@Lemonlee I had a brief love affair with Alaska Air when they had a direct flight from BWI to San Diego. My oldest had just started college in San Diego and the flight times to/from BWI were perfect. And their seats nicer and more legroom than Southwest. Alas, halfway through her four years, Alaska canceled all direct flights to CA. They had routes to L.A. and San Francisco too which were also great b/c we have family in both cities. They still fly out of BWI but only to Seattle now. Wasted all those FF points we could have been earning on SW those two years! I wish they return but obviously won’t now due to pandemic.
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We used 2020 ticket credit to book tickets (nonrefundable Jetblue). I am a bit leery to fly with Covid still raging, but I really want to see me 94 year old Dad … he’ll be at beach, and we can do outside visits.
Accommodations will be at a relative’s condo, probably just me and my husband there. So mostly I worry about the travel. We are both vaccinated, but I worry about reports of breakthrough cases. Hopefully the redeye flight to Boston will be less full than usual… and folks will sleep, minimal demasking. We plan to wear N95 masks … also considering face shields in the airports, since a vaccinated friend thinks she and husband caught Covid at the Denver airport.
In July, we flew a red eye back home from Honolulu. People zonked out as soon as we were up in the air. It was a great flight.
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I don’t know if your flight will be less crowded, but the airport won’t be. I flew in recently at 11:30 and the airport was packed. There were 4-5 flights assigned to the same baggage carousel. People everywhere.
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Interesting. I’m hoping that at that time the crowds will be more departures than arrivals (especially for the close quarters on the train). We’ll also return around that time, but my angst at this point is for the outgoing flight, since we’ll be far from home afterward (but friends and family nearby)
I guess I picked a good day to fly (Sunday of Labor Day weekend). I’m going to visit my oldest who graduated college in May and lives on west coast. I’m at BWI and there was no one at security - I walked right up! And this was for a mid day flight. I’m in the terminal now which is fairly empty. Many empty gates. When we flew out for her college graduation in May, the terminal was a zoo and our flight was fully booked. By the looks of my gate, I’m hoping there will be plenty of empty seats on my flight.
There are a few maskless people (eating and talking on phone) but almost everyone is fully masked thankfully.
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Sweden, Bulgaria and the Netherlands are barring US citizens from entering their respective countries.
Just back from a trip to Bar Harbor. I can report everything felt normal - except for wearing a mask inside. Felt great to be on vacation after so long!
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Ban seeing a fiance? Most people I know live with their fiance, so I don’t think that applies in a lot of cases. As far as weddings go: we only know one couple who was scheduled to get married during the whole COVID pandemic. They did a small wedding with family. And the rest of us could watch it on Zoom. They’re planning on doing a reception later on.
As for graduation: our local schools did a drive through graduation in 2020 and then a very socially distanced/ticket only graduation this year. No one we know who graduated did a big party.
As for funerals, our H attended a celebration of life via Zoom for a former co-worker. They didn’t hold a regular funeral as the person didn’t want a big thing.
Most people we know weren’t holding big weddings and they certainly weren’t inviting far away guests. Same with graduations and funerals.
I’m talking about trips like my niece’s and her friend’s wives trip to Hawaii or my D’s friend’s girls trip to Tulum. If they want to go, fine. But I don’t think these trips are essential.
That’s too bad! But oh well! I’ve been to Europe before, and I’ll go again. Having to miss out this year and last year isn’t the worst thing
Same with me! I can wait! I know people who’ve lost their jobs due to COVID. Not getting to vacation for a couple of years is really not bad at all.
I had a friend who was going to do an AMA waterways cruise in Europe with her husband for their anniversary last year and it was cancelled, obviously. She and her husband were very disappointed. But she told me that having to cancel your 40th anniversary European cruise due to COVID is a perfect example of a first world problem. Especially if that’s the worst thing to happen to you during the pandemic. Plus, she also said they’ve travelled quite a bit, so it’s not like this was their first time going overseas. They’ve gone on some great trips in the past: African safari, Machu Picchu, Tahiti, all over Europe several times
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Agree about being able to wait. It will probably affect the tourism sector/airline industries of these countries because they’re banning a large segment of travelers who are feeding lots of money into the system.
My problem with waiting is that both of us are healthy NOW. We also know that there will be a time when one or both of us will NOT be healthy and therefore unable to travel. We have just lost 2 years of prime travel time, with uncertain prospects about 2022. We fear that by the time the world gets its you-know-what together, something will happen to one of us and travel won’t be possible!
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Which is why, now that we’re vaccinated and everyone in the US who wants to be can be, we’ve restarted travel. We haven’t gone overseas yet, but found there are still some things in the US that were new to us.
If places want us to mask, we mask (no law required for us to be nice to others). If most people don’t, we don’t bother.
We might get a breakthrough case, but odds of that being bad (for us) are really, really low - hence - worth setting out. My odds are larger that health conditions in the future could be more problematic.
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I love travel and I’m sympathetic to your argument. But aren’t we a bit selfish? If we all do what is best for us individually, aren’t we going to help prolong the pandemic, making future travel (not to mention other aspects of our lives) more difficult?
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We are hoping to travel also, given we too are fully vaccinated. Plan is Portugal but to do so these days is not for the faint of heart. Lots of testing and timing to get there, while there and back…we hope to be rewarded by traveling to one of our favorite places with hopefully fewer tourists…
Not sure how I’m being selfish. I am not saying “I’m gonna travel, damn the rest of you!” I’m saying “Why can’t we all work together and end this thing, so we can ALL get back to our lives!”
I CAN travel pretty much anywhere in the US, but I will only travel to places where it is safe, i.e., the northeast. You couldn’t pay me enough to go to anywhere in the south–it’s simply not safe due to the choices those folks have made.
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We are traveling, but only in the US for now and we are only planning road trips. There are still so many beautiful places to see here in the west and now that schools are back in session we can start to plan a fall trip somewhere. This winter will again be a couple of week or two week long ski trips here in the west. We have been traveling like this all throughout the pandemic and have not been worried since we are mostly outside. During our ski trips last winter we cooked at our Airbnb’s or did takeout. We expect that this winter it will be the same. Ski resorts we went to in Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming were all great about enforcing masking when waiting in line for the lifts.
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@Creekland : You may want to say something on an Amtrack Facebook site (if they have one). We were once advised by an airline employee, that the best way to share concerns is via social media. He shared that they do monitor the sites, and definitely don’t like negative social media reviews. I have not tried this (not a big social media fan), but I have written various agencies using the personal messenger function on FB, and typically receive answers much faster (and in writing).
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I may get H to do this if I don’t hear back from my “case” this week. He has a FB account. I never moved into that world. He lets me know if anyone I know posts anything interesting (mainly kids + other relatives), so I haven’t felt the need to open my own.