Hi {{Name|Fellow Traveler}},

Welcome to the year 2026.

We are starting the second quarter of the 2000s; exciting huh?

Thank you for being a part of the community. This year, Passrider will be 24; If you’ve been with me from the beginning, wow! If you’ve started just today as a new subscriber, wow! I appreciate your reading my work.

I’m just finishing up my latest Guide for you: “The Caribbean Island Non-Rev Planning Playbook.”

It’s designed to help you navigate traveling to the Caribbean like a pro. Watch for the email tomorrow (Saturday). If you could share the message with your fellow travelers, I’d be super grateful.

I hope your New Year got off to a fair start and you didn’t get stuck getting back from your New Year’s activities. I stayed put as I’ve been writing the Guide for you. But next week I’m off to CES in Las Vegas to see what’s the latest in technology for travel.

Last Year, Delta showed up as they kicked off their 100-year celebration. Who knows what this year will bring?

What travels are in your future?

I’m thinking of sending a new daily newsletter with aviation news hot off the press. I’ve been testing it for about two weeks now, so you’ll get an email soon with it and asking you to opt-in if you want to receive it. I hope it will be something you’ll like.

Hurricane Melissa Relief Continues

I’m working on a project for the people whose lives have been upturned in rural Jamaica. I should have some news soon. I hope you will help support the project.

Please continue to think of the people in Jamaica as they try to get back on their feet. This includes my own family members, who also had damage to their homes. They all survived, thankfully, but as you can imagine, it’s pretty hard on them and their neighbors.

I’m amazed at the number of organization that does the work of getting people back on their feet. Hats off to them.

This young man in Jamaica, Colaz Smith, has a YouTube channel, and he’s taking donations and then buying supplies for the affected people. These are the people in areas hard hit, but difficult to get to. Head over to https://colazsmithtvtours.com/helpjamaica to donate. You can see his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@Colazsmithtv.

These organizations need your financial support. TIME magazine has a great article with some helpful links; please check it out: https://time.com/7329186/hurricane-melissa-caribbean-impact-victims-how-to-help-relief-organizations/.

Jamaica is coordinating its efforts at https://supportjamaica.gov.jm/donate.

This is a good starting point. Monetary donations are preferable, allowing recipients to use the funds as needed.

UNICEF and the International Red Cross also have resources set up.

Another organization is Samaritans Purse. You can donate at https://samaritanspurse.org/ y clicking on the Give button.

Passrider Schedules Premium

If you want more visibility and easier backup planning when using airline schedules, Passrider Premium adds expanded tools explicitly designed for airline employees.
Learn more: https://www.passrider.com/join.

That’s all I got for this year.