AA said it was tornadoes/bad weather near its hub in DFW and the fact that they have not brought back all of their furloughed employees. Lots of furloughed employees are coming back shortly, they say. I never take what airlines say in their public pronouncements at face value.
We went to Sicily and Rome on BA. We were flying from Newark to London and switched it to JFK to London, which was a bit of a pain. But, unbeknownst to me, they changed our return. In particular, we had booked a mid-day flight from Rome to London and then a 3 hour 55 min layover before the flight from London home. Without a clear notification, they cancelled the flight home and put us on a flight with a one hour and five minute layover in Heathrow – which requires getting from Terminal C to Terminal A by train, waiting in line for them to scan the bags, and a train ride from Terminal A to Terminal C – which we would never have completed in one hour. I called the BA Gold line in the US and the person told me that I needed to pay $350 per person to move my flight to an earlier flight but that if I didn’t change and I missed my flight because one hour was not enough time for a layover, we would have to purchase replacement tickets for our flight to the US. I told him that I wanted to speak to a supervisor and he couldn’t find one, but suggested I call the UK Gold line. The nice person there switched the flight without charge and upgraded us. She said that none of the allowable layover times built into the system had been changed since before the Pandemic.
I’m now in the First Class Lounge, which I used to frequent (some years monthly) and and now they have to bring you the food after you use a QR scanner to get the menu and order the food. Not such a big deal but a change from my routine. I went to get a cappuccino and the person now presses the button on the machine (that I used to do on my own). I said, “This is a new setup.” She said, “Don’t get used to it. It will probably continue to change.”
Bigger deal. BA asks you to upload all of your documents to something called travdocs (vax card, Covid test, UK passenger locator form (PLF) and, since we were going to Italy, an EU PLF. On my way to Europe, I created accounts for me and my wife and uploaded all of the documents and then it said that it couldn’t verify them and we’d have to bring to the checkin counter. They gave the option of using an app called Verifly but that did not in fact work for our destination in Italy. On the way back, I tried uploading to travdocs and it would not recognize the Rome to London flight. But, I was able to upload everything into Verifly. All of our docs, including the antigen test we got in Rome, were confirmed. At the airport in Rome, BA had a dedicated Verifly line with no one in it (compared to the elite line with four people in it).
Travel is a lot more complicated. I do like travel, but there is more complexity, more stress, and more probability of error.
@mominva I’m wondering how to add your name to VAMS? I definitely gave my email info. when receiving the initial vaccine doses (I have confirmation emails from them). But, no where to be found on VAMS.
Is there another database that store records of your vaccinations? I have the original card (and photo copies), so no issue there. They just seem so easy to forge that I’m surprised there isn’t a better system.
@kjofkw, I am vaccinating with a department of public health where we record in VAMS. We can locate folks by email and birthdate who were vaccinated in some other jurisdictions, but not everyone records in VAMS.
As a clinical user giving boosters, at the local DPH, I am able to add prior vaccination dates to the VAMS system.
You could check if your local DPH uses VAMS and schedule your booster through them.
VAMS is a bit screwed up right now. I got a text from VSafe asking if I had a booster. I wanted to respond YES. However, you needed to enter a code which they sent via text to you. I immediately tried and got a message that the code either had been used or expired. They sent me three additional codes…I tried all three and got the same message.
If they want my info, they need to get this fixed!
Tickets to Hawaii are the cheap part now, at least from the west coast. We were in Kauai about a month ago, first time traveling since the pandemic started, and had a much better time than we thought we would. Fortunately they stopped requiring a test if you’re vaccinated. Had a hiccup with the Safe Travels site, but it worked out fine. It was nice to come back from a hike or snorkel and realize for that for the first time in 1.5 years we hadn’t thought about COVID or been doing something impacted by it for several hours. We have our trip for next year lined up already.
I was vaccinated at a FEMA vax site in my state that was very well run. Everything was computerized and they had both my email and mobile number. I just checked the VAMS site and it does not recognize my info. However, my COVID vax was reported to my state ‘s vaccination database, which utilizes MyIR for obtaining vax records. I was actually surprised when I logged in for the first time this summer and saw that my CVS administered flu vax from 2020 was in my record.
At one point, MyIR claimed we would be able to obtain a QR code, but so far, that has not happened. IIRC, there are 4-5 states who all use MyIR, but I will say, it is not user friendly, is very clunky and if you have a problem, customer service is only handled via email and it took at least 10 days for me to get a response from them.
In Virginia it is easy to get the QR code from the state Covid website, load it to an iPhone in your health data and also load it to the iPhone wallet. I found it easy to use. It is easy to pull it up from the wallet when needed.
Southwest has had some great deals on tickets from east coast to Ha, if you want to let husband know that. I had them “cancel” my flights once recently though, and had to call to reschedule - the exact same flight numbers, BTW, and took hours of my life I will never get back :(. Hopefully we will make it out there in February.
Oh, forgot to mention the other fun thing that is happening during travel. On our flight from London to Catania (Sicily) last week, a passenger boarded the plane and as he came down the aisle, he placed a bag above me in the locker and I could see that he was not wearing a mask (as opposed to others who sometimes would pull the mask below their nose or turn their masks into chin straps). He sat down much farther back. I then heard an argument start and he started yelling. “I don’t have to wear a mask. I received the injection.” Then it started to escalate. He started yelling, “It’s none of your business. F*** you.” The FAs came back and calmed him down but then we pulled back to the gate and two rather burly British policeman came in handcuffed him and removed him.
Very strange. They’ve probably stated 10 times both before boarding and then on the plane that passengers were required to wear masks through the whole flight (except for eating/drinking). His English was fine – his accent suggested he was African and he seemed well-educated – and I’m guessing his Italian was fine as I saw that he was carrying an Italian passport (when the police walked him out). There are plenty of places to object, but on a plane is not one of them. I’m guessing they put him on a Do Not Fly list. I don’t know whether British authorities will prosecute.
I’m glad they’re enforcing it. I wish Amtrak would have back in August when we took our trip. They kept threatening to, but only once enforced their threat.
I hope the Brits have a better system than we in the USA do----the man who punched the FA in the face last week only ends up on that particular airline’s no-fly list. He can get right back in the air, with a different airline.
If you do something outrageous like he did, you should be on a general no-fly list!
My daughter & son-in-law just returned from their Hawaiian honeymoon - they traveled to Maui & Kauai. They had no issues traveling or doing all the excursions that they booked. I believe they registered with a website before going - Safe Travels Hawaii or something like that, where they had to answer a ton of health questions and upload their vax cards. They have not had the booster yet.
Just returned from a fabulous trip to the Galapagos Islands. (Postponed from March 2020) Ecuador is strict about mask wearing in public ($100 fine) and we saw 90+% compliance in Quito, even outside. To fly to the islands, you must be vaccinated and show a negative covid test. Galapagos Islands are 100% vaccinated. We were on a small boat tour (16 passengers and 10 crew) and did not wear masks while on the boat or hiking on the islands. We did wear them in the couple of towns we stopped in. So glad we went. Amazing to see all the animals up close. We were caught in the American Airlines Halloween weekend issues. Our flight from Quito to Miami was cancelled on Saturday and we were rebooked on Tuesday! UGH! We bought tickets to return on Delta on Sunday. Now to deal with the travel insurance…
Planning a graduation trip for my DC who graduates in May. Thinking of the Caribbean and less tourist type islands. A friend suggested Cayman Islands. Any info? Other suggestions?
I would go to the USVI- St. John being the least “touristy”. It’s very low key and much of the island is national park. It’s a very different vibe. No big resort hotels- just villas and houses to rent.