My Experience Flying During Quarantine
May 30, 2020
“My boyfriend calls me crazy for wanting to fly. I do feel a bit crazy. I’m just sitting here on my jacket in my seat that I sprayed down with alcohol writing to you.”
My boyfriend, Steve, calls me crazy for wanting to fly. I do feel a bit crazy, but to all the ones who are interested in flying during quarantine or that have concerns, I’m doing it twice and I’d like to share my experience with you.
I picked a morning flight because I thought it would be less crowded during this time. I’m flying from Austin to Phoenix and then Phoenix to Orange County on Southwest. I have never flown on Southwest, but I heard great things about their customer care so I thought why not them for my quarantine flight?
There are signs throughout the airport stating that you must have a face mask. Even when I checked in on my phone, there was a notice about having a face mask and if you don’t have one, they can provide one for you. At the first checkpoint, I saw there were a few people without face masks on, but everyone was making sure to follow social distancing and standing 6 feet away from each other. There were indicators on the floor. When you give your ID card to TSA, they’ll ask you to lower your mask for a short moment to verify your face matches the picture on your ID. Everyone took turns putting their things in bins. I put all of my things onto the conveyor belt (there’s no way to tell how clean the conveyor belt or the bins are).
It was almost completely empty at the gate because again, I took a morning flight, and I also don’t think a lot of people are comfortable flying yet. I made sure to spray down the arm rests of my chair with alcohol (my mom gave me a small spray bottle) and I sat on my jacket.
As I waited to board, there were reminders coming through the PA system about staying safe by wearing your face mask, social distancing, and washing your hands. Trust me, I was very nervous about taking these flights.
When we were ready to board, the flight attendant announced that we would be boarding a little bit differently. We would be in groups of 10 so everyone could comfortably social distance. There were 55 of us on the flight with over 100 seats on board. Everyone can spread out, but if you are traveling with someone, you’re able to sit together.
As we entered the aircraft, the flight attendants made those cheesy instructions you often hear, but now they are about social distancing.
“You are able to sit next to each other if you are traveling together. If you are love birds. If you are married, then you have been social distancing for a long time.” I shake my head.
We were not given a seat number. It was open seating for us to space ourselves out. They require you to have a face mask when you board the plane, but when we took off, I saw some people taking off their face masks. That’s understandable though. I would not want to have something blocking my nose and mouth and making it hard for me to breathe as I fly because we’re already in a closed area. Everyone was able to spread out in the rows, but we are still sitting close together with someone in front and back of us. I had a family of 4 sitting in front of me: a mom, dad, a boy, and a girl. The boy looks like the age of 4 and the girl looks 12. Behind me is a woman, her new born baby boy, and her service dog. I was surprised that these parents were comfortable flying with their children at this time. If I was a parent, I’d avoid flying at all cost, but I don’t know their circumstances.
The flight attendants did a great job with the regular safety demonstration with the addition of removing your face mask to put on the oxygen mask in case of an emergency.
Now I’m just sitting here on my jacket in my seat that I sprayed down with alcohol writing to you while watching gloved and masked flight attendants pass out packaged peanuts and canned water. I’ve been wearing my face mask the whole time, and yes, it is stuffy, but I don’t want to risk it. I’ll take it off when I eat my chocolate croissant.
Alright, it’s been about an hour now. I’m done with this mask and taking it off to eat my croissant.
Just an update.
I am on my second flight to Orange County now. This flight is a lot more packed. I have someone sitting a seat away from me in the row. She is an older woman that looks like she is in her 60s. I’m not too worried. This flight is about an hour, but I would be more worried for the people who want to fly long distances.
I don’t know if I will remove my mask on this flight since there are a lot more people. Also, I usually fall asleep with my mouth open so that’s really bad. Luckily I chose to eat my 85 Degree hot dog pastry before we boarded so I’m not really hungry and I don’t have to use the restroom since I went before boarding so I won’t be bothering the 60 year-old woman sitting in the aisle seat that’s about to fall asleep. Earlier, I wanted to sit in the aisle seat because it’s easier to get up, but I decided to move to the window seat to free up that space for others boarding behind me.
I just want to get home already.
My plan is to change my clothes before entering Steve’s car when he picks me up so all of the clothes I wore at the airport will be in a plastic bag and I can easily wash them when I get home. I’ll also wash my shoes before entering the house and the last step, and most important step, is to take a shower since it sticks in your hair.
The first thing I did when we got home was disinfect each of my bags with wipes and alcohol. I made sure to leave my sandals in the front of the house and they were washed before they could go into the house. I put all of my clothes from the trip into the wash and before touching anyone, I headed straight upstair into the shower. I thoroughly washed my hair and body and rinsed my mouth with salt water.
June 1, 2020
It’s Monday. I felt fine over the weekend, but today I felt extremely tired the entire day. There was a pain in my stomach, but it might have been gas. It was not normal for me to be this tired and I was concerned that I might have caught something from the airplane. At first, I thought my fatigue might have been because I wasn’t used to staring at my laptop, but then during my breaks and lunch, every chance I got, I wanted to lie down and close my eyes. I felt a little bit dizzy during lunch and I could barely stay awake during work. Steve felt my head and said I was a little bit warm. I started thinking about all the people I came into contact over the past two days I’ve been home and I prayed that I didn’t give anything to them. I prayed that I did not give it to my boyfriend, his mom, his brothers, his sister, or his little niece, and nephew.
Right away after finishing work, I wiped all the door knobs with a disinfectant wipe, took some DayQuil, and covered myself in a heavy, thick blanket. I slept for about 4 hours and woke up around 9:00pm. I felt like the blanket really helped me sweat it out.
I’m not really sure what it was, but I feel much better now. I’m still worried that I might have something that I can spread, especially living with someone over the age of 60. I’m taking extra precautions by washing my hands, disinfecting things I touch, and not sharing anything.
#Pandemic
