"Southwest Airlines is moving forward with plans to artificially cap the number of seats it sells on its flights in an effort to promote social distancing onboard during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dallas-based carrier is capping bookings at around 79 passengers on its Boeing 737-700s and around 102 passengers on its 737-800s depending on the route and day-of-week, according to an employee who saw internal documents. The limits represent an at least 42% reduction in the number of seats on both the -700s and -800s, which are configured for 142 and 175 passengers, respectively.
Southwest’s capacity caps are in place from May 2 through the end of June."
Wow, out of curiosity I just checked. I couldn’t fly from Portland to Austin until June 7 - they are not offering the route. I can’t fly from Austin to Portland until June 14. I’m glad my dad is still doing well. I want to see him again but it looks like it will be awhile. I don’t want to fly airlines that aren’t distancing as SWA is.
I was planning a trip to Croatia in September, but the organizers (traveled with them last year) put the trip on hold. Apparently, the Croatian government is considering a ban on tourists from the US.
My daughter and son-in-law sold their home in Chapel Hill and have a closing date at the end of the month. They’re trying to decide if they should fly from Indiannapolis to Chapel Hill or drive. Right now, they think they’ll drive straight through–it’s a 10-hour trip. They moved some of their belongings last fall, and will have movers do the rest. The whole thing makes me nervous.
I think it’s irresponsible of Dr. Fair and/or NBC (not sure which) to suggest the infection came from his flight, possibly through his eyes. If the theory is that there could be up to a 14 day incubation period, they also need to consider what he was doing 2 weeks prior to onset of symptoms. Based on the details in the linked article I came up with the following (~ = approximate) timeline:
April 24 - reported from NBC Studio 1A (https://www.today.com/video/virus-could-abate-in-summer-but-it-s-still-too-early-to-know-expert-says-82509893901)
~ May 1 or 2 flight from NY to NO
~ May 4 or 5 - first symptoms
~ May 8 - “heading into last weekend symptoms started to worsen”
May 9 - becoming short of breath by Saturday
May 11 - called ambulance; ER; admitted to Tulane Med Ctr on Monday
May 13th - interviewed from hospital; his 3rd day in hospital
It would not be a stretch to say that Dr. Fair could have been infected prior to boarding that flight, unknowingly infecting other passengers himself (although he did wear a mask which would have helped protect others).
@HImom Dh and I hiked down to and camped at Havasu Falls also, 25 years ago when we had just gotten engaged. Coincidentally, we learned about it while we were vacationing/got engaged on Maui (Dh was stationed at Pearl Harbor at the time). We were on a snorkel cruise and met a guy who grew up in AZ and hiked there every year as a kid. We mentioned we were driving across country that summer and stopped at the GC. He was the one who convinced us to go to Havasu Falls instead. Unlike you, we only had one night to recover. We hiked down, stopped in the village for snacks, then continued to the falls. So exhausted we pitched our tent and went to sleep around 7:30pm! Spent the next morning in the area, swam below the falls then hiked back out around lunchtime. OMG, the blisters, the heat (did I mention it was July?), the elevation,etc. I was never so thankful for the cooler that still had icy drinks when we made it to the top around 5pm. The next day, we stopped at one of the pueblos to sightsee. I could barely walk as I was so sore and blistered. I’ll never forget this middle aged woman, looking at me, 26 y/o, and said “You are way too young to be hobbling around like that.” My response was, “if only you knew how I spent the last two days!”
My parents sent me on a teen tour cross country the summer I was going into 8th grade.
When we got to the Grand Canyon we had to ride donkeys down along this really narrow ledge. When we got to wherever the trail ended we ate a box lunch. My donkey was named Tequila. I had never heard the word before and kept calling him Tecate.
The whole experience was awful and so was the rest of the teen tour. Did you all know there is a Cowboy Hall of Fame?
I did learn to sleep on a bus, tweeze my eyebrows, and smoke. (which I only pretended to like to seem cool to the going into 9th grade girls.) Oh, and a bunch of us got picked up by the cops for being out after curfew in Vegas. The highlight of my trip!
@Elleneast I would also love to go to Martha’s Vineyard but we would have to fly. I still feel like it is too early to decide. We would stay with family so we don’t have to decide about a rental, but self-quarantining for two weeks may be too much family time! When we were first doing the stay at home thing, August seemed comfortably far off in the future. Not so much any more.
Right now I would love to go to so many places. Those of you talking about Zion and the Grand Canyon are definitely sparking some wanderlust. I have been to each of those spots once…and even though we got to spend time off the beaten path part of each days, there were certainly some incredibly crowded parts, too. I think it’s true they may be somewhat less crowded because of the lack of foreign tourists, but then on the other hand, it sounds like some parts will be closed, so everyone will be crowded into other parts. I can’t quite see myself being ready for that any time soon.
I would also love to see my (adult) kids but I don’t really see how flying or doing a long road trip would be within my comfort zone any time soon. Honestly I am still cautious about going anywhere right now because of the virus (esp. having immuno-compromised spouse) and even short trips like day trips seem daunting to me because all the restrooms are closed!
I will be waiting to see what happens in the next few weeks as things start opening up again. I was fine (more or less) while summer still seemed a long ways off, but now I don’t know.
I agree that there’s no way Dr Fair can definitely say he was infected on the flight and thru his eyes. Why not in NY before he started flying? Why not by something he touched before he put on his gloves or maybe even not putting or taking his mask off properly? Maybe his mask was even a fake N95, as these are everywhere—maybe his mask wasn’t worn everywhere. Maybe TSA infected him. Lots of possibilities. Maybe any time in 14 days or even longer before he had symptoms. As a virologist, he should know there’s a big window in which he could have been infected—saying things without strong evidence in national media is highly irresponsible.
People like him are NOT helpful and remind us that just because folks have degrees doesn’t make them “experts” that should be listened to without critical thinking.
With trepidation, I just flew & chose Southwest. VERY disappointed in them. They mentioned their mask policy at the gate area, but totally ignored it on the plane. The plane was not packed thankfully, but so so many people including several of the flight attendants took off masks once airborne.
Frontier CEO was asked on a recent interview, what would they do if passengers refuse to comply w/ their mask policy. He answered that they would be blacklisted from all future Frontier flights. Of course that means little if attendants simply ignore it.
Actually, many people at the airport were not wearing masks anywhere including the gate area. I overheard one passenger mention to the gate agent that the only place serving take-out food was crowded, no masks, no social distancing in line, etc. Of course, that is not the airline’s issue. It simply pointed out that so far it appears many people are not yet taking masks seriously.
My opinion…right now May 17, I would not be doing any discretionary travel. But I have plans to do so in August and September that right now are tentative.
@iglooo@MomofWildChild so…when you go through TSA, do you take your mask off so that they can verify that the picture ID you are presenting is…you?