International travel in the age of COVID-19
Lufthansa LAX to Munich (august 2020)
The Covid 19 restrictions to air travel affect disproportionately the international conections, due to the limitations that countries have imposed to foreign visitors. Here is a summary of what to expect in long-distance flights in 2020
I feel lucky for having been able to put together a trip from the US to Spain. Considering all the restrictions that most passengers are suffering, it feels like a true privilege to fly overseas.
Overall, it was an extremely safe experience. Credit to Lufthansa for an impecable execution in all aspects, in particular the critical ones: boarding and seating.
Surprisingly, almost any other city activity such as a train station, grocery store, restaurant, etc, feels more dangerous than an eleven hours overnight flight.
LAX experience
Ground side
The total time from home to the gate was a record breaking 39 minutes (Lyft LAX drop off, checkin, security, etc) I found this picture representative: two Air China passenger planes, converted to cargo planes, and using the general terminal to unload.
The checkin counters were only about 10% occupied. No temperature controls or contact tracing in place. No distancing measures in the hotspot of the TSA check. The TSA should add more distancing measures.
Airside
Once past the fast, but insecure, TSA checkpoint, the large halls in the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX are, unsurprisingly, sorely empty. Most of the stores and restaurants are closed. So are the airline lounges that typically have lively balconies overhanging the atrium.
However, the most shocking aspect is the silence. One can hear the buzzing of the AC, and the steps of remote passengers resonate no matter how far.
The public announcements sound extraordinarily loud and echoing. Menacing, almost.
In fact, you could find your gate without looking at the monitors, just by approaching the small gatherings you could see in the distance. Just 10 overseas departures in the first week of August is a very low number. Incredible.
Overall LAX covid experience: moderately safe because of the lack of measures when going through TSA security. The gate operations and boarding was correct.
Flight experience
Boarding
Lufthansa managed the process very effectively. The classic grouped boarding was more strict than usual, and the lines for each group were far apart, and small, probably due to the smaller crowd.
Interestingly, I felt a very strong air current in the jet bridge, which made me feel safe as the air inside was not stale. A minor crowding of passengers formed right entering the hull, but nothing alarming.
Flight
For longer flights, part of the reservation process for frequent travelers is to consult SeatGuru to optimize the seat selection. However, seat selection was disabled for this flight. I suspected that Lufthansa wanted to control the process to ensure an optimal distrubution of travelers. I did in any case choose a Premium Economy cabin, which was excellent in this brand new Airbus A359 in terms of space and seat amenities.
My estimation is that the 359 was only about 1/3 occupied. In my particular subsection of the cabin, no one had a seat neighbor left, right, front or rear. This provided about 5/6 feet distance between travelers.
Cabin service was as usual, with the addition of a disinfectant wipe provided at the beginning, possibly in lieu of the old school warm towel.
Overall Lufthansa experience: seat allocation was very smart, as well as the new boarding and deplaning practices. Food service remains the same (dinner and breakfast)
Munich experience
Immigration
Nothing different on this front. I used the automated passport check that uses facial-recognition and the entire process took about 30 seconds, as there were no lines.
Transit
Compared to the desolation at the LAX Bradley terminal, Munich looked in comparison much more lively. Some lounges, stores, and restaurants were open.
Restaurants and lounges implemented manual contact tracing by filling form sheets with the traveler personal data.
Overall Munich experience: safe. Not quite normalcy, but close enough. Contact tracing was enforced at lounges and restaurants, which remain open for the most part. Munich also offers a pop-up express covid testing location.
Bilbao (Spain) airport experience
Compared to Munich and LAX, BIO had implemented the most measures to check travelers. The arrivals area has been reconfigured to separate passengers and line them to go through an arrival validation process.
The jet way was extremely hot and stale, so no additional ventilation at this point, one of my most feared parts of the experience. I am glad I used my eye covering strategy.
A large contact tracing form must be filled that includes passenger data and itinerary. A technician validates each form individually looking perhaps for highly active countries.
After, a thermal camera is used to check the temperature of each passenger. It is operated by two people that were wearing a nurse outfit.
Overall BIO Spain experience: exhaustive control and temperature control with thermal cameras. Social distancing was facilitated.
