Travel

My ‘Post-Covid’ Travel Experience

My experience with the new era of air travel

I just returned from a trip home to Kentucky to visit family and attend my nephew’s wedding shower. It was the second time I have flown since Covid hit. The first was to Cancun back when air travel was picking back up, but not back to the level it is now. It was also back when there were still mask mandates in airports and on planes.

I was expecting the worst. My mother-in-law flew in recently to attend my daughter’s college graduation. Her flight was canceled and she was rerouted from a direct flight to a connection in Detroit. The news is full of reports of canceled and delayed flights. I went into the experience planning for this.

Here was my experience.

I arrived at Baltimore Washington Airport at 5 am for a 6:35 am flight. I had planned to check my bag, but the Southwest area was mobbed so I decided to carry it on to avoid that scene.

I headed to the security checkpoint and a TSA person motioned for me to go in the other direction. I assumed he meant the entrance was that way, but I didn’t see one. I walked back to ask him what he said and he immediately yelled at me. ‘Didn’t you hear me tell you to go to the next checkpoint?” He did apologize when I told him that, no, I didn’t hear what he said and was coming back to ask.

After being directed to the farthest possible checkpoint I was ready to go through the normal procedure of removing shoes, belt, and electronics from my bag. Instead, we were told that was no longer necessary and all I had to do was throw my stuff on the belt to be x-rayed.

My first flight was on time and only half full. Only a handful of people wore a mask. We could not get hot drinks in flight because they had no hot cups.

I connected through Atlanta. I was sure Atlanta would have delays. I was wrong. That fight was on time as well. The flight from Atlanta to Nashville was full. Still only a handful of masks. They were given hot cups at the last minute so I was able to get coffee.

My trip out was easy and on time. Would I have the same luck on the return?

I got to the Nashville airport at 7:15 pm for a 9:30 pm flight due to scheduling logistics with the people driving me to the airport. My flight was listed as delayed by 30 minutes when I arrived. I assumed it would be worse.

At security here, I had to take off my shoes and take my electronics out of the bag. Consistency would be nice.

The Nashville airport allows you to buy beer in cups and carry it with you around the airport. That was interesting. There was a bar at my gate, so I didn’t need to carry the beer anywhere.

My flight ended up leaving 35 minutes late. It was less than half full. I had an entire row to myself. There were a few more masks on this flight, but still not many.

A dog escaped his bag and visited the people in the row in front of him.

We only arrived 10 minutes late even with the late departure.

Overall, I had a very easy and pleasant experience. It probably helps that I was flying from and via major airports. I think a lot of the cancelations are happening at smaller, regional airports.

I am happy to be home.

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