In The Time Of Coronavirus

Friends, neighbors, and strangers are constantly surprised that I’m still flying during the pandemic. After they get over the initial shock, they almost always ask, “What’s it like flying right now?” The short answer: strange. 

Many of my colleagues have taken time off over this past year. There certainly have been a lot of opportunities. Because of reductions in flight schedules, the airlines are majorly overstaffed. In an attempt to mitigate furloughs, most airlines have offered a myriad of options to crew including voluntary furloughs, short-term leaves, partner-share schedules, and “early out” retirement packages. The term “early out” always strikes me as funny because no one leaves this job early. Just yesterday, I flew with a flight attendant on her final flight. (Honolulu to San Francisco) She’s taking the “early out” after fifty-five years of service. 

Me, I’ve stuck around this entire strange year. March 2020 was my last “normal” month. By April, flights were massively canceling and I only flew one trip that month. In May, I flew one-day turns. A “turn” means you go in circles. I flew to DC and back in a day …a thirteen-hour day. It was the beginning of the pandemic. I was reluctant to stay in hotels, sleep in shared beds, and bathe in shared tubs. I’ve gotten over that. 

By the summer, I was back to a regular flight schedule. By “regular” I mean -with layovers. But the layovers were anything but regular. The hotels were EMPTY. Eerily empty. Sometimes we (crew) were the only ones staying in the entire hotel. Oftentimes, there was security monitoring our comings and goings. Even now, in every American city, entire hotels remain closed. Just last month, in downtown Chicago, our layover hotel with a 2,000 room capacity, only had an 80 room occupancy. And I’m sure those 80 rooms were mostly occupied by crew. Sometimes we share the hotel with health care workers or people in quarantine. Very rarely, and only very recently, have I seen tourists. And business travelers (our bread and butter) are non-existent. 

Sometimes empty hotels put lamps in the windows to create an image. Pretty cool.

But the strangest flying and layover experiences this year, have been in the international market. Countries are constantly changing their rules. As of today’s post, our once robust international schedule has been reduced to: Delhi / Taipei / Narita / Seoul / Frankfurt / Sydney / Tel Aviv

That may sound like a lot. But, It Is Not. And let me tell you about the trips. Most of them are no fun because crew are not allowed to leave their hotel rooms. For example in Sydney, they won’t give us a key. We get escorted to our rooms, and essentially locked in. Food appears at the door with a knock. Talk about contactless. And the really fun part, we have to get a rapid Covid test before we go and another one after we land. The process takes a few hours. Add on a fourteen-hour flight and this makes for a long day. But, at least, we’re not overworked. Only twenty-five passengers are allowed on board the Sydney flights. Weird!!

While international flying will undoubtedly take the longest to bounce back, I am starting to see a few more tourists returning to travel. With the vaccine rolling out and restaurants opening up, I can finally see brighter days ahead. So, hopefully, I’ll meet you soon in the friendly skies. 

Or better yet, let’s meet in Paris.