TRANS-ATLANTIC TRAVEL

July 3, 2020

This blog is from guest contributor, Kadin Tucker. He had the experience of traveling from Sweden to Colorado in early June. Then he self-quarentined at his parents' house for 14 days, taking his temperature twice a day. The following account realates the actual journey as it turned out after several earlier schedule changes and re-rountings. Here's Kadin's story:

Well, the experience was mostly the same as a normal journey. The only x-factors were the masks and the half-empty airplanes.

I started on my way to Copenhagen airport, taking a commuter train to Malmö then taking the Øresundståg from there. The Øresundståg was almost empty, not like on a normal day, though that's probably because everyone taking it are either Danish citizens or en-route to the airport. People weren't wearing masks on these trains, as there are no such requirements for Sweden.

Arriving at the airport I went through something like border control. I showed my passport and my boarding passes and I was in. The airport was nearly empty, and I started to see people wearing masks. There was one other person at the security checkpoint with me. I was allowed to keep on my mask going through the metal detector.

Most of the shops in the airport were closed, though a few were open. I expect that most are open in Arlanda [the main airport for Stockholm.]

Then I got on the short flight to Amsterdam, where I was provided with a small snack. The airline, which was KLM, requires face masks, but many people didn't get this information beforehand so they began asking for masks if anyone had extras. It seemed to work out for most people, but of course, bringing masks is the best solution and certainly the right thing to do.

I had a relatively short connection in Amsterdam, so I tried to hurry through the airport to the international terminal. I saw several shops and restaurants that were open but with limited seating. I had to go through passport control to get into the international terminal, but the line was relatively short. It looked longer, though, because people stood 2m apart.

Arriving at the gate, it was chaos. The gate itself was blocked off, and I had to get interviewed. They asked me if I had been to China, Brazil, or Iran in the past two weeks. Then I was in. Because the gate was blocked off, though, it was a very tight space. It was very difficult to keep distance from people, though I did my best, and most people were wearing masks.

The flight to Atlanta was long, but it was pretty nice. I got two meals, and I had a seat all to myself. At the start of the flight the crew distributed forms related to our health, asking if we had travelled to one of China, Iran, the Schengen Area, or the UK, and if we had any symptoms. It said on the form that we would have our temperatures taken, but that didn't end up happening.

Passport control was easier than usual, and there was hardly any line. I did get randomly searched, though. I was a little bit concerned about missing my connection because of that, but it turned out fine.

Atlanta was actually pretty crowded, and there were several shops open. It was a little bit difficult to find a place to sit that was socially distant, but I found one anyway.

The flight to Denver was then pretty normal, except that I wore a mask and the seats next to me were empty.

So far I haven't gotten any symptoms and it's day 11 of 14, so it's looking pretty good. There was also a paper recently published that indicated masks as being by far the most effective tool in mitigating spread. That's not to say that they are perfect, but it seems that airplanes are actually fairly safe. Another thing that comes to mind is a case study of a flight attendant who did not transmit the disease to anyone on their flights but they did at a wedding and a funeral.

I doubt my experience can properly accomodate a family with a small child, though. I'm not sure if families are allowed to sit together, for example. For me, though, the journey felt fairly normal.

I hope this is in some way helpful.