Well in airports its quite easy to socially distance, so if I was really worried about catching it, I would just board last, sit far away from everyone and wear my mask on the plane and avoid touching my face. That's the best you can do.

And if you can afford it, fly Business Class.

You're more likely to die in a plane crash than to catch COVID-19 on a flight and get severely sick or die from it. Safe travels.

Really? May we please have a link to a peer-reviewed study that confirms your opinion above?

Can you provide a study that proves the contrary?

I haven’t seen any formal studies or reports of case tracing, just “defensive” announcements from airlines and industry associations regarding HEPA filters and thorough cleaning between flights. Personally, I am not convinced that a HEPA filter would do me much good if I was sitting next to an infected person for several hours, and especially if they don’t wear a mask or don’t wear it properly (my guess, 5-10% of US people apparently think the nose doesn’t need to be covered). During my 1.7 million miles of travel I have caught a few colds that I think originated from travelers sitting next to me or in one case behind me.

So I think to answer your question of “should I travel?” you should ask yourself how important the trip is (essential or nice to have vacation?), from where you are departing (perhaps somewhat greater risk departing from a hotspot) and whether you can procure a properly fitted N95 mask.

Personally I recently went on my first trip. It was not for tourism and I considered it essential. I booked a business class award and traveled all three legs (incl. 10 hour TATL) in premium class seats with sufficient (for me) separation from other travelers. I had an N95 mask (*) and minimized my eating/drinking time. Time in the airport was not very concerning. It was easy to stay away from strangers. I think I did okay and would do it again for essential travel, but I’ll continue to delay fun trips. I probably would not have booked the trip in economy unless I was certain that the flights would have a very light load allowing for distancing of passengers. Just my personal risk assessment.

(*) I also developed new appreciation for medical staff (like my wife) who wear PPE all day long... and lost the last bit of respect for those who whine about having to wear a mask for a few minutes in a grocery store.

Recent research results and data generate the approximation that, when all coach seats are full on a US jet aircraft, the risk of contracting Covid-19 from a nearby passenger is currently about 1 in 7,000. Under the middle seat empty policy, that risk falls to about 1 in 14,000. Risks are lower in flights that are not full. These estimates imply Covid-19 mortality risks to uninfected air travelers are higher than those associated with plane crashes but probably less than one in one million.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....02.20143826v2

This study is not peer reviewed, but I'm sharing it in the interest of offering a viewpoint that is at least somewhat substantiated by additional research. The author is affiliated with MIT.

If I cared enough, I'm sure I could find date showing the opposite. Welcome to the Internet where you can find anything you're looking for. I still stand by my opinion.

First of all, it's hard to know if there have been cases, because of the big problem with testing and tracing. How would you prove that someone caught a case of Covid on a flight or in airport, when they had to take public transport of some sort to get to/from the airport, and may have been in other crowds soon after or before the airport, and meanwhile they don't get tested until days later, and then the test results don't get back until a week after that, and by then they don't remember every detail, plus they never would have known who'd they'd come in contact with at an airport.

One big thing you can do decrease your health risk: For the plane trip, get some CE/FDA-approved KN95 masks. Those protect you to a decent degree from others, while cloth masks mostly protect others from you but not you from others that well.

Cloth masks are reasonable in a situations where you can move around to avoid being near someone else for more than second or two, but in airport (and the transportation to/within them) and on planes (and especially during crowded de-planing) they're not perfect, and if people next to you on the plane take off their mask to eat, that's especially when a cloth mask on your face won't protect you nearly as well as a CE/FDA-approved KN95 mask will.

And cloth masks only protect you when everyone around you has cloth masks and/or you're near someone else only for a second or two and/or you're keeping your distance from everyone else. If the person next to you on the plane takes off their mask to eat or drink, or you're seated next to child who doesn't wear mask because of their age (but young children can still be symptom-less carriers as far as we know today), a cloth mask may not be enough.

But there's things you can also do to protect yourself. Try to book a window seat with no one next to you. On the UA plane, are you booked in economy? If so, consider Economy Plus; exactly because fewer people pay for it, it tends to be emptier.

And one reason for the window seat: Do NOT get into the insanely-packed crowd to get off the plane if you want to maximize your safety. Wait until that crowd thins out to the point where you don't have to be that close to anyone else while deplaning.

I was on a Southwest plane, where they controlled the rate of boarding, and so there were no boarding crowds, everyone was able to space out without using middle seats (unless it was with a traveling companion), and the only time I saw "social distancing" totally evaporate was in the mad "rush" to get off of the plane (which of course, leads to "traffic jams" in the exit aisle), no different than pre-Covid 19. I patiently waited until that crowd had gotten off the plane and the remaining people were spacing out their deplaning more reasonably.

But to be able to do that, you have to have plenty connection time if you're doing a connection. (In my case, I was on a nonstop flight, so even though it was delayed, it didn't matter to me whether I exited the plane then or 5 or 10 minutes later.)

And, btw, I was astounded by how many people were at my arrival airport (apparently deplaned off of that plane or another that deplaned at a similar time) with young infants. I would have though those would have been among the last people to resume flying! :eek:

Please take the time then. If you make such an assertion when someone asked for a serious advice then the courteous thing to do is to back it up, specially in light of someone taking the time to provide a serious reference refuting your assertion.

deplaning = ZERO (0) social distancing
 

None of the mentions the worst place of all for (lack of) social distancing: The mad rush some people still do while deplaning (same as pre-Covid-19 :eek:!).

And making connections multiplies your deplaning.

Now, if you're on a nonstop flight, or you have plenty of connection time, and you've had a window seat, you can wait until the mad rush of deplaners leaves the plane, and the line thins out. (And that's the big advantage of window seats: The furthest distance possible from anyone in the center aisle.)

Meanwhile, there are ways to not sit next to someone. 1. Fly an airline still keeping middle seats open, like Southwest or Delta. 2. If not on one of those airlines, buy seats that cost extra, which few people buy, and thus you're much more likely to be in a sparser part of the plane (Economy Plus on UA, Main Cabin Extra on AA, Premium Class on AS, etc), and/or be prepared to change your seat or your flight if you find someone you don't know seated next to you on the seating chart.

And thus I agree strongly about N95 masks: The cloth masks are reasonable in situations where you can reasonably quickly move out of the way of other people, but in the plane flight situation (not just on the plane and exiting it, but also in the airport, and on shuttle buses/trains) I think N95 masks are way better. Just make sure you know how to use them (since you can't use them the same exact way as cloth masks).

It really depends on the aircraft. If you’re flying on a Tu-134 or a 737MAX you’re probably safer licking the face of a COVID patient than going for a flight.

You mean, welcome to the internet where some people just make stuff up and present it as “facts”. Such as

And when they get asked to substantiate it, they have nothing to back it up. Looks like I can ignore your posts going forward as they apparently don’t add information that would be useful to me.

You do you. Cheers!

If we want to look at the actual statistics:

Chances of dying from COVID in my region (yours may be different): 0.005%
Chances of dying in an auto accident: 0.94%
Chances of dying in an aircraft accident: 0.01%

For those of you that have flown, have you seen anybody wearing gear like this yet? I kind of want to, even though I probably don’t need to. Would make a good story.