Are you someone that loves to travel but worried to do so because of the Covid outbreak? Well, January 1st, 2021 I flew internationally to Punta Cana for a spontaneous getaway to start the New Year, and I’m here to share with you my experience traveling during Covid. First I want to start by saying that I followed every guideline. My mask was worn correctly the entire time, I traveled with no symptoms, practiced social distancing, and I made sure proper hand hygiene was always used (highly recommend getting a hand sanitizer keychain to clip on your bag for easy access). If you aren’t someone who can follow every guideline then you shouldn’t be traveling during this time.
I am a Delta SkyMiles member and let me just say, Delta exceeded my expectations in making me feel safe flying during these unprecedented times. First when selecting your seat assignment online you will notice that the majority of middle seats are blocked off in order to practice social distancing. I was able to sit by myself on all four of the flights I took. Once you make it through security you will notice that every other seat at the airport gate is blocked with a social distancing label. This helps keep others from sitting directly beside you when waiting to board.
Of course as you already know, everyone is required to wear a face mask both on the plane and at the airport. The flight attendants on all of my fights were very vigilant in ensuring that all passengers were wearing their masks correctly the entire duration of the flight. The first change you will notice besides the required face masks, is that the plane boards from back to front unless you’re first class, military, or medallion members. Doing this helps limit the amount of passengers passing by each other while walking to their seat. As you board the flight you’re given a packaged sani wipe to clean your hands. *Germaphobe over here also brings her own wipes to clean the entire seat, but i’ve been doing that since before the pandemic because people are just gross. After departure when it’s time for your water and snack, the flight attendants come by and give you an individual ziplock bag filled with a pack of biscoff cookies, goldfish, a mini water bottle, a mint, hand sanitizer, and a napkin. To be honest I loved this way more than the pre-pandemic pack of cookies and tiny cup of water we used to get.
The only concern I had with traveling during these unprecedented times was the amount of people that touched my passport. If traveling internationally you first have the TSA agent, then the gate agent, the person at the line directing you to customs, the custom agent, hotel check in, and then repeat the process on the way back. Even Pre-Covid if you think about that it’s pretty gross, but just a little more unsettling during these times. An easy solution is to wear a glove on the hand holding your passport during all of this and then just clean your passport afterwards. I definitely recommend doing this as I feel that if I were to get sick from my travels it would have been because of this mishap. Overall, if you take precautions and follow the rules then traveling right now for me was fine. I felt I was at no greater risk traveling than I am in my everyday career. My work also requires staff to get a negative Covid test upon return to work so that gives me a peace of mind knowing that i’m not bringing back Covid to my patients or family. Of course everyone is different and this is just based on my experience so do what’s best for you.
* Update as of 1/15/2021: Starting January 26, 2021 passengers are required to get a viral test within 3 days before their flight back to the U.S. departs. Passengers must provide documentation of their negative laboratory test results to their airline or they will not be able to board their return flight to the U.S. More information can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0112-negative-covid-19-air-passengers.html