My Experiences Flying During COVID

I moved from California to Michigan in February 2020, a months after the president heard about COVID but a month before the country shut down. With a sick dad, I found myself flying during COVID, cross-country at least once a month since the pandemic began.

Flying during COVID isn’t a simple decision. There are a lot of factors to weigh, all dependent on your individual circumstances. I didn’t hesitate, I didn’t feel like there was a choice for me. The benefits outweighed the risks, but it’s different for everyone. Age, health, purpose for travel, the feelings or fears of those around you, are all important to consider when flying during COVID.

Flying During COVID - In the Beginning

I was in California in March 2020 when shit really hit the fan. I flew the day after the NCAA cancelled March Madness and a day before schools started to close. When the masses were starting to understand the scope of the threat, but with still little information or direction. It was chaotic. There weren’t any mask mandates, but some people started wearing masks. I came to the airport without a mask, but after spending some time in the waiting area, hearing people cough and sneeze, I made my way to the store and paid $15 for a mask. The waiting area at Gate A4 had an ominous vibe, almost a feeling of mistrust of the fellow passenger who could be harboring a deadly, contagious, misunderstood virus. Suspicious looks darting at anyone who coughed.

I felt the flying effect of the pandemic most starkly in April and May 2020. On one flight, I was one of two passengers, receiving a personal welcome from both pilots, while the flight attendant fell asleep shortly after takeoff. All food and drink services stopped.

During another journey, a layover in Dallas felt like legit End Times. With the five other passengers on the flight, I walked out from the jet bridge door and was met with empty silence. No chatter from anxious passengers, no announcements over the loudspeaker. Other than one gate agent, I did not see a single soul until I reached the bathroom and passed an airport employee. Emptiness. I actually felt a little scared. It felt weird to be in a normally bustling place when it was devoid of energy. But at least I was able to social distance the entire trip; I rarely got within 20 feet of anyone, even on the flight.

People Are Over It

Beginning in July 2020, flights started getting fuller. During a layover in Charlotte, I had to walk through a sea of people to get to my connecting game. Social distancing was impossible in the airport this time.

On the flights, seats were full, including middle seats. Some airlines were still leaving the middle seat open, but I get perks on American and they are selling all the seats they can. Due to the perks, I’m likely to fly first class or at least get an emergency aisle seat, so I haven’t had to feel like a sardine yet. But looking at some other people’s flying experience, it looks a little too close for comfort.

Though it might look too close, especially with the ever-shrinking seat sizes, studies have shown the inherent air flow processes and mask requirements make flying safer than being in other small enclosures. Flying during COVID can be safer than doing other activities during COVID. An American Medical Association article notes that “the airflow in today's aircrafts have been measured at three times the amount mandated for infection control rooms in hospitals. It takes the ventilation system of a plane about six minutes to reduce the number of viral particulates in the air by 99.9%. This fact alone reduces risk significantly compared to office buildings, restaurants or homes.”

I continued flying regularly until the 2020 holidays, when I took an antibody test and it came back negative. (My partner and I are confident we got Covid at the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020. I could have gotten it on that first flight where most people were maskless; he could have gotten it that same weekend at a work training in Detroit, where the virus was exploding. We had coughs, chest pain and general flu-like feelings and spent the next 10 days in quarantine, just in case).

Flying During COVID - More Than a Year Later

I started flying again once I got vaccinated in April 2021. Other than the masks, you wouldn’t know there was a pandemic. Flights were full. Airline travel seemed almost back to normal. My layovers in Dallas we once again full of people, the airport hustle and bustle was back. People weren't worried anymore about flying during COVID.

In August 2021, my partner and I went to Costa Rica. He had work in San Jose for three weeks and we decided to take advantage by going a week early and exploring the northern jungle areas. I had mixed feelings about it. I was nervous, checking the COVID numbers in Costa Rica almost daily, but feeling better after reading that millions of vaccinations had been administered in the small country. At the time I arrived, 60% of the population received at least one shot, even more so in San Jose. We were confident in our vaccine status and our safe behaviors, but it was worrying nonetheless. If Dave wasn’t coming for work, there’s no way I’d take an international trip right now.

I Actually Feel Safer in Costa Rica

The flight to Costa Rica was about half full; I was curious why the other passengers were traveling… going home? Vacation? Medical tourism? Work? Who knows what their reasons were for traveling, and they didn’t know mine either. We were the last flight of the night, and I was the first through immigration. No lines, no crowds. Here I go, I’m in another country during a resurging pandemic.

As we started our adventure, I quickly realized that Costa Ricans are taking this more seriously that the U.S. and have implemented serious protocols that the masses strictly follow. I didn’t see one person without a mask inside and most wore masks walking around the city. As we got more north, more into the rural, jungle areas, the trend continued. Ziplining above the jungle canopy, everyone wore masks. At all restaurants, hotels and stores, we found a combination of required safety measures: masks, sanitizing hands, taking temperatures. In most restaurants and hotels on our trip, there was a hand-washing station that everyone was asked to use before interacting with anyone. I didn’t see anyone protest or even roll their eyes at these requests. And it made me feel very safe.

It was also easy to social distance during our travels. On all but one occasion, we were the only two in the van, on the bus or in the boat. And the vast majority of those working in the tourism industry are fully vaccinated, an effort to get the tourism economy, so central to their livelihoods, back on track. There were a handful of people staying at each of our lodges and all staff everywhere wore masks. Most of our activities were outside, crossing paths with only a handful of other explorers. I can’t think of an instance where I felt unsafe or exposed.

In Monteverde, a small northern town, we walked past a clinic with a line of people waiting to get their vaccination. We asked one of our drivers about any pushback to the COVID safety measures or vaccine. He said there is a small, older population that doesn’t trust the vaccine, but they have no qualms with following the strict country-wide COVID rules. There aren’t fights about masks or misinformation about the vaccine. They trust their health system and leaders. (Here is an excellent, intriguing article that gets into Costa Rica’s health system and how that contributes to the health of their people. I believe its correlated with the openness to the vaccine and COVID measures).

Traveling in Cost Rica is an eye-opener to how it could have been in the U.S. if things were handled differently. Obviously, my few weeks spent there is an itty-bitty snapshot of what’s happening, but from what I’ve seen, what I’ve researched and read, they figured something out here that we haven’t been able to back home. Maybe I’ll just stay…