Traveling During a Pandemic — REFINE Magazine

By: Emma Kuliczkowski

I traveled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, you read that correctly and it wasn’t just traveling to my hometown’s grocery store just to get out of the house; it was cross country travel–the kind you need a plane for.

Usually, I enjoy traveling. The preparation of traveling somewhere used to be exciting, like buying the plane ticket, packing all of my things, and even just flying, in general. But now it’s totally changed for me.

I know a lot of you are probably thinking, “Wtf is she doing? We’re in a shelter-in-place order, stay home!” And I know, it’s not super ideal to fly right now, but I took all of the necessary precautions (maybe even too much) in order to keep myself and everyone around me safe during this grueling ordeal.

I think the preparation of it all was the worst part. I was traveling with my boyfriend to spend the summer in his hometown since my original plans after graduation have been crushed by COVID-19.

Just to make sure I was pretty healthy before I flew, I tried to limit my exposure to people as much as possible. I also started drinking vitamin C packets and taking zinc tablets every day leading up to the trip.

I was quite nervous to fly, considering my first flight got cancelled and I had to rush to book a second round of tickets. Many airlines are restricting travel to multiple states in the U.S. right now. Southwest Airlines restricted travel to states like California, Hawaii, Arizona, Maine, and many others.

Strapped up with all of my sanitation goodies, I headed to the airport early on a Sunday morning. Since it was an early morning flight, it wasn’t a surprise that the airport was pretty dead and I got through TSA in no more than five minutes. None of the food stands or restaurants were open except places like McDonald’s or Subway.

What surprised me the most when I was at the airport was the amount of people not wearing face masks. People weren’t just not wearing masks in the airport, they weren’t even wearing them on the plane.

Although all airlines are strongly suggesting flyers to wear face coverings, when I flew it still wasn’t mandatory. Many airlines like Delta, United, and JetBlue have already issued a requirement of face coverings on airplanes. Other airlines like American, Southwest, and Spirit were slow to implement any requirements.

I was on two planes and they were both pretty empty. Luckily, my boyfriend and I had the whole row to ourselves and no one was behind or in front of us, which gave us some relief.

However, there were a few people on both of our flights who weren’t wearing masks, which made me think. Why are some people not taking this seriously enough? During this time, it seems like flying is something to totally steer clear of, but others were acting like it was any normal travel day.

There’s still a complete lack of safety and care among Americans regarding the coronavirus. In places like Florida and Texas, many businesses and beaches are open to the public. Many people are not social distancing or taking proper precaution to continue to flatten the curve, which was reportedly working, according to sources like the Washington Post.

The entire country has been divided on deciding when or if it’s the best time to open states back up. Many states like Alaska, Alabama, and Maine have loosened their restrictions and allowed for soft openings of businesses.

Some states like California, New York, and Minnesota are still on full lockdown and stay-at-home orders remain the same, according to Business Insider.

Many protests have broken out all over the country with the goal to #ReopenAmerica, which called for huge crowds that occupied areas where people should have worn masks and practiced social distancing.

By the end of it, the overall experience of traveling was quite stressful and intimidating, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. However, I’m definitely not going to be flying again for quite some time.

I am very thankful that I am healthy enough to be able to do things like this, and that I was able to do everything I could to keep myself and others around me as safe as possible.

As of right now, I’m quarantining away from my boyfriend’s family. It will be interesting to see how things play out once we get out because in the part of the country where I am, many places and businesses are now open for the first time in a month.