Let’s address the 747 in the room. We flew during a pandemic. There I said it. So I might as well share what it was like to fly on in June and July in what is the weirdest year of my life: 2020.
I hadn’t been out too much since the Rona came to the States. Our abrupt return from Europe back in March is a story for another day.
I’d only been to a handful of stores in the past 4 months and out a few times for cocktails with friends sitting socially distant on patios. Living in our small community it has been nice to support small businesses when we can. But not having spent much time INSIDE anywhere made gearing up to head to the airport seriously weird. Think about it, an airport is like hitting up the grocer, the mall, an amusement park and indoor restaurants all at the same time. Wow it was stimulus overload just thinking about it. But I can tell you we dipped our toes in the travel waters and I’m happy to share what I think made it ‘enjoyable’ (or maybe we just call it ‘bearable’ because the act of getting from point A to point B during a pandemic shouldn’t really be labeled as enjoyable):
- Early flights: We took a 6:30am flight so I felt confident it was first flight of the day = cleanest? I thought of it as equivalent to those early morning shoppers hours they offer to the elderly and immunocompromised. The airport was not busy at all. We even found a prime parking spot as soon as we pulled into the carpark. Despite zero lines at security, TSA pre-check was still appreciated so we didn’t have to remove shoes or the 85 electronics that we travel with as small business owners and 2 kids in tow. As a test I went through the ‘regular person’ line and was out of security only 1.5 minutes after my family. NOTE: *in the eyes of a 6 year old, I was still the ‘loser’. We love us some competition.
- Bags of sanitizer: I put a handful of sanitizing wipes in multiple ziplock bags. Each bag had enough to wipe down our seating areas for each flight, as well as a few spare bags for our layover in Chicago. We would use all the wipes and then stash them inside an empty ziplock to throw away. It was like our very own virus capsule that I’m sure the TODAY show would love to get their hands on to test and scare the bejezus out of us all.
- Prayer. Ya’ll God wants to hear from you and He is listening. Pray for safety and travel mercies and look for opportunities to make smart decisions. Anyway, just mask up and don’t forget to send your prayers up too!
- Snacks: In an effort to keep things as self-contained as possible I packed every sweet and savory snack that my pink North Face backpack could handle. (I love this Lululemon backpack but it doesn’t hold near to feed a family of 4 on the road).
That’s it. Seriously – you don’t need to go crazy with your preparation. We wore masks and washed hands frequently.
*Hand washing tip for kids (and some of you adults may need this too): We put a little ink stamp on their hand and they have to scrub hands until it disappears!
It has been 3 weeks since we’ve flown and we have all remained symptom/Covid free. Unless whining is a symptom. I’d say that a few of us have serious Post Travel Depression and aren’t fairing too well in the attitude department.
As for more on our experience in flight here are some highlights of how different it was.
Southwest: The ‘Chick-Fil-A‘ of Airlines.
We flew Southwest from DFW – Chicago – MSP. We refer to our beloved Southwest Airline as our ‘private plane’ because we could always change/cancel/double book/book at the last minute. Basically we could treat a flight on Southwest as if we owned the plane!
The best part is Southwest currently boards only 10 people at a time (no red carpet or welcome cocktail, but leisurely boarding is what private jets are all about). And they mandate that the middle seat stay open (unless you are traveling together and WANT to use it (we DID NOT want to. LOL. But really, we didn’t). They will continue to keep the flights at this reduced capacity that allows ALL middle seats to remain empty thru September. Or possibly longer. We know all changes are fluid these days.
Love Field. The Tranquil Library of Airports.
Before boarding it was almost eerily quiet. Recognizing that this may have been the first mid-pandemic flight for most of us, we were all stone-faced and listening as the Gate Agent described the boarding process and reminded us of the rules that we agreed to upon checking in.
During the flight they reminded us that masks are mandatory except while eating or drinking. And to help keep those actions to a minimum they walked down the aisle once with a pre-filled cup of water and a small mixed pretzel snack.
Upon landing NO ONE clapped!! And I would say that is the biggest win of all! Why do people clap when a plane lands? I’m all for supporting people in the job they are doing, but why are we clapping for the landing? I can tell you in my experience people don’t clap during pandemic landings. Well done humanity.
I will end this anecdote by saying that I also appreciated that no one was crowding around the baggage claim. You guys – you NEVER needed to be crowding in the same area of baggage claim. No one would listen to me on this opinion fact, but now that we are all scared of germs I hope everyone will see how easy it is to spot and grab your bag from a safe distance.
