Cancelling UA Thanksgiving Travel?

Old Nov 21, 2020, 2:12 pm
  #46  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: DCA, IAD (not BWI if I can help it)
Programs: UA 1MM 1K, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Explorist, status-free on AA, AS, B6, DL, WN, Amtrak, etc.
Posts: 1,477
Reasons why we're canceling our trip to BOS:
  • Positivity rates are climbing towards 10% here and the rate of daily new cases per 100,000 is above 25, well into not-good territory.
  • Testing is getting overloaded here, so it's unclear that we could get results back within 48 hours of departure as Massachusetts requires. (I know we wouldn't get arrested by a state trooper outside baggage claim without a negative test result, but one of the reasons we're in this mess is people not following the rules--the least I can do is not be part of that problem.)
  • My mom is in her 80s.
  • Whether we had Thanksgiving dinner in her condo or at my brother's house (conveniently enough, they live about a 10-minute walk away from each other), we'd have a total of eight people packed into a small space.
  • Because the Boston area is not San Diego, having Thanksgiving dinner outdoors won't work.
It sucks that we have to do this and only see the family via Zoom--as my kid said between sobs when we told her, "I'm so tired of electronics"--but I don't know how we could stage a family gathering safely. Especially when we can have that family gathering in a safer context in the spring (obligatory FT angle: I can earn double PQP on the flights!) or summer. I'm also keeping in mind that pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, rampers and gate agents have had to observe Airline Thanksgiving and Airline Christmas on non-standard days for the last several decades.
dinoscool3 and riphamilton like this.
DCA writer is offline  
Old Nov 21, 2020, 3:21 pm
  #47  
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York / Hawaii
Programs: UA Global Services, HH Diamond
Posts: 5,169
All holiday travel for the balance of the year has been scrubbed.
Weatherboy is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 5:38 am
  #48  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 90
I will absolutely be traveling.
The people who test positive, possibly with a few exceptions, aren’t traveling anyway.
DJ_Iceman likes this.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Nov 22, 2020 at 1:35 pm Reason: General COVID discussion is best for Coronavirus forum
J_Stroming is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 8:05 am
  #49  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Programs: AA Plat/2MM, DL Silver, UA Silver (via Marr), Marr LTT, HH Gold (via cc), Hyatt Disc
Posts: 1,035
Originally Posted by Often1
Although worth noting travel restrictions if you are headed into Chicago as opposed to surrounding area. If coming from either DC or VA, there is a 14-day quarantine with a "test out" option with a pre-arrival test. Strongly adviseable even for those where it is not required.
Thanks for the heads-up on this. I was planning on flying to Chicago in December to see my brother's family. Given the Chicago travel requirements and that it looks like most restaurants won't be doing dine-in service (outdoors only; yea, in Chicago, in December), I'll likely cancel this trip.
bosman is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 9:38 am
  #50  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 90
I do probably 4 flights a week and have felt very safe on all of them. I think the airlines are doing a great job in my opinion, and doing what they need to do so stay operational. Personally I think the small risk is worth it to keep operational.
mikeyf likes this.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Nov 22, 2020 at 1:36 pm Reason: removed response to deleted comment; General COVID discussion is best for Coronavirus forum
J_Stroming is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 1:24 pm
  #51  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: New York and Vienna
Programs: PA WorldPass Platinum, AA, DL, LH. GHA Black, SPG and HHonors Gold
Posts: 3,870
I've planned and not flown multiple trips in the past few weeks and I agree that, while flying is safe, the risk is on the ground. I am missing out on the Ford intro and press drive for the new electric Mustang today. Although Ford was taking excellent Covid-19 precautions, it's still the equivalent of intermingling a dozen households when the CDC says not to intermingle any.

I was also going to go to Vienna (in part, due to the terror attack) but given that the numbers went up during the partial shutdown and Bundeskanzler Kurz announced a full shutdown, I am waiting to see how the numbers look in early December.

Fortunately, New York is one of the safest states to be in based on the positivity rate (I do understand what the implications of the positivity rate are and I further understand why it's used for, but it's as good an indicator as any) and I guess I'm fortunate that I live in a hotel/resort-like setting with great places to walk Snickers the Wonderdog without encountering a soul.
jspira is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 1:40 pm
  #52  
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: BNA
Programs: HH Gold. (Former) UA PP, DL PM, PC Plat
Posts: 8,138
One encouraging sign is that the infection rate among flight crews has been lower than the general population. If there was a high rate of transmission during travel, and travel-related activities, you'd think it would show up us crews.
LarryJ is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 8:20 pm
  #53  
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: IAH
Programs: UA 1K 2.7MM, Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, IHG Spire
Posts: 3,316
Originally Posted by DCA writer
It sucks that we have to do this and only see the family via Zoom--as my kid said between sobs when we told her, "I'm so tired of electronics"--but I don't know how we could stage a family gathering safely.
I feel your pain. My 9 year-old daughter cried when I told her that the family Thanksgiving at her grandparents' house in Nebraska (we live in TX) was cancelled. Covid is so hard on so many for a variety of reasons.
DCA writer likes this.
JNelson113 is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 8:36 pm
  #54  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, LH Senator *Gold, AA EXP OWE Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,556
Absolutely traveling as is the family. Kids flying UA DEN-SNA on Tuesday for Thanksgiving and I'm flying EK to DXB next weekend.
SFO777 is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 8:44 pm
  #55  
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Bloomfield, NJ
Programs: UA Gold, Million Miler, Marriott platinum, lifetime platinum
Posts: 973
Unfortunately, cancelling. Not that I feel flying isn't safe, but positive tests in office this week, can't put my family at risk I hate this, but it is the right thing to do in my case.
JerseyCityS is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2020, 9:40 pm
  #56  
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.8MM
Posts: 6,275
We decided on not having a Thanksgiving get together quite a while ago, so no need to cancel anything.
Traveled for business instead, and now in Switzerland, where I'll be for Thanksgiving also.

Interesting to read of (some) US airports' being crowded. I wonder if time-of-day makes a difference? I mean, there's obviously less flights, so did they maybe not reduce flights evenly througout the day, but in blocks?
Not sure what loads will be like around Thanksgiving, but this was IAD on Wednesday, about 10am:



​​​​​​
narvik is offline  
Old Nov 23, 2020, 8:29 am
  #57  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: PHL
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, Marriott Gold, IHG Platinum, Raddison Platinum, Avis Presidents Club
Posts: 5,257
Originally Posted by narvik
...Interesting to read of (some) US airports' being crowded. I wonder if time-of-day makes a difference? I mean, there's obviously less flights, so did they maybe not reduce flights evenly througout the day, but in blocks?
Not sure what loads will be like around Thanksgiving, but this was IAD on Wednesday, about 10am:
​​​​​​
Don't believe everything you read in the news, they like the sensationalize and go out of their way to misrepresent and exaggerate things. I've seen articles talking about empty airports then another article from the same publication on the same day talking about full airports. Flights are certainly reduce, feels like half based on the domestic routes I usually take. It's a time-of-day thing. I think airlines like to put banks of flights all around the same time. Loads tend to vary. I've been on completely full flights and ones that are half full. I just flew Monday and Friday last week and the ORD, IAD, TPA looked like a normal day full of people. There have been other times where it seemed like I was the only person in the terminal. IAD A and C looked normal. I went over to the TK lounge in B, that area was empty as it usually is. I'll say overall it's more busy that in the spring.

Barring any big surprises, I still plan to travel over thanksgiving. Probably one of my first non-"essential" trips of the year
eng3 is offline  
Old Nov 23, 2020, 8:52 am
  #58  
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: SFO
Posts: 3,910
Originally Posted by eng3
Don't believe everything you read in the news, they like the sensationalize and go out of their way to misrepresent and exaggerate things.
I suppose TSA is also exaggerating?

NYT
More travelers were screened at airport security checkpoints on Sunday than on any day since the pandemic took hold in March, a worrying sign that people flying to visit their families for Thanksgiving could increase the spread of the coronavirus. A little more than one million people were screened by the Transportation Security Administration on Sunday, according to federal data published on Monday. That number is about half of what it was in 2019, but it represents a big increase from the spring, when less than a half a million people flew on any given day.
malgudi is offline  
Old Nov 23, 2020, 9:29 am
  #59  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Verdi, NV, SFO & Olympic (aka Squaw )Valley.
Programs: Ikon Pass Full + AS Gold + Marriott Titanium + Hilton Gold. Recovering UA Plat. LT lounge AA+DL+UA
Posts: 3,815
Originally Posted by Kacee
San Francisco is just plain depressing these days.
Living in Central Soma this weekend I went for a long hike with the Mrs and a buddy in San Mateo, did a round of golf at the club, and on Friday had oysters + pizza for happy hour outside. All this was done with social distance, and when appropriate wearing KN95 masks and doing rapid tests every couple days. Not much different than in 2019, except the whole mask/test thing.

Now...if you are taking about the Giants season or that terrible Klay Thompson news---totally agree with you there.

As to United travel have medically necessary travel to DC in early January where we will fly up front paying with our cash. Never thought I'd do that for a domestic flight on an Airbus. Due to rising Covid numbers just cancelled our traditional post-Thanksgiving week in Kona. (Although some years it is NY.)
worldwidedreamer is offline  
Old Nov 23, 2020, 10:02 am
  #60  
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: BNA
Programs: HH Gold. (Former) UA PP, DL PM, PC Plat
Posts: 8,138
Originally Posted by narvik
Interesting to read of (some) US airports' being crowded. I wonder if time-of-day makes a difference?
Yes, it does.

Hubs are scheduled in banks. During each bank, flights come in, passengers, baggage, and freight is moves to their next flight, and flights depart.

When flights were reduced due to COVID, they still need to have all of the connecting options in the bank so that people and freight can get to where it needs to go so you aren't significantly reducing the size of each bank, you're reducing the number of banks per day. A hub may have gone from 7 banks to 2 banks per day leaving large blocks of time between banks where the terminals are nearly empty.
cesco.g, SPN Lifer, st3 and 1 others like this.
LarryJ is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.