When I took the American Airlines flight in January, I wrongly assumed the year would begin with plenty of domestic and international travel. If you have been following along, you know I have been doing reviews in/around Abilene to keep busy. Being confined to Abilene has been taking its toll on me, so what did I do? I booked a roundtrip ticket at 2pm yesterday to fly to Houston, two hours later, to see my family. I still have soreness in my lower back but the need to leave the city was far greater.
The airport experience was the same as my other trip: 1) wear masks at all times, 2) most bars/restaurants are closed or only have take out, and 3) social distance is highly recommended. The biggest change for me was I did not have to be wheeled around by a staffer. Cheers to improved health.
The experience on the airplane was the same as well: 1) wear masks at all times over the nose and mouth (unless eating or drinking) and 2) use the sanitation wipe, provided by the flight attendant, to wipe down hard surfaces at the seat. Is this in addition to or instead of the cleaning that is supposed to happen during the “plane cleaned” section of How’s My Flight Tracking?
United Airlines does another thing to keep help passengers safe during pandemic travel. The airline requests passenger’s information to facilitate contact tracing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, should the need arise. The United Airlines’ mobile app requests the following information from passengers: email, phone number and address in the United States. The only mandatory information is the phone number. This is the only information I input because United Airlines has all of my other details, right?
Final Word
I appreciate the airports and airlines for continuing to make masks mandatory. The increase of sanitizing stations throughout the the terminals has undoubtedly stopped the spread of germs, not just COVID. While the attendants provide a single wipe per passenger, this is more than enough to wipe down the hard areas the passenger may touch. United Airlines has gone above and beyond to protect passengers before, during, and after travel. The number of people getting vaccinated and traveling are steadily increasing. I hope we are able to return to pre-pandemic flight numbers soon, but with better safety precautions.
