What are your thoughts about travel in the time of Covid?

I would pick Zurich too, especially for a tightish connection. It’s not a Schengen entry point so you won’t have passport delays, it’s much smaller than Munich or Paris and there’s a train between terminals rather than a bus. They state a minimum connection time of 40 minutes which is definitely not achievable at the other two airports.

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About 10 years ago I went to Disneyland on Christmas. I swear I could have lifted my feet off the ground and not fallen down - it was THAT crowded. Not too bad in the morning but by afternoon they’d closed the gates and no one else could go in.

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Definitely not enough time in Paris.

I can’t speak for the other airports but IMO, I think anything under 3 hours is a gamble for international flights/connections.

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Well, apparently miracles do happen.
Just got this from DS#2: “More responsible heads prevailed and I took an earlier flight to Chicago today. Now we are all here at the gate and ready to go”. I can’t believe they pulled it off, but they are headed to Ireland!

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I know 7 people who recently flew from North America to Indonesia for a conference who, within a few days of arriving tested positive for Covid (with symptoms, mostly mild). They all blame it on the long flight/travel time, although they tried to mask. What a mess. To fly all that way and then miss the event because you are in isolation. They did not all travel together although there were 3 couples.

And I just talked with a couple who flew to Europe recently and got sick shortly after arriving and missed the event they had traveled for.

It does appear that these other countries are going with the 5 day isolation, no test to leave policy.

Just be aware there’s a lot of virus out there.

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Zurich or Paris. Not Milan esp if it’s Malpensa.

My friend recently traveled to France. She & her H were careful to mask & maintain social distancing. She contracted Covid partway through her trip. Fortunately, it was a mild case. She is the luckiest person I know, though … she knew someone in Paris who happened to have an empty apartment attached to her home. There was a beautiful secluded garden & a cat who hung out with her. The hosts brought them food. Her H never got sick, and she recovered a couple days before she had to fly home, so she was able to enjoy some more sights.

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My kid has a friend who travelled to Vietnam. A few days in, got a really bad case of Covid and had to be hospitalized. Seemed it was a nightmare with linguistic challenges and different standards of care.

Sounds like the polar opposite of your friends experience.

My best friend’s brother and his wife had similar luck in London. They were able to stay in a friend’s flat while quarantining after getting COVID. They did have to delay their return to the US.

This is the same man who just found out he has inoperable pancreatic cancer, so I guess his luck ran out. :frowning:

But he traveled recently & made memories with his wife. That’s not a small thing, and it will hopefully be a blessing to them in the difficult time ahead.

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We flew PHX-LHR on Tuesday night on BA. No major issues despite the horror stories about Heathrow. We had to wait quite a while after landing before we were assigned a gate, and then had a longer than normal wait for bags. They made several announcements apologizing for all the baggage delays, but when the bags were finally delivered both of our bags were there as expected. We’re scheduled to board a cruise in Southampton on 7/20 and are trying to be careful to avoid Covid exposure. Wearing masks indoors and seeking restaurants with outdoor dining. Tonight we had a nice dinner outdoors at a Lebanese restaurant near Marble Arch.

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D2’s friend that went to Spain in June has never received her checked bag. She did not have it all the time she was there and now the airline says it is somewhere in Canada. D2’s other friend returned from Italy last week and he also did not have his checked bag while there and it has still not been found and returned to him. The moral of the story for me is if I fly I’m not checking any bags at this time!

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There was a story last week about someone flying LAX to somewhere in Europe (Spain?), but through Canada. They made her gate check her bag at LAX and of course she never saw it again during her vacation. That would be the worst as you pack all the stuff you think you’ll need on the flight like medication and a change of clothing, and then they take it away.

I’m going on the same vacation I did last year. I checked 2 bags (free on SWA) but only one arrived and it took the other 3+ days to get there. I did get to go shopping, but really wasted 2 beach days without my beach stuff. This year? One bag, carry-on. My friends will just have to watch me wear the same things over and over. There is no way to get there without changing planes so too much of a chance of losing my luggage.

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The ones who lose their luggage are often the ones who pack a huge “carry-on” and then arrive to find the flight is full and the bag gets gate checked. Often these bags never make the flight or lose tags. Carriages and car seats get lost this way too. Checking bags in when you check in, helps reduce this issue a lot.
I have a personal pet peeve about people with huge carryons who arrive late and try to move my tiny bag/coat/whatever so they can force their not under the seat bag in the overhead taking up most of the space. Just my own thoughts.

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Lots of golfers were flying to a tournament this week in the UK. I saw a post with a pile of golf bags in the Edinburgh airport.

Sometimes a large bulky bag is unavoidable. Definitely not a carry on though. I can’t imagine those who are traveling for work right now and have equipment to bring.

Maybe @jpga13 had one of those bags? :grin:

I would chose the maximum layover time in Europe of 1+50 over 1 +10. Regardless, do not turn with either time in Paris!

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Megyn Kelly on her podcast has a hilarious retelling of her recent trip via Air France (Delta) on the loss of her bags (trip with husband and kids). Going was great, fine trip, but coming back NONE of 5 bags arrived. Spending hours with bots on the phone/computer/chat trying to track them down. Can’t get a single human to talk to. It’s been weeks. Three showed up…then another…and still waiting for the last one. Kicker is that after any interaction they ask for a review of customer service…lol.

Many year ago we took an extended trip to Vietnam with friends. Flight was more than 3 hours delayed getting to our connection at NRT Tokyo. We were surprised to be met at the gate with an agent saying we can make the connection, but need to run. Better than spending the night in Narita, but we thought there’s no way our bags would make it. Happily surprised to see them offloaded before we were! Very impressive airport.

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Ended up booking flights changing in Zurich, in part because we preferred the layout of that plane over the one stopping in Munich. One hour and fifty minute stop going to Milan. The stop is shorter going home but there is a later flight to our final destination from Zurich in case we miss ours. Fingers crossed that things are better by mid-October.

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