šŸ˜· COVID | Traveling during Covid-19

I flew Eva Business from Europe to TPE and will fly back in a few weeks.
First flight was fine, except for mandatory mask.

2 Likes

No I didnā€™t fly AA, however I canā€™t imagine business not being far better than economy. Even if itā€™s relatively bad food and service it will be far better than the relatively bad food and service in economy.

Do you mean AA or in general? I took UA recently.

I am sorry to hear that. :joy:

Guy

2 Likes

It wasnā€™t so bad! Price was right, and it was stupidly easy and painless to extend my stay, twice.

2 Likes

My UA flights have been quite good recently. The food was a significant upgrade on my last flights, although the bar was quite low. More than that, the attendants have been particularly good. This is across all three classes. And business is all about the seat for me, UAā€™s Polaris seat is a good one.

1 Like

The attendants are good now, a lot better than they used to be. The food on the flight back was pretty grim, but thatā€™s a given.

1 Like

I didnā€™t fly UA for over a decade, but since Covid they seem to have improved. The food on the return is still awful, but I generally donā€™t eat on planes anyway.

1 Like

AA. American Airlines. Looking at recent reviews give me the hibbie jibbies.

Beggars canā€™t be much choosers with a three stop jump across the Pacific.

1 Like

Not sure why UA gets so much hate. Polaris is one of the better business products out there.

Part of the grim reputation dates back, I suspect, to the forceful eviction of that Asian guy from his seat after UA overbooked.

My students, however, noted the extremely attractive prices United offered on flights to the US after that PR debacle. So I suppose there has been some lemonade to be made from that lemon.

Guy

1 Like

Those hibbie jibbies are going to hit you real hard once you arrive in the west and you realize Covid is no longer a thing. You will soon be surrounded by thousands of unmasked, ā€œuninformedā€ folks carrying on with their lives.

4 Likes

This summer, Eastern Europe was pretty much fully unmasked. About 1% on the street, 3% in public transport. Graz, Austria, was a little more masked, about 5% on the street, 15% on public transport. Paris was about 10% on the street, 20% in supermarkets, 40% on public transport. San Francisco was about 20% on the street, 90% on BART. The East Bay, particularly Berkeley, Albany, and El Cerrito, were the most masked, with about 95% in supermarkets and stores, 25% on the street.

3 Likes

So basically Asians wear masks.

2 Likes

Yeah, in NY this summer pretty much everyone in Asian specialty supermarkets was masked.

Iā€™d qualify this as ā€œEast Asians.ā€

The many folks I saw over the summer from other highly populated parts of Asia (including the Indian subcontinent) seemed to struggle with, or just disregard, this mask thing.

Guy

Report from Abu Dhabi here: quite a lot of mask-wearing among the drones and servant class, almost none among the big animals. And I would assume selective enforcement also. Which is how itā€™s supposed to be, of course.

4 Likes

Iā€™m pro-UA.

Not really. Where I am going there is currently a really bad dengue outbreak. There are like two dozen monkeypox cases that they know off. And the hospitals are still full of "respiratory distress"cases, especially kids.

The economy is in shambles but corruption has a lot to do with that. Most of what we produce are not essential like Taiwanā€™s semiconductors. And tourism is not picking up.

But masks have not been enforced since forever.

So, no one has flown on AA? What do you guys do to go South?