Traveling + COVID-19... what it's really like!
Welp… My trip in West Africa was originally scheduled to be March 9- March 19, 2020. Clearly, that didn’t happen, and it was even crazier than I could’ve fathomed. Most of my time before the trip was preparing for security issues that are very real in that region. On our way over, we definitely saw the effects of Covid-19 with only a 1/3 full plane from Boston to Paris, and a very empty Charles DeGaulle Airport. However, it couldn’t have prepared me for what would happen shortly there after…
On Thursday around 1am, I woke up to a flurry of texts from friends back home asking if I was okay & such. I didn’t really know what they meant until I checked cnn.com finding President Trump had banned travel to 26 European countries. This was a huge issue because my flight home was through Paris. I instantly started thinking through other routes we could go to bypass it as I instantly knew it wouldn’t be simple…
Both Friday & Saturday mornings seemed to start with worse news about the global handling of said pandemic, and what could potentially happen when trying to travel (or get stuck somewhere). On Friday, I called the travel insurance company to figure out what options might be for trying to get home. After about 3 hours on the phone & talking with multiple different departments… I found out a pandemic ISN’T a covered event for trip interruption coverage. Needless to say I was upset, but couldn’t let it bother me until after this was all said and done.
After talking with some of the hospital staff, it became clear that my dad & I needed to start looking at getting out sooner than expected. We could easily get a ride up to the capital on Sunday, which was our best chance to at least get close to the airport.
By Saturday afternoon, it became clear we had to get back to the USA sooner than later. We were able to change our flights to Sunday/Monday, but would still be flying through Paris.
Getting up to the capital was the easy part of our trip… Upon our arrival at the airport, we had the usual checks (x-ray entering the airport, bag weighing a few times, and checked bag inspections)… however, when we went to check in for our flights, the check-in agent couldn’t scan our passports. Apparently, every American passport needed special entry from a supervisor in order to print a boarding pass. Then, we had to go through multiple carry-on bag checks after entering both the terminal & the gate.
Upon our arrival in Paris, we were welcomed with a 3 hour delay for our flight to Boston… An hour later it was cancelled. This brought up funky shift #2 as our clear alternative was a direct to JFK from Paris not too much later. However, when we went to change it, the Delta & Air France computer systems were not cooperating because each one was changing so often that it couldn’t update the other. It took the lady about 20-25 minutes & 8 phone calls with Delta to get our tickets switched. Thankfully, we ended up with their premium economy seats which were a very welcome treat for the long flight home.
Upon our arrival back in the US, things weren’t too abnormal. We had to fill out a paper with our information in relation to the Covid-19, and had our temperature checked the minute we stepped off the plane. Also, Delta placed all our bags next to the carousel instead of having it run the bags around. This was a very odd change to me, but all the bags were there when we got out, so easy peasy.
How’s everyone doing in the wake of mass hysteria? Social distancing won’t be too hard for me, but I will definitely miss the gym in the mornings. Now, I’m about to tackle the grocery store… Don’t know which adventure will be worse! Stay tuned.
