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The airline has launched their new ‘Agent on Demand’ initiative to facilitate touchless customer service at their airport hubs in Chicago and Houston, with the rollout expected to reach all United hubs by the end of the month. Passengers are able to communicate directly with customer service representatives via a mobile app for tasks such as seat assignments, upgrades and rebooking; access is granted via the scanning of a QR code within the airport and communication is via video call, voice or text.

The airline has announced that it is connecting the island-state more closely with three mainland U.S. cities; Austin, Texas; Ontario, California and Orlando, Florida. New, non-stop services will begin by March 2021 to and from Honolulu.

The airline has announced that it will add flights to Seattle to its network from 15 March, launching a four-times weekly service from Doha using a two-class Airbus A350-900 aircraft. Seattle is the second U.S. destination added by the airline during the COVID-19 pandemic, following services to San Francisco which are due to launch on 15 December, alongside a frequent flyer program with Alaska Airlines. In total, from 15 March the airline will be operating 59 weekly flights to 11 U.S. destinations.

The airline are continuing to add to a raft of COVID-19 testing programs available for passengers, with the addition of now also being the first carrier to facilitate at-home pre-testing for all domestic U.S. flights due to land in states or cities with travel restrictions. Available from today, 9 December, for travel commencing from 12 December, tests are available for $129 USD via third party provider ‘LetsGetChecked’. Currently around 14 domestic U.S. states or cities have travel restrictions in place.

The airline has announced a second European flight route on which passengers can be tested for COVID-19 to become exempt from a quarantine requirement; from 15 December a four-times weekly transatlantic service from Atlanta to Amsterdam will operate the program, which is very similar to the program launched on flights between Atlanta and Rome from 19 December.

The government of the U.S. state of California have announced that from 10 December, they will launch an app to help people track their exposure to COVID-19, becoming the biggest U.S. state to take advantage of new technology from smartphone software makers Apple and Google. Beginning on Thursday, people in California can activate the exposure notifications tool from the settings menu on iPhones, or by downloading the 'CA Notify' app in the Google Play store on Android devices.

The government of the U.S. territory has entered into an American Airlines pre-flight COVID-19 testing program, allowing passengers access to at-home nasal swab testing and virtual observation by a medical professional; it’s available from 9 December for passengers from the U.S.. The airline has previously partnered with Grenada, St Lucia and Jamaica to provide similar programs.

The country is the first in Latin America to welcome passengers from the U.S. under the new American Airlines digital ‘health pass’. Called ‘VeriFLY’, the mobile app allows passengers to securely store required travel documentation, including flight details and proof of a negative COVID-19 test; it will then verify if the given information provided by the passenger matches the entry policies of the user’s destination before giving them the green light to travel. Passengers travelling from Miami to Chile's Santiago were the first to be given access to the service from yesterday, 7 December.

The airline has further expanded its COVID-19 testing options to assist passengers arriving from the mainland in complying with the U.S. state’s testing protocols. Hawaiian Airlines is now offering drive-through and walk-up options for pre-flight testing in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland (Oregon) and Seattle; it first offered $90 USD nasal-swab testing near San Francisco Airport in October. Mail-in options are also available nationwide through a third-party provider.

The airline has announced that free of charge COVID-19 insurance will be automatically applied to flights booked from today, 7 December, through to 28 February 2021; the policy will cover medical expenses related to a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The airline is to become the first in the U.S. to partner with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to introduce an international contact tracing app for passengers, in a bid to continue to make travel safer during the era of COVID-19. Data supplied voluntarily by passengers will be submitted to the CDC upon their arrival and will help to identify, notify and isolate people potentially affected by the virus.

The airline has said that it will begin to offer COVID-19 tested flights to Atlanta in the U.S., with passengers receiving one test five days before their flight, a second test shortly before the flight and a third test after landing. U.S. and EU passengers travelling inbound to Amsterdam from the U.S. will be able to skip a five-day quarantine on arrival if testing negative on all three stages. The flights will run four times per week from 15 December, with more expected providing that the pilot is successful.

The airline has announced that it will be resuming flights from Manchester Airport for the first time since March. The first service is scheduled for tomorrow, 5 December, from Manchester to Barbados; services to Islamabad will be added next week, and U.S. services to destinations such as Los Angeles, Orlando, New York and Atlanta are expected in the coming months.

All major cruise lines in the U.S. have cancelled their sailings until at least March 2021, according to reports; statements from major cruise lines including Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian also confirm this. Royal Caribbean says all sailings, with the exception of those from Singapore and China, have been cancelled until at least that date.

The cruise line announced yesterday, 3 December, that it has cancelled its remaining sailings through to February 2021 due to concerns over COVID-19. The operator is also moving the inaugural U.S. sailing of its Mardi Gras ship to April 24, 2021.

The airline has today, 3 December, published updates to its flight schedules following a reported 400% increase in bookings over the last week; insights suggest that particularly in demand are destinations such as South Africa, the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Mediterranean and even northern Finland. More insights, information and a link to their updated schedules can be found in a press release on the airline website.

The U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has labelled Mexico a level 'four' on its COVID-19 risk scale, making it a very high risk destination for travel due to the risk that rising cases of the virus presents to U.S. nationals. For those who must travel south of the border, the CDC urges travelers to get a test for the virus one to three days before the trip, and to not travel until a negative result has been attained.

The federal government of Canada has extended existing international travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, barring entry to most travellers who are not Canadian citizens, permanent residents or people entering from the U.S. for "essential" reasons. In a news release issued on 29 November, it was announced that travel restrictions on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals seeking to enter Canada from the U.S. will be extended until 21 December. Similarly, restrictions on travellers arriving from other countries will be extended until 21 January, as will the mandatory requirement for anyone who is granted entry to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

The government of the U.S. state of Hawaii granted the island of Kauai approval to temporarily opt-out of the Hawaii's pre-arrival COVID-19 testing program, which essentially will now stop all non-essential travel to Kauai; the decision is effective from 00.01 (local time) on 2 December and means that all trans-Pacific and inter-island travellers arriving in Kauai are subject to a 14-day quarantine regardless of test results.

It’s been reported that Rome’s Fiumicino Airport will begin hosting COVID-19-tested flights to and from the U.S. operated by Delta Air Lines and Alitalia, making it the first European airport to have such facility for transatlantic flights. From December, passengers can be tested 48 hours before departure and on arrival at the airport.