Cranky Talk: To Fly or Not to Fly? Buying tickets in the time of COVID
Join me for another episode where I talk about whether it’s the right time to buy tickets to fly or not. Spoiler alert: there is no single answer. Listen below or download the episode.
This week’s Cranky Talk sponsor is The Airplane Shop.
As airline dorks already know, The Airplane Shop is the world’s largest source of aviation toys, models and collectibles, featuring your favorite brands like Gemini, SkyMarks, Herpa, and more. Whatever your interest in aviation, whether commercial, military, or space you will find your favorites at the Airplane Shop.
Cranky Talk listeners can still receive a 15% discount on their next order at airplaneshop.com. Just use promo code CRANKY15 when you check out. You can also visit one of The Airplane Shop’s 3 physical locations in Miami, Las Vegas or New Jersey, currently offering curbside service in this time of COVID.
5 comments on “A New Cranky Talk is Live: To Fly or Not to Fly? Buying tickets in the time of COVID”
Your analysis of to fly or not was good, but you did not cite any data regarding how many fliers are getting infected or dying due to exposure to the virus on a plane or in airports. Additionally, when will U.S. airports or airlines implement on-the-spot testing protocols rather than just temperature checks?
At this point no one is really doing all that much in the way of contact tracking as it is far too late deal with so no on has any good estimates on how many people that is and the on the spot testing procedures are contingent on there being an adequate supply of testing kits and them making it down the supply chain so honestly no one can give you any good numbers for such things.
Nmwyner – I don’t have any of those answers. I have not heard of any firm number of virus transmission on aircraft considering how difficult it is to actually prove that. But that also likely means there haven’t been mass-infecting events which would make sense because of the air filtration.
As for testing protocols, I haven’t heard anything about that outside of the state of Alaska. I would assume we’ll see that on Hawai’i travel too once the quarantine ends. But I don’t know when we’ll see it in the lower 48.
I just had to cancel a trip to Phoenix that I need to take for medical reasons. I wanted to fly from SFO for a day trip for an 11;AM appointment at Banner hospital. One could not get a direct flight arriving in time for that, so the schedule would have been a 6AM departure changing in SLC and arriving 10:25AM or so, and a 4PM departure changing in LAX arriving after 9PM.
It just did not make sense, and now Phoenix is a hot spot for the virus. SO I get some credits for later use on Delta….
As a pilot, I’ve certainly found it a very difficult time. With reduced operations across the board, company travel opportunities have diminished and I have even lost my money when booking with multiple airlines – I have been granted conditional credits but these are pretty much useless