We have a trip planned for late July to fly into Portugal and work our way through into Spain over a two week period. All was booked and most paid for and it looks unlikely to happen. Lufthansa allows us to rebook for free but we have to use the tix by the end of this year which is not very helpful. So far we are sitting tight and hoping they will relax the change rules so that we can roll the trip to next summer. We will probably lose a few of our bookings and get no refunds but the flights are a large part of the cost.
It seems to me that the logical thing would be to not allow individual purchases of middle seats, but to allow the middle seats to be reserved with a purchase of 3 or more seats at the same time So a family of 3 traveling together could book a row of seats.
But then there needs to be reliable testing of every arrival with quick results so that quarantine can be lifted before 14 days for those arrivals who are not infected.
I’m not nearly as worried about sitting next to someone on an airplane as I am about sitting in the row immediately in front of a person who is sick. Coughing, sneezing and breathing don’t travel sideways as much as directly ahead… Keeping middle seats empty is another one of those things that makes people feel better but probably doesn’t result in much difference in outcome. Similar to the thermal testing to see who has a temperature; the nontouch thermometers aren’t terribly accurate and there’s quite a bit of evidence of asymptomatic transmission, so taking the temp of people is mostly for show purposes.
Not that it affects me, but how are people flying with young children (especially three and under) supposed to manage with the middle seat vacant? It would be especially daunting if a single adult has two small children, and one of them has to sit with a stranger with unknown health habits on another row. Seems silly for intimate family members to be forced to socially distance on a plane.
I’ve also seen that configuration where the middle seat is facing the opposite direction and a wall of plexiglass encases the side of each traveler and extends to a level above head height. Great idea…except not so great when traveling with a baby or toddler.
In a ABC DEF seating arrangement with B and E non-reservable, the family with one parent and two kids can choose ACD. If overbooking causes the airline to assign someone to B or E, or the family just wants to sit together, they can sit in ABC, since passengers assigned to middle seats typically gladly take an aisle seat in exchange (i.e. sit in D instead of B ).
However, many airlines that have assigned seats do not allow many economy passengers to pre-select seats on booking, so families who do not buy the more expensive tickets could still have the kind of seating issues they had during normal times.
In my experience, not too many passengers want to endure a prolonged flight with an unrelated young child and generally some swap is generally arranged among willing parties. If it matters, most airlines do allow people to pay extra to have specified guaranteed seats. I’m sure talking to the airline personnel in advance will remedy many situations.
I missed a trip to the UK planned for Easter week and will miss a trip to Sicily planned for June. All very disappointing! I love travel but the thought of being seriously ill while traveling overseas scares me to death! I’d rather not get sick while traveling anywhere but would much prefer being in my own country, at the very least!
I plan to attend a family wedding in suburban Los Angeles in late September. Any thoughts on whether CA will be allowing such gatherings by then?
I think so much depends upon the reopening experiment that no one can predict anything for at least two months.
If it goes well, I think places will copy it and all should be fine. If it doesn’t - who knows?
By going well it doesn’t just mean how folks handle things (social distancing, etc), it also means whether the virus changes due to weather/mutation/whatever and if critical medical advances happen to make it less of an unknown beast.
I’m still really hoping that last bit happens (medical advances) as I don’t put much faith in any of the others. But having said that, no one knows for sure what will happen at this point. That’s just my guess.
In two months we should have a better idea. (5-12 days for exposure to issues, another 2-6 weeks afterwards for death if it’s likely to happen. Within two months we should also know more about various other health issues associated with it and if some of the meds have worked well.)
@Creekland — my lung medical folks agree with you—they’re waiting and learning, networking with their colleagues, doing their best in the meantime.
@Himom If we do indeed choose HI - and Oahu - this winter, we really need to meet. It’s not at all a problem for us to quarantine first if that’s still advised. We’d want to do it if Covid were still out and problematic even if it’s not required.
In general though… Oahu isn’t our favorite island so no guarantees. We’re rural lovers, so Kauai (beauty) or The Big Island (scuba, volcano) win for us at the moment - and we need to investigate more of Maui as we haven’t done that yet - just did a quick look between islands.
Would love to meet you, @creekland. We will see how things evolve. I would like to have less crowded visits of our neighbor islands as well. Time will tell when my docs feel it is safe for me/us to travel.
Not yet, please! Think of the situation in front of your house repeated on the beaches. So far the locals have been mostly well behaved on the newly opened beaches, keeping moving and observing social distance. But I don’t think tourists would do the same; ditto popular dining neighborhoods like Little Italy and the Gaslamp.
Also, opening the most popular attractions like the USS Midway and the San Diego Zoo will need a lot of caution. Perhaps the Midway could do reservation admittance only, but it’s very tight quarters. The zoo has more space but might need timed admissions. And Sea World - aren’t crowd attractions like that the last step on most plans? And pretty sure getting into Tijuana is a long time away.
I understand the city badly needs the tourist dollars, but so far the pandemic has been relatively controlled for a major city. Go to LA first!
Ack! @Marilyn Don’t send them here to LA, our beaches aren’t even open yet. As a matter of fact, nothing is open so very little for them to do. Since they can walk on the beach in San Diego, you take them! ?
Note that the current 14 day quarantine in Hawaii is required for those arriving from out-of-state and inter-island travelers. Note that the quarantine means that you cannot leave your residence or hotel room at all except for medical care, must have food delivered, and cannot have visitors – it is not like stay-mostly-at-home orders in other places where you can go out to buy food or do outdoor exercise.
Of course, all the orders are subject to revision and things ARE being revised, based on how things are going.
You are right that currently, the 14-day quarantine requires folks to go straight from airport to place of quarantine and remain there for 14 days, having food, groceries, etc delivered.
Neighbor islands means another quarantine per island, so island hopping isn’t possible at this time. No idea when orders will be revised, but there have been revisions.
What a crock. Are you serious about this? Would never ever consider comparing a state with a company (like cruise line)!
Common sense… and trust that you CAN live without seeing Old Faithful, opting for the lesser traveled parts of Yellowstone instead.
We go to Aspen every summer. But we never, never go anywhere near the “must see” Maroon Bells. Instead, we hike behind them. Last year we came across exactly two other hikers. While the Maroon Bells were getting bus loads of tourists every hour. No thanks.
Will the TV adverts use “Hotel California” as the theme tune?
I agree that’s the way it is now - which is why I suggested I could only meet HiMom if we opt for Oahu - and we might not - most likely won’t with our personal preferences. Oahu is gorgeous, but it’s too crowded for our rural tastes.
But if HI continues to not have cases I could see them opening up inter-island travel before regular incoming travel and this would likely be before winter.
Time will tell.
The terms of the quarantine are fine with us. H works on his computer inside and all I need is a combo of a good view, books, and my computer to be happy. Getting food delivered is hardly awful. It used to be called “room service.” 
We’d be there for a couple of months. Two weeks would go by quickly. Looking at the ocean, spinner dolphins, whales, and palm trees beats looking out our window here in PA at brown dreariness.