First post Pandemic start flight
We finally took our first flight since the Pandemic began this week, a ninety minute flight from Philly to Chicago.
It was not as I thought it would be.
First, for the past maybe four years, we have mainly been booking business class, so I assumed that was what my husband had booked, we used points. But no, he had booked coach, two isle seats opposite each other. How spoiled have I become to think I would be in business class seats when I’ve flown to Africa and even Australian not in business class before! Anyway. He kept looking and the flight consistently showed it was no way near being full.
So we get on the flight, and it’s full, the crew announce they would be checking through the cabin during the flight to check that everyone is wearing their mask correctly over noses and mouths. Well! The guy next to me, his nose was uncovered the entire trip, he even sneezed one time. No one said a thing. He wasn’t the only one. We actually purchased N95 masks for the flight, so I was not nervous.
I’m amazed by the incredible mask compliance in downtown Chicago, I would say that 99.9 percent of people are wearing masks indoors, the most I’ve seen anywhere.
And today, I hear of someone else I know who is fully vaccinated and has tested positive with Covid and feels really ill.
We have now scheduled our boosters before our trip to Florida in November, I don’t expect much mask wearing there.
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Bring your mask. We are still wearing them in our area indoor areas.
We had a similar situation. Last week we took a short 4 night trip to New York City. We haven’t been to NYC for over 30 years and we have a ton of ecredits from covid cancelled flights we are trying to use. Broadway Theater as well as restaurants are gradually opening now. Our flights from Seattle to Newark both coming and going were completely full. Mask compliance, from my observation, was 100%.
In NYC mask compliance appeared to be close to 100%. All the restaurants we went to all required proof of covid vaccine with one restaurant even asking for photo ID and comparing it to our vaccine card.
Our hotel, The Westin Times Square, did not check our vaccine card. When checking in I asked about this and was told it would only be needed if we wanted to use the fitness center. My wife later asked about the mask policy and was told we only needed to wear one if we were not vaccinated.
We attended theater and everyone had to show proof of vaccine and government issued photo ID. Masks were required for everyone in the theater and there was 100% compliance with the staff even telling people whose masks didn’t cover the nose and mouth to wear them correctly.
We are traveling to South Africa in 4 weeks with about 24 hour flying time each way. I am not looking forward to constant mask wearing for that long but I guess that will be the norm for the foreseeable future.
I find the title of this thread perplexing - post Pandemic (sic). Did I missing something? Is it over?
Whoops, in this case I meant post pandemic start. As far as I’m concerned, here in the US, we are still in our first wave.
Here is the part 2 of my first flight….returning home, you will love this!
So yesterday we returned home on a flight from Chicago to Philly. We checked in on line within the 24 hours of our flight. We always get the the hotel to print our documents, we like paper back up, in fact, I keep my phone off and in my handbag when we are at the airport and let my hubby do the phone stuff. We get to check in, priority lane, an AA perk. We show the agent our paper tickets and she checked us in. As I was getting my id out, she said she does not to see it, she had my husband’s that was sufficient. Ok.
We are in group 2 for boarding, good, the flight is full and people are on standby. We are in economy seats 11c and 11d. People are piling on. A young guy says to me, you are in my seat, I get out my boarding card, show it to him and check I am in the correct seat, I am. He waits to find a way to a flight attendant. She comes up to me and takes my boarding card offf me, says she needs to make a phone call.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the isle, I see a guy totally unmasked making his way past my husband to the window seat. He has a thin black mask round his neck . He pulls it up to under his nose. I’m thinking, thank goodness my hubby got us N 95 masks for our flight and there’s a seat between them.
So as the flight attendant comes back. She says my seat is 11e. My husband opens up the AA app on his phone, my seat has been changed to 11e. So I move across and sit next to him, so now, I am sitting next to the Mask jerk! It’s not on his face at all now.
The flight prepares to take off and they mention masks again. He pulls it up. As soon as the flight attendants have gone by, he takes it down again. I say nothing, he’s a big guy, I actually feel quite frightened. The drink and snack cart comes around. He is pretending to be asleep with his face faced away from the isle to the window. The flight attendant notices. ‘Sir, sir, you need to put your mask on.’My hubby whispers to her….he’s wearing a see through gauze mask. She says, ‘This won’t be pretty bit we have to do it all the time. Sir, that mask is not allowed, we need to give you another mask’. He puts it on
She whispers to me ‘If you see him take his mask off again, buzz me’ yeah, right, sure I’m going to buzz her if this big guy right next to me does that. NO, I think, I’m not, I’m frightened he might attack me!
He then proceeds to spend over half an hour eating a small packet of pretzels and and a drink, no mask. Eventuality we prepare to land, he pulls his mask under his nose.
Omg, wow, I’m still alive! Get me out of here!
What’s my tip….wear an N 95 on a plane. But don’t even suggest we should have flown business, because when I went to the bathroom, there was a woman in business class not wearing a mask, I couldn’t even see one round her neck, no food or drink in sight.
British, sounds like you better stick to your broom, 😀😀 Just teasing, I thought the attendants did better at mask enforcement. You’ll have to use some of your swimsuit model perks and fly via private jet. Oops, there I go again. 😀
I’ve just gotten my swimsuit out for our next little mini break in three days time…..need to lose the weight from all my recent trips to get on the front page again.
Broom, that’s naughty, though one of my kids was born on Halloween 😂
Glad you both survived with no blood shed. I have my short test flight to Maine next week. Thanks for the heads-up. Is it naive to think that international travelers are a bit more enlightened?
Yuck. It's funny, we spent four weeks in Europe last month and I was only worried about covid twice. Once when a cocktail party came into our "private" dinner room at Harder Kulm at the end of our meal (fled outdoors to take pictures) and upon our return via LAX. Upon arrival at our gate it turned out there was some issue involving the police (never found out what) holding up flights. It was the sort of gate that's just a door to the tarmac and a bus to your plane so several flights can be processed in a short time - normally. Instead about 5 flights worth of travelers were all milling about, trying to figure out what was happening since Delta wasn't communicating, and slowly flights starting loading. Over an hour delay in close packed quarters. Laid low at home for the next week in case we caught something. Thank god for vaccines.
We have flown domestically since fall of 2020…entirely on Southwest Airlines or American. We’ve truly had no issues other than repeatedl announcements by attendants to remain masked except eating or drinking. We found SWA stricter than AA in every way…no leaving off your mask to dawdle over our beverages! There is mask fatigue! Our first international will be in 2022 so…we will see what 9 hours is like masked up.
We flew AA.