How to fly during Covid-19? The world is still pretty messed up, somethings are getting a bit better, but mostly it is still a bit shit. Tourism is though opening up in some places, and thus so is travel. How though does one negotiate traveling during these turbulent times?
There is no one size fits all answer to this question, so I will write this a big South-East Asia centric, but with some good rules of thumb regardless.
How to fly during Covid-19 – booking our flight
Booking you flight, seems kind of obvious huh? Well yes and no. Flying to most places even if you are vaccinated requires a negative PCR test. To get this test in a number of countries including Cambodia you will need to repent a ticket.
To read about how to leave Cambodia click here.
Booking flight used to be easy, for me at least. Find the cheapest and book it, I had lLounge access, so did not care how many stops I had. Things have changed. More stops means more places that might have requirements to let you in and potentially more PCR tests.
You can often get PCR tests done at airports now but costs vary from $20-200. And Civid test centers are great place to get Covid/……
It should also be kept in mind that different places require different periods of time between your test and arrival. This can be 48-72 hours for example. In Cambodia this is a ball ache as it takes 24 hours to get your result. You cannot do the home testing kit. It really is that simple.
Book directly with the airline!
Remember Momondo, a great resource for finding flights, butt if as often happens it gets canceled you will wait a long time for your money to come back.
Booking directly with the airline costs more, but also offers a number of very sure benefits, as well as the likelihood of eating your refund quicker if you need it.
Select your transit airport carefully
To travel through Singapore means most things being closed and having a guide escort you everywhere. Pyongyang with high-speed wifi. Incheon is much freer for those of you out in Asia. These are the two main hubs.
Singapore is also going through the rounds and many countries now require a test within 47 hours of being in Singapore, so this is another factor.
In Europe in Istanbul for example you’d be hard pressed to even know Covid existed.
To read about which countries are open to travel click here.
How to fly during Covid-19 social distancing….
Flights are mostly empty, which is a blessing and a curse. It does though mean that social distancing is easy and flights are comfortable. Asia tends to take social distancing more seriously than other countries.
Use your brain here, catching Covid is bad and during a long-haul can destroy your whole trip. Oh and it might kill you. Despite some people claiming it is basically the cold, coronavirus kills people.
To read about the Last Chopper out of Saigon click here.
How to fly during Covid-19 – Not all vaccines are created equally!
Remember the vaccine passport? Well that simply did not come to pass and seems like it won’t. Not all countries accept all vaccines. Sinovac might work, but if you seriously want to travel consider Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson – even Astra Zeneca depends now hick country you get it from.
And last, but by all means least by careful. Half of the problems we have now were people related – follow the rules, masks aren’t communist, I have read Karl Marx.