Travelin’ Man

We’re in Vicenza, Italy, right now, visiting family for Christmas! I’ll give a region review soon, but in the meantime, here’s some bullet points on travel during the Omicron portion of the pandemic:

• Any international travel remains difficult at best. Omicron (and if you want to be a citizen of the world, pronounce it as “Oh-MIKE-ron” or little O, as the Greeks do) has sent various national governments scrambling, changing the travel rules daily. Right now, you need an antigen test (or better) one day (NOT twenty-four hours) before departing for a plane ride to the States. For Italy, we needed an antigen (or better) test forty-eight hours before departing, and a EU-wide Personal Locator Form stating where we’d been, how we were travelling, where we were going, which resulted in a QR code.
• Nobody really checked anything out: it all remains on the honor system. Yes, the airline did check the covid test form for the date, but there remains no way to confirm the piece of paper is a real test! And the gate agent looked at our QR codes but didn’t scan them, so again, all on the honor system.
• Finding covid testing sites can be a challenge, given the one-day rule for US travel. I found two really good tools; the first is this website, which also has a handy summary of national regulations. Of course, always verify those regulations with the nation’s official website which you can usually google. The other way to find covid tests is through your airline. Go on their website (especially if you already have tickets) and look for “help with covid testing.” I found a test site near Atlanta’s airport using Delta this way, and it didn’t show up on any other search tools I used. There are some testing sites in airports, too, but be careful to check for opening hours, types of tests, and how fast results come back. You have to manage a wide range of variables to get the right test, in the right time frame, with results before your flight!
• Covid test prices are extremely variable. In general, antigen tests are cheaper and PCR tests much more expensive. Be careful not to confuse antibody tests and antigen tests: the former are not accepted for travel, the latter are accepted in many places (but not all, like Canada). Any test promising rapid results is generally more expensive (like double or more) than the same test with results back in days. Rapid antigen tests in Mexico run between a few hundred and a thousand (or two) Mexican pesos. When we were looking for the same tests in the States, we found them for over one-hundred dollars near airports, or two-hundred and fifty dollars in airports! PCR tests were still more expensive. In Italy, it looks like the same tests will run us forty Euros.
• Airline traffic is almost back to normal levels: you will see full planes, no social distancing, but masks, always masks! Most airport concessions are open, and those little oases known as airport lounges are serving full meals with drinks again (showers still mostly closed).
• Airlines are making rapid changes to their flight schedules to handle the increasing and changing travel patterns. For example, Delta is dropping some domestic routes–even leaving some airports altogether–to focus on new transatlantic routes. Look for more Europe travel opportunities in the near future, with competitive rates, at the cost of regional routes in the US.
• Everybody is trying to play by the rules, but it is hard to do so. Landing at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris, the flight attendants announced that the airport requires N95 or KN95 masks. Then they handed out simple surgical masks (not N/KN95 masks) to everyone. Flight attendants (and airport personnel) will constantly remind the flying public to wear masks and keep them over the nose and mouth. Any attempt to ignore this guidance is one way to lose your ticket.
• The same confusion exists on the ground. Here in Italy, they instituted a Green Pass which people carry as a card (or on their phones) to be allowed inside stores, restaurants, museums, etc.. However, they also accept US tourists with only a CDC card, which they don’t even check (could be a 3 x 5 card with printing on it for all they can tell). I recommend checking with travelers or expats where you are going to find what ground truth is for your destinations!
• Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport (aka ATL) remains my favorite (especially since I focus my travels on Delta airlines). However, the airport is currently a mess. They are building the first hotel inside the airport (all the others are a short distance away) and the construction has caused major headaches. If you need to stay the night, there is no easy way to use airport shuttles to get to your hotel. Oh, they have them, but you need to wait thirty to forty-five minutes to get a shuttle from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, then wait under a MARTA train overpass (outside) for your hotel shuttle, which could be another thirty minutes or more. My suggestion? Spring for a taxi from whatever terminal you arrive at; most seem to have a twenty dollar flat rate for the mile or less ride to nearby airports, and it is money well spent. Savvy travelers tell me you can follow the international-to-domestic connection inside the airport even if you don’t have a connecting flight (no ticket required) which lets you take the plane train to the domestic side, but requires you to pass through a one-size-fits-all TSA security checkpoint (no PreCheck, no Clear, no Global Entry). And that still leaves you to stand outside with a hundred people huddled under the overpass, waiting to see which shuttle is yours! Spend the money!
• Finally, you’ll no doubt see those “do not travel” warnings from the US State Department or CDC. Just like the ones issued regularly due to violence or instability, you need to be a savvy traveler and aware of your own risks before making a decision where/when to travel. There are parts of the US with much worse covid rates than some of the countries where the US is officially saying “don’t go there.” You have to determine (1) your risk from the disease (co-morbidities, general health, etc.) (2) the medical infrastructure of the place you will visit (3) their covid trends, (4) your insurance coverage, (5) whether you can change or reschedule your trip and at what cost, (6) what you will do if you get sick while travelling. But all that information only sets up your decision: only you can determine what risk you are willing to accept!