me anymore.
"The following family members of an EU/EEA citizen or Swiss citizen, who is exercising his/her right to free movement in Denmark, or of a Danish citizen who is exercising or who has exercised his/her right to free movement in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland, has the right to have a visa application processed in accordance with EU regulations:
* spouse
* cohabiting partner aged 18 or over <----
* ..."
See https://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/coming_to_dk/visa/visas-unde....
Going through TSA is a very uncomfortable experience.
Most likely because all the aggressors in those incidents see is the traditional dastar.
Remember that one of the more prevalent slurs for men from Muslim cultures is "raghead." If you're already enough of a shit to think that's a legitimate way to treat people, you probably don't care one whit about the cultural specifics of the "rag" in question.
Interesting. I'm a white guy and I've gone through secondary screening (swabs, detailed questions, etc) probably half a dozen times over the past 2-3 years.
And I have a US passport!
My belief is that it's because I had gone through some pretty substantial weight loss in the past, and so my body skin/muscle/fat density is all screwy around the midsection, and thus it sets the machine off.
If there's one thing I've learned from attempting to replicate bugs, it's that if something affects even as much as one in four people, it'll look hunky dory to thrice as many people as it looks awful to.
I'm Canadian. White. Blonde. I'm often mistaken for a soldier. After possibly hundreds of trips in and out of the US spanning four decades, last month the guy at YVR asked me "what religion are you?" That was strange. I didn't have a ready answer and I'm someone who always has a ready answer for boarder guards. I actually said "Well, when my grandfather died we had a ceremony at a church. Is that enough?"
Have you ever been arrested? No. Have you ever been finger printed? Yes. Have you ever been to the middle east? Yes. Are you carrying food? No. What religion are you? .... wtf did that become a thing?
That being said, I cancelled a couple planned trips since January — not going to travel to the US until I have to; I don't want to put up with the hassle.
Edit - let me share a small story with you. It is from the times when I was on EAD (about 4,5 years ago). I was returning from India to Chicago. Immigration office told me there will an additional check so they asked me to follow another officer. The area had lot of chairs and TVs. While, I was waiting for my return of my passport, I saw another guy sleeping on 5,6 chairs. A TSA officer came and telling him while shaking his body to try to wake him up - "hey! wake up. You can go home" :-)
P.S - english is my 2nd language so please pardon my grammar.
If anyone reading this is consistently stopped unfairly, or faces extra delays when ticket agents print their boarding card, you should use DHS TRIP (Traveler Redress Inquiry Program)
[1]: http://www.wnyc.org/story/my-detainment-story-or-how-i-learn...
I don't know why people have down voted this. Trump has all the markings of a fascist. Fascists must be dealt with... you don't just tiptoe around them.
Like the law or not, that's who your nation voted for, and the government has the power to make life very difficult for corporations.
Also, let's be real here. The travel ban doesn't affect these SV companies. How many employees are going to be coming from Syria, Iran or Yemen?. Are the positive optics worth the difficulties? The public is already weary of corporations becoming too powerful, this will only feed into that distrust, and possibly alienate ~50% of the population.
Political statements in either direction are almost always a losing proposition for corporations.
Whereas dumping huge amounts of money into PACs is often a winning proposition for companies. :(
Interestingly, 70% of Iranian engineering grads are female https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/12/09/set-to-ta...
Although my experience is with other Gulf states (not Iran but considered relatively progressive), the cause for that might be less noble than some think. Basically while the sons are allowed to study abroad, the daughters are most definitely not. This leads to the national universities having female majorities in pretty much all subjects.
In any case, it would be foolhardy to construe that number as equality (unless e.g. Iran has a huge surplus of women). But it is interesting.
If we're at the point where companies need to fear arbitrary punishment by the government for partisan reasons, the rule of law is dead. I'm not ready to concede that point.
> Also, let's be real here. The travel ban doesn't affect these SV companies. How many employees are going to be coming from Syria, Iran or Yemen?. Are the positive optics worth the difficulties?
You may be interested to learn that a slew of companies signed an amicus brief in Washington v. Trump[1], including:
> Airbnb, Uber, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Dropbox, eBay, GoPro, Lyft, Spotify, Yelp and Levi Strauss & Co
So, in their estimation, the answer appears to be "yes."
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_v._Trump#Amici_curi...
Trump has already stated his desire to apply tariffs to companies that operate outside the US, assuming he follows through, moving employees outside the US for spite is a losing proposition.
> You may be interested to learn that a slew of companies signed an amicus brief in Washington v. Trump[1], including:
Look up the definition of "amicus curaie".
Anyhow, legal avenues are fair game. But actively hurting the American economy to prove a point will only turn public perception against them. Americans (heck, even those on HN) are already weary of how much power companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Uber, etc... have over them...
And he'll need lots of luck getting both Republican-controlled bodies of Congress to pass those tariffs.
> moving employees outside the US for spite is a losing proposition
It doesn't have to be spite. Doing so out of practicality (see, e.g., companies' increasing their presence in Vancouver) is a more effective statement, anyway.
> Look up the definition of "amicus curaie".
Is there anything in particular you want me to learn?
It is interesting that a Middle Eastern carrier is reporting a drop like this. It would be a good exercise to compare the ME->USA travel statistic against their other routes. I know that Emirates is a popular carrier here (Australia) to get to Europe etc. Also would be interesting to corroborate against statistics from Qantas, Cathay Pacific etc. as well as other ME carriers like Etihad.
* the world's crappiest food, and too much of it
* loud, raspy, nasal voices
* constant risk of being shot
OK the country looks beautiful but you can get stunning natural scenery elsewhere on the planet with added culture
Most people I've found who think that are young and poor or left, how perspective changes once you escape that!
People are not political opinions. Not to get into a debate here, but neither of you are providing evidence for your claims, and relying on confirmation bias is not a good way to prove something.