Vacation Booked

[Tizeye]

Beginning late July, 20 days in Switzerland. Made it a little longer because cheaper to fly mid-week. Grandson knows we are coming, but thinks it is Friday, but we will surprise him as we pick him up at summer camp. Was waiting for this as knew there was a meeting reviewing Switzerland's policy on 6/23 and to coordinate it with the EU, since they are not a member. As soon as the new policy was announce - allowing entry via plane with proof of vaccines, no test or quarantine required - daughter sent the link and Google Chrome translated the German. Reservations made before most people knew and Premium Economy seats were available with not problem. Even forwarded that link to a contact on the county's COVID response team wife developed a relationship with and learned that her boyfriend's mother lived in Switzerland and they wanted to visit. She was ecstatic to learn that.

Only loose ends. For some reason, the county left off the lot number of wife's first dose, but was on mine as we were in the same car on "drive through" vaccinations. That is required data for Swiss entry so county is sending an updated one. The other biggie complication - went to pay with my United Mileage Plus credit card and it bounced. Logged on, and they closed the account which unused in over 2 years may be understandable, but it is worse and probably the reason my credit score dipped 30 points last month. Spoke to a rep and they apparently sent me mail in Feb advising of closing unless I contacted to update the account. Of course, with electronic statements, 100% of their mail is marketing junk and discarded without opening. Suddenly losing $16,000 (and $22,000 in a similar scenario with USAA) in available credit adversely affects credit ratio as it suddenly drops from normal 5% usage to 20-50%, lowering score. In neither case did they block the account forcing a call in when a charge is rejected and update the necessary administrative information. In USAA's case it was a $0.99 monthly Apple ICloud charge that alerted me of the issue needed to know wife's citizenship (natural born American) due to new Treasury Dept requirements - resolved over the phone, but can't re-open an account with a 27 year history (likewise with United, but less history) but must re-apple for a new card with less than half the credit available and the interest rate jumping from 6% to 12%. When confronting both with their sledgehammer approach in lieu of account blocking, they just get arrogant - they can do what they want to do (customer service be damned!).  With United, I am not going to re-apply as tickets are bought.

[Tizeye]

Just FYI...here is the link https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/de/home/das-bag/aktuell/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-84127.html (Use Google Chrome browser to auto-translate)

While it specifically focuses on Swiss policy, it expands to discuss EU policy that they interact with. 

[BuffJim]

We are hoping to go to Ireland in 2022. Hopefully Covid related issues will be minimal by then.