Seatac and AS to begin temperature screening
Jul 16, 2020, 10:14 am
#16
Join Date: May 2006
Location: TUS/PDX
Programs: WN CP/A-List, AS MVPG75K
Posts: 5,798
Widespread temperature screening has been widely used in a number of countries that have successfully controlled COVID, including South Korea.
Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn’t. But I don’t understand why people here are arguing about it when they know little about pandemics at all.
Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn’t. But I don’t understand why people here are arguing about it when they know little about pandemics at all.
Jul 18, 2020, 4:44 am
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS 75k, AA Plat, Bonvoyed Gold, Honors Dia, Hyatt Explorer, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 16,843
Jul 18, 2020, 5:01 pm
#18
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 5,956
It is likely illegal to require a medical test for domestic travel. I haven't checked in detail obviously, but you can be sure that any medical exam for domestic travel will be heavily challenged.
Even Alaska and Hawaii have to still let people in with a positive/non-existant covid test result (once in the state they can require quarantine, but travel in of itself is allowed even if you're deathly ill).
Even Alaska and Hawaii have to still let people in with a positive/non-existant covid test result (once in the state they can require quarantine, but travel in of itself is allowed even if you're deathly ill).
Jul 18, 2020, 7:39 pm
#19
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Alaska Airlines
Posts: 659
Don't like their rules? Take a bus. Interstate travel is a right, air travel is a privilege.
Jul 18, 2020, 8:12 pm
#20
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: HNL
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 236
It's whether or not you claim to have an arranged place to serve out your quarantine. If you don't, then out you go.
Jul 19, 2020, 10:44 am
#21
Join Date: Jan 2017
Programs: AS 100K
Posts: 184
Why on earth would someone undergo a voluntary temperature check? I see no advantage from a passenger perspective.
It's well known that an elevated temperature could be linked to a litany of non-Covid19 related issues and that a normal temperature in no way excludes one from having it.
It's well known that an elevated temperature could be linked to a litany of non-Covid19 related issues and that a normal temperature in no way excludes one from having it.
Jul 19, 2020, 12:39 pm
#22
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS 75k, AA Plat, Bonvoyed Gold, Honors Dia, Hyatt Explorer, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 16,843
Jul 19, 2020, 12:42 pm
#23
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 5,956
I think the airline is obligated to carry you back to where you came from, assuming there's an open seat - if not then I imagine you spend time in a hold cell somewhere. Obvi, it's Canada - so a foreign country which is a slightly different situation. I have a friend that flew to Toronto. Got there on a late evening flight and they determined they weren't going to let her in (despite her husband being a Canadian citizen and him being in their home in Toronto that she shares with him part time...). She ended up being held overnight in a holding cell at the airport for the night until they could get her on a flight the next morning out. These are crazy times, indeed.
Jul 19, 2020, 11:07 pm
#24
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 12,594
Widespread temperature screening has been widely used in a number of countries that have successfully controlled COVID, including South Korea.
Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn’t. But I don’t understand why people here are arguing about it when they know little about pandemics at all.
Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn’t. But I don’t understand why people here are arguing about it when they know little about pandemics at all.
Jul 25, 2020, 9:50 am
#26
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Alaska
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 131
We just flew back to Alaska after overnighting in Seattle and there were no temperature checks at the airport. I will say the airport was much less crowded compared to our flight down, not that it was overly crowded.
Jul 26, 2020, 2:31 pm
#27
Join Date: Jan 2017
Programs: AS 100K
Posts: 184
Many of them started it with SARS (the 2003 version) where people who had the disease were almost certain to have a fever, so it was a matter of updating things. Even if not everybody who is contagious shows a fever, if a substantial fraction do then it could still be a useful rapid screening tool.
Imagine someone who is symptomatic of COVID or any other number of illnesses that cause fever. This person booked a flight and showed up to the airport despite their symptom(s). Clearly they intend to take that flight. Do we REALLY think that person is going to voluntarily undergo a temperature screening that could cost them their trip? Absolutely not. They made the conscious decision to fly anyway. Whatever their motivation is for taking the trip, it certainly won't be superseded by some vague moral/ethical obligation to the public and voluntary screening.
If it's not mandatory, then it's a complete waste of resources. Perhaps the plan is to make it mandatory.
Jul 26, 2020, 7:19 pm
#28
Join Date: May 2003
Location: SFO, mostly
Posts: 2,204
If there wasn’t significant pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic transmission, the temperature screening would be helpful. Hence why temperature screening was an effective screening tool for H5N1 Influenza and SARS-CoV-1. But you have to make it mandatory.
Last edited by sltlyamusd; Jul 27, 2020 at 7:27 am