I don’t think those things should be concerning. If you pay for airport parking, no problem. I do a lot of Uber, everybody seems to be wearing masks, keeping the air blowing or windows open, you load your own luggage.
Not sure what he will touch at the airport. If he checks in on his phone, he won’t have to touch the terminal. If he touches something in the airport, he just needs to use hand sanitizer or wash his hand before he puts something in his mouth or touches his nose. I now eat before I get on board, and bring something that I can touch the exterior of (and not the actual item) to eat, like a banana or energy bar. I use the (now very clean) restrooms in the airport before I get on board. You touch things, then you use the touchless faucets to wash your hands. The restrooms are uncrowded. Hand sanitizer is all over the place in the airports, plus he can bring a small bottle.
@momofboiler1 CBS Evening News is doing a story on United and their social distancing policy after images of a full plane were circulating on social media. Story hasn’t aired yet (I’m watching now) but that was one of the “ticklers” at the beginning of the news a few minutes ago.
All the tickets that are sold where the seats are assigned at the airport will also not show as full. Frontier charges $30+ to get a preassigned seat, so many cheapskates like me just take whatever seat is assigned.
My brother flew at the end of March and United wanted $50 or so for him to pick a seat. There were about 7 passengers on the whole flight, so he took his chances.
Just a quick comment to anyone who is relying on a n95 mask to be safe while traveling–
—unless the wearer has had the mask fit tested and the particular band & style of the mask passed the test, wearing a n95 offers no more protection than a plain cloth or surgical mask.
Fit testing requires special equipment & takes about 45 minutes.
Every mask brand, size and style fits differently. One brand of n95 mask is not interchangeable with a different brand/style. Users of n95s sometimes have to try several different brands/styles of masks to find one that fits properly.
A n95 mask fits extremely tight–almost painfully tight–to the face. D1 comes home from work with red pressure welts on her face from her n95.
Plus–another warning–there is booming business in counterfeit n95 masks going on right now. They look like the real deal but don’t meet minimum FDA filtration standards.
“Plus–another warning–there is booming business in counterfeit n95 masks going on right now. They look like the real deal but don’t meet minimum FDA filtration standards.”
Very legitimate concern. Plus, some of these counterfeit masks could be made from materials not intended for respirators, so the wearer could be breathing in “microplastics” (remember those?) or things like asbestos.
Re Uber /Lyft concerns: I’m hoping to fly this week & have no one to drive me to the airport. I’ll be gone too long to park a car. So, I have a car rental reserved. I can walk to the rental agency & drop the car off at the airport for the same cost as an Uber. Typically a one way rental is much more, but they need clients, so I guess that’s why it is reasonable now. Supposedly they sanitize the car, but I’ll also wipe down what I touch prior to driving it away. I can also walk from drop off to airport, if not raining.
I’ve mentioned this before - but D has to make a long drive to move to her new place in early June. Traveling through multiple states. Is there a good way to figure out the rules/regulations for the different states? She will just be passing through - with minimal rest/gas stops - so should she only worry about her destination state?
@arisamp - We found that different areas were doing there own things, even within the same state. We just wore are masks whenever we left the car and used Purell religiously. All the rest areas we passed were open. (We did google that but were told that they are mostly all staying open for the trucks). The one we used was spotless. Gas stations and take out restaurants had their restrooms closed .
@arisamp my kiddo will also be driving through multiple states sometime within the next six days or so. She has checked. Rest stops are open on the highways. So are hotels in case she needs to stop for the night she is traveling with lots of sanitizing things). From what she could determine…traveling through a state isn’t an issue. It’s the final destination for her that will be where she needs to voluntarily self isolate (and she will).
She is packing her own foods, and plans to stop to get gas, and go to the bathroom only (unless the drive gets too tiring, and if that is the case, she will stop for the night).
Well I bragged about my good cruise deal in another thread. Maybe cruising from Italy and stopping in Spain wasn’t such a good idea. Anyway, Royal Caribbean has a new policy where you can switch your cruise to the next year within 4 weeks and pay the same. I had been reluctant to cancel and lose my great deal, but I was able to just change it to next year. We were planning on touring Sicily first before cruising from Rome to Florida and hope to still do that next October. Haven’t cancelled my flight yet - it is showing that my flight from Austin to Rome only goes to Dallas right now, so I suspect there won’t be a problem even though I used my miles with a web special. Will report back.
Our only planned trip this year will be one where we drive. We have been renting the same house on Martha’s Vineyard for more than a decade and the owners have nicely said that we can tell them as late as mid-July if we are coming this summer. We plan to be there from mid-August to mid-Sept so there will be some time when the summer season is in full swing before we need to commit. During that time we can see what happens to the infection numbers .
Right now there are very few cases on the island. People arriving are being asked to quarantine for two weeks. That said, the population goes from around 17,000 off season to over 100,000 so we will see how things are in early July and make our decision then. An island with a 25 bed hospital is not where you want to be dealing with a possibly life threatening illness.
Our daughter’s August wedding reception in NYC has been rescheduled for August 2021 but she and her fiance still plan to marry this summer. They hope to come up to the island while we are there and go to the local town hall with just the parents in attendance. I hope it works out. 1st world problems, I know.
Dr. Joseph Fair, NBC News science contributor and noted virologist and epidemiologist, got infected despite taking every precaution. He thinks he got it from a packed flight to New Orleans. He wore a face mask on the flight but no eye protection. He believe he got infected through his eyes.
@thumper1 Several weeks ago from one of NYC area airports to New Orleans. He also said he was tested four times but they were all negative. He had to call 911 when he couldn’t take a full breath.
I was planning on wiping down a car I wanted to test drive, when the salesperson suggested I wear gloves. That was an easy solution, especially with disposable gloves. We decided we will be driving a lot in the future, so need a newer, more comfortable vehicle.
NBC also did a segment this morning about folks eagerly signing up for cruises this August, and of course, there were those who were happily saying they needed their first drink in a bar in Wisconsin.
It never fails to amaze me what some folks “need.” Humans are all different.
At this point I mainly hope that anyone who doesn’t want to return to work (due to Covid) doesn’t have to. Let those who want to do what they want and Natural Selection will figure out who survives/has issues and who doesn’t. I can’t help but feel for the health care workers and others who might fall ill without wanting to be part of the experiment.
With the economy being lifted by those who choose to go out, we’ll be able to save a bit for our next trip when we feel it is safe. I have no idea when that will be TBH, but it’s certainly not today and not likely for August. It might help us winter in HI if they stay safe.
Trying to get to Miami from NJ to visit father in law. Cancelled our flights in March, April, May. I don’t foresee flying at this point as 3 hours on packed airplane sounds like torture. Thought my driving days to Miami were over, but may be the safest choice.
Travel and frankly planning travel is my stress outlet. And it is missing. I will probably start sooner than most. Wife and I are 47 and not in perfect health but nothing serious. She seems to think if she gets it she will likely die from it. I think she is watching the news too much.
I have a flight booked for a soccer tourney for D21 later in the summer. It’s Southwest so I figured not a big problem to book the tickets and cancel if necessary (plus using vouchers that expire in October anyway). Who knows if that really happens. Right now it is hard to predict a week into the future, let alone a couple of months.
I’ve got several offers for nearly free cruises. But even I’m not brave enough for that yet. That may be a while. Plus honestly the older I get the less I like being around crowds. So I think a vacation I would have enjoyed 10 years ago would not be as enjoyable right now anyway. At least that’s what I tell myself when I skim the emails with weeklong cruises for a couple hundred dollars that I am not booking.