erik123

I am interested to hear from those who are actually still flying? What was the experience like and was it possible to social distance?

Stormbel

One of our moderators is noticeably quiet! Maybe suffering from IAHFMTTD. I'm at home for more than two days!

sondra_finchley

Probably better to state that we stopped planning for it. If the flights start to open back up mid-May or end of May we may reconsider. Getting there is already a major time commitment because we go to a town about an hour and a half drive from Arlanda - if there are additional checks and hassle/delays due to new procedures that starts to add more burden to an already tiring trip.

Deltus

I imagine my experiences might not be typical, but it was my last 3 flights where the impact of coronavirus was most obvious, all in the final week of March:

• A domestic flight in Thailand: told at check-in that everyone would have to wear a mask onboard the aircraft, everyone was given a squirt of alcohol gel from cabin crew on boarding. Seating was allocated with zero consideration of social distancing, although I was allowed to move to an empty row, but only after take-off.
• An international flight into China: very quiet in my cabin (5 empty seats next to me), so plenty of social distancing. Catering was already in a paper bag on my seat on boarding. Basically zero interaction from the cabin crew for the entire flight. I wore a mask for boarding and when moving around the aircraft, but not for most of the flight. Extensive health check process on arrival.
• Domestic Chinese flight: possibly the most unusual flight I've ever taken. Individual police escort from entering the airport to the boarding gate, allocated the very back row of an A321 with only about 25 passengers on board, so plenty of social distancing, no other passengers within 5 rows. Cabin crew scanned my temperature on boarding, mid-flight and on arrival. Catering was a snack box handed out after take-off. Cabin crew told me to put my mask back on after I'd finished eating. Another lengthy checking process on arrival.

Clack

After almost 20 years of mostly long-haul business travel every other week, the past six weeks at home in the flat feels like an eternity. And not an idyllic one, even though I'm fortunate to have the family around and everyone healthy. Some of us (probably many on this board) are just afflicted with wanderlust or the need to get away and change time zones on a regular basis. I enjoy seeing my clients around the world, folks I've done business with for years and sometimes decades. I don't enjoy trying to chase them up by phone and email. It's a depressing time for many reasons, but losing my travel license is really tough.

On the bright side, the airlines have been mostly brilliant on the cancellations. I was due to be in Moscow and Stockholm this week, and figured the cost of my Aeroflot tickets would be long gone, but they sorted it instantly and the credit was back on my card in a day or two. Same for CX on an upcoming trip to HKG, and JL on a May trip to Tokyo and on to the US. UA has not been too generous yet, still just offering vouchers for flights that have not yet been cancelled, so I will have to wait them out.

The biggest concern now is our departure from Singapore after 6 years. The plan was to spend a month visiting family in the US in the summer, then return to the UK (dual citizens), which is better for my business. But it's hard to say which location will be the bigger zombie apocalypse by August, California or London? We have a home in California that is currently unoccupied, so I'm thinking that is the prudent choice - hunker down there for a year or so until we are through this thing. The Big Smoke will still be there, and it's probably a safer bet to stay in the US house as opposed to be flat-hunting in London, dealing with public transport, etc. Really no point being in London if you can't be out in the pubs and restaurants and enjoying all the city has to offer. I hope we can get back some day. And more urgently, I hope our flights out of Singapore in late June will be operating, because the government here doesn't take kindly to foreigners overstaying their visas!

PAL62V

Supposed to have flown to BUD and back last week. And again there yesterday. NY in a couple of weeks. Belfast after that. I doubt my NY August work trip will happen at this rate

sammyg901

I'm in a similar position, was planning to leave Singapore shortly and spend some time travelling and then head back to the UK, already have a house purchase going through, though currently stalled of course. Luckily I had not yet resigned from my job here so no visa/employment issue, although my job is regional and alarmingly quiet, which adds to the tedium of it all! I'm still hopeful that by August/September things will have settled somewhat into a new normal and relocating back to the UK (with two cats that I wanted to take via France) will be possible. I'm lucky that my employment field is relatively unaffected, I have another UK holiday let that I can live in for a period and my OH job is portable. So I am just trying to relax and wait and see. SQ have been maintaining flights to LA and London so you should be OK to get out somehow!

mrploddy

I am due to move back from MYJ to MAN in Autumn but when this will happen now is anyone's guess. Visa processing for the wife is currently suspended so anyone's guess ?

So far in my part of the world there has only been 30 cases of COVID-19 in the whole region so it's compared to other areas pretty safe I guess ?.

The best thing I can do right now is ride out the storm till it's safe to travel with a young family...

subject2load

Very few crew are flying ‘regularly’ these days - let alone passengers.

I imagine some CC are missing it more much more than others. Working from home can help a little, even if it’s not quite the same ..... as this video shows ......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPlR9n_6uas

ThatT1Feeling

My last flight was 5th March. It's odd after having been flying pretty much weekly for a very long time.

It was my client who chose to lock down at least 2 weeks before any government instruction to do so, and now I look back on it I am grateful that they took that decision when others thought it was an over-reaction. I've been exclusively at home since which has been a really pleasant experience!

No pressure yet from anyone to get my flying boots back on and I think I have enough TPs to renew GGL in July so I am content to sit tight at the moment

billinghamn

My last trip was BA Heathrow-Helsinki and back on Sat 14 March. I've had quite a few cancellations including: a BA/UL Abu Dhabi-Jakarta TP Run at the end of March; BA trip to Dusseldorf at beginning of May and a BA trip to Paris at end of May. My OH had a Houston trip at end of March cancelled as well.

My next trip is scheduled for July which is a BA/AA trip from Bucharest-Phoenix, which I am holding out slim hopes for. Then it's a BA/AA Inverness-Portland holiday (driving to Yellowstone) scheduled for mid August and a BA trip to Naples in Oct. This last one is very much in doubt now as well, which I will be well gutted about.

I've just booked two BA/AA Sofia-Hawaii trips for Nov and Feb 2021 - I'm hoping it will all be settled by then. With a BA/AA Paris-New Orleans trip slotted in at the start of Dec. Lots to look forward to, if we get out of lock down, entry restrictions are relaxed and the airlines get flying again. Not asking a lot there!

I'm on 1900 TPs so far this year, with my year ending in Nov. I was on track to hit CCR card renewal, but have no hope now. I'm hoping BA will just extend everyone for a year and I can start focusing on 2021 renewal.

allturnleft

I wonder how many people will change their habits after this

Cleaner air over london

Finances of all rationalised even for the more wealthy (FT sample)

Air related businesses in tatters



Or will we just revert to the morm in 18 months time ; I guess it will depend on how the world economy recovers

13901

Other Half has been furloughed together with the majority of crews. Some of her friends haven't and one has a quite a trip lined up for tomorrow: LHR-BAH, BAH-HYD-AMD-BAH, BAH-CCU-DEL-BAH-LHR over 4 days. Gonna be fun.

Hoch

I have a OTP-PHX trip booked for July and August as well. Master Hoch is supposed to spend four weeks in the US. I have already told him that we may not be able to fly out, but we shall just have to wait and see.

H

Behindthecurtain

We took a global corporate decision to stop
all international travel in Jan. I still went to Langkawi and BKK for the three week (totally deserted and very socially isolated) holiday and quarantined when back. No work flights for me since early Jan, which is strange as I am always going somewhere.

We still have people flying domestically here in Russia and in other large areas such as US where we cannot use cars as it can’t be avoided as we are classed as a strategic industry and maintenance / upgrade / move to remote operations for clients has to go on but staff get full checks after each and have 14 day quarantine, but even that is last resort choice.

i do miss the flights and interaction with clients and peers, but the wife misses it more no more bring the stuff she used to get from the US she likes from her time living there, no decent bacon or cheddar from the U.K. and no more asking to buy this or that she can’t find here.

but hey ho, a few months pain for a hopefully safer future and the BA Discount on Tier Points means GGL still combined with a 2 year extension on SU means I keep my now somehow unimportant statuses. Wonder how I will feel about that when we come out of this.

be safe, be healthy and good luck to all