My dear wife and I have traveled several times back-n-forth to the States during the pandemic, and we try to keep our friends updated on what airline travel is like. Not much changed once the pandemic was in full swing, but now things are loosening up, and we’re looking forward to some honest-to-God overseas travel. So we’ll bring our friends and readers along!
The most important aspect of travel right now is how fragmented it remains. We all got spoiled having simple, consistent rules for international travel, and that is still not the case. Remember making an international connection? Generally just having your bags checked through and pretending you weren’t even in the intermediate airport (never an option when connecting in the US)? How about travelling within the Schengen zone in Europe and only going through customs & immigration once? Making a series of tight connecting flights and ending up on the other side of the globe in under twenty-four hours? Maybe someday, but not yet.
Various European nations have different access rules, and if you don’t fly non-stop direct to the country you intend to visit, you probably have to meet the Covid rules (tests? vaccinations? paperwork? quarantines?) of the country through which you do an international connection! So you have to choose your routes not just based on flight times and costs, but also whether you can even qualify to connect! And this is constantly changing, generally for the better, but if a given nation has increased infection rates, they all reserve the right to tighten the restrictions.
Because international travel was practically non-existent over the past year, airlines and airports and governments are just starting to lay on the planes, crews, inspectors, and staff to make things work smoothly. We flew through Delta’s home base of Atlanta during the pandemic, and they had closed the international terminal for aircraft, so we landed at another terminal and walked (using the secret passageways usually reserved for airport staff) all the way back to the international terminal where the customs and immigration stations were! Few restaurants were open, TSA had minimal staffing so no Pre-Check in some cases, and so forth. Just finding connecting flights that didn’t require an overnight layover is a big deal. We’re starting and ending this trip with an overnight in Atlanta, just because it was faster and less hectic than the alternatives!
Another example of supply and demand. We just arrived in Atlanta, and they no longer service the international terminal with hotel shuttles. So you leave the terminal, stand in line for a shuttle bus back to the domestic terminal, then wait in an outdoor seating area (under the metro train overpass, believe it or not) for the hotel shuttles to arrive. We cleared customs and immigration (Global Entry) in five minutes, then waited ninety minutes in lines and buses to get to the hotel, which was about two-tenths of a mile from the airport (and no, you could not walk there). I have seen better connections to ground transportation in the Third World, and this was Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport. Things just aren’t there yet.
When flying to the States from Mexico (or anywhere else), you need a negative Covid test within seventy-two hours prior to take-off (regardless of vaccination status), and an attestation form which simply says “yes, I took the tests and the results were negative” before boarding the aircraft. Our test results were always checked during the check-in process at the Guadalajara airport, but never after that. No one has ever asked for the “attestation form.” We also had to access the Mexican government’s website for travel authorization, which was checked by the security person before we went through to the gates.
In case you had not heard, perhaps the most difficult part of travel may be the rental car. The three big rental car companies (Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis-Budget) liquidated their fleets when the pandemic hit, as they usually buy all new cars each year. Now they can’t buy enough cars (the automakers can’t make them fast enough due to supply shortages of things like computer chips), so they don’t have inventory to rent, and their prices have gone through the roof. Reserving early is not only cheaper, it’s essential now.
Tomorrow we start anew, via JFK/NY, to the land of pita, sunshine, tzatziki, and moussaka. God willing, our next post will include a sunset photo to remember!
Will be reading every word, as we plan a trip to Spain and Portugal next spring. Wondering how it will all go. You gave me some things to think about as we make flight arrangements.
So looking forward to international travel! We cancelled Scandinavia for 2021–still too restrictive–and are holding our breath for Australia, 10/2022, as the Aussie Govt says they aren’t allowing international travel till “mid- to late-’22,” whatever that means. Keep us posted!