Well in this case I’ll need to turn to Petty’s warmer take on California (aforementioned tasers excepted). : )
California’s been good to me
Hope it don’t fall into the sea
Sometimes you got to trust yourself
It ain’t like anywhere else
Guy
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Welcome back
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Hide, Bojack is back! Get a test!
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And it might just make their day, too.
Welcome back, how was life in the US during these times ?
The first min explains the history of LAX
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I only spent time in one place, Austin. Was there for a little over a month.
I arrived on March 24 at an Airbnb in the west part of the city. Went to a grocery store the next morning, and it felt like I was shopping in Havana. I’ve never seen grocery shelves cleared out like that, not in the US. Four bottles of Heinz catsup surrounded by emptiness, otc pain meds wiped out, etc. There was plenty of fresh food and meat though, and there was enough ice cream to feed most of W Austin. Still.
It’s slowly coming back to life, though. Traffic is slowly ticking back up, the grocery store shelves have returned to normal. Bars and restaurants are open but no indoor seating; there are places doing business, though, if they have outdoor seating and that seating is spread about enough to look like social distancing.
Still, it was grim when I first arrived. Hopefully we never see that situation again.
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Are you doing your quarantine at home or you had to go somewhere else?
At home (in Hsinchu). My wife found a place maybe 200m from our home, and I’m staying there. A much appreciated bit of luck (finally) on my part.
By the way, the quarantine taxi to Hsinchu is metered (there’s a flat fee for cities further north) and mine came to NT$1,780.
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Gosh you are actually more cheap than me !!
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Yeah, well I have been kicking myself in the ass every time I’ve slept since.
In hindsight it was such a stupid decision, very galling. And I believe those who were in Taiwan on visa-exempt status before 00:01 on March 19 have had their 90-day visas extended twice, 30 days each time. Grrr.
And it gets worse. I actually blew a second chance to avoid this whole thing.
Obviously by March 18 things were getting dicey. Airlines were in chaos and I was having considerable issues booking flights anywhere (again, I needed to renew my visa-exempt status). Or rather, I could book them but they’d be cancelled or changed almost immediately.
For example, on Feb 28 I booked a flight with Scoot for departure on March 18 at something like 09:00 with a return on March 19 at something like 18:00. (I chose Scoot because it was <$600 r/t and it was premium economy.) March 19’s return flight stopped in HCMC at something like 10:00.
On March 11 I was notified that the airline had changed both flights. So my outbound flight now departed at 01:00 on March 18 (they simply redefined the flight’s parameters; they left me on flight abc but they had now completely redefined flight abc) and my return flight was changed to a return at 1am on March 21. My only choice was to request a refund (which I did, and which was denied on April 22 - ouch).
Anyway, I knew full well that I couldn’t afford to be too picky.
When I reported to EVA’s gate on March 18, for my outbound flight to Singapore, my name was announced over the PA and I was requested to report to the desk.
“Vietnam has been moved to Level 3 and we have to ask you to submit your boarding pass so we can tear it up. You won’t be allowed reentry into Taiwan if you take this flight,” the desk agent said. “Let’s rebook your return.”
The agent spent some time on the phone. Another agent announced the flight was now boarding Zone 1. Finally the first agent came back to me.
“Your March 18 flight is due to land at Singapore at 14:30. We do have a flight bound for TPE departing at 15:15, but it would require that you clear customs twice within 45 minutes to board. We can’t recommend this flight. Do you agree?”
The reason I chose Singapore was because they had gained some control over covid19. Although I had never been in Singapore (ever), my mind’s eye saw other fliers swarming Singapore’s immigration when I landed there. I reckoned it might take me 45 minutes just to get landside in Singapore.
Boarding had ceased for my EVA flight to Singapore; I was the last person who needed to get on. I hated the idea of holding my flight up, and I agreed.
When I finally arrived in Singapore at 14:30, it was a ghost town. It took me less than ten minutes to clear customs. If I had taken the change EVA had recommended against, I very likely would have been back in Taiwan by 22:30 on March 18.
Sigh. Unfortunately, I agreed to much more pain than I had bargained for.
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OUCH !!! Double OUCH
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Epic story!
What you’ve lost in terms of time and money, you’ve gained in anecdotal capital.
I hope you’ve remained healthy throughout these adventures…
Guy
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I’ve been very lucky, and my health has been fine to this day.
I actually think I picked up covid19, or a close relative, last December in Bangkok. I was sick as a dog on Christmas and boxing days, but I’ve had no problems with my health since.
Anyway, I had more bad luck (you’ll see).
I also had some good luck, some very good luck, so it’s not all bad. For example, in order to get my special-entry visa I had to see a doctor and get a physical, a letter summing up my physical written by the physician, and I also had to be tested for covid19.
Thanks to Austin Regional Health and a certain Dr. Cheng (yeah, Chinese ancestry - I asked), I managed to get both on April Fool’s Day. April 1 was a day in Austin when almost nothing was open for business but Uber and clinics, so I had that going for me. Miraculous luck, really.
When asked about my health insurance, I told them about my VISA plan. Ok whatever, they said, come in this afternoon.
I picked up my test results and the doctor’s letter on Friday, April 3 - two days later. No charge. Good people in Austin.
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I remembered you talking about that before, which is why I was worried for a while that you’d be taken by the virus. 
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United terminal (at LAX) is not good if flying on EVA (AA-American is the best connected by a walk way). UA is terminal 7/8, so I guessed you walk to Term-6 then underground passing terminal 5 and 4 to the EVA gates. As bad as LAX is, 20+ years ago I and some friends would go there the skateboard the underground passageways that now you use as airside connections (super smooth surfaces and long and at that time few people and easy access let us use it as a free skate park. Back in day, simple security and no ID checks or any questions even with the skateboard).
Yep. Thing about United is that they share (air) postal history with the US Postal Service and have been flying domestically in the US for almost 100 years. They do tend to treat their passengers like pieces of cargo, but on the other hand they do fly - even when there’s a pandemic. They will definitely toss their Boeings (and Airbus now, too) up in the sky.
If you have tried booking any flights for the past month or so, then I’m sure you know how important that is.
That’s pretty cool. I can def see how skateboarders would love those passageways. Long and smooth for sure.
If I recall correctly, there are three such tunnels between terminals 5 and 4 (or maybe it was between 4 and Tom Bradley) that are about 300m each. When you’ve already been in the air 5 hours with 13 to go, and you need a new hip, ouch. My hip is twinging now just at the mention.
Tunnels between the southern end terminals which are now 4,5, 6 and ground level walkways between 6/7/8. Yes skateboarding was great as well being close to the beaches which at the time where less of tourist destination and more for local use. One good thing at LAX and EVA air (and now United with the new ones at LAX) is the nice lounges if you had access to them which I now rate as better the TPE/KHH lounges.
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Thought about it but didn’t bite, layover at LAX was only about 3 hours (and less than an hour in Denver). Instead I extended my stay in my Airbnb a day. So I had the place booked through Wednesday morning but I checked out at 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.
The place probably wasn’t as nice as United’s lounges in Austin, Denver, and LA, but it was nice enough that hanging out Tuesday afternoon there was a better value for me. Definitely more restful.
I dont understand how the airlines continue to get away with this. They made the changes, so if the revised flights dont suit the passenger, how can they justify refusing a refund. I had a similar experience with CI. I was due to fly Taipei-Melb on April 4 but CI cancelled this flight offering a flight to Sydney instead which I declined. As it was impossible to call them , I went to the CI office in Taichung to explore my options. There was a flight to Melb the next day and that was the last scheduled flight to Melbourne for the foreseeable future so I booked it. They charged me around A$450 fare difference for two seats. Got nowhere protesting to the clerk in the Taichung office so decided to apply for a refund after arrival. Same story. Declined. I still dont understand it. This was not a voluntary change…they cancelled my flight, not me.
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