Travel right now: FAIR WARNING!

[brett]

We returned 20 days ago from five weeks in Portugal. Independent travel.

We were fortunate. Neither of us contracted covid.

We had to have a negative antigen test 24hrs prior to boarding the plane. Plus proof of vaccination.

Masks were strictly enforced on flights, domestic and international, buses, and trains. Everyone was wearing masks in airports, etc.

We did not notice an abnormal amount of coughing or people flouting the regs.

While we were in Portugal the news reports claimed that Portugal was experiencing a significant increase in covid cases.

We enjoy cruising however we have absolutely no desire to be on a cruise at the present time. Sticking to land trips.

 

[explanade]

Yeah BA.5 went through Portugal in the past 1-2 months.

They had a very high level of vaccination though I'm not sure about boosters.

But I believe their hospitalization, ICU and death rates went up but not as much as in the Delta waves.

 

[Teacher Terry]

So tonight on the news they interviewed a spokesperson for a European airport saying that they are limiting the number of people that are in the airport and the airlines need to stop overbooking. They didn’t mention how they planned to do that. I was surprised by that and didn’t pay attention to which airport they were talking about.

 

[ivinsfan]

So tonight on the news they interviewed a spokesperson for a European airport saying that they are limiting the number of people that are in the airport and the airlines need to stop overbooking. They didn’t mention how they planned to do that. I was surprised by that and didn’t pay attention to which airport they were talking about.

It was LHR and they capped at 100K passengers per day. In 2019 summer the number of passengers was around 120K. Now how do they get the airlines to comply?

 

[chris2008]

By selling less landing slots!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[athena53]

I just bit the bullet and bought a seat on a BA nonstop from Dubrovnik to Heathrow for my return from the E. Europe trip on 9/1. I'd scheduled a flight through Paris to LHR with an overnight stay at LHR before flying home but with all the craziness I didn't want to risk a connection. I was able to redeem a small pile of BA Avios points I've had forever to cut the price by about $100, which helped. Sometimes I spend $$ to save my sanity.

 

[USGrant1962]

It was LHR and they capped at 100K passengers per day. In 2019 summer the number of passengers was around 120K. Now how do they get the airlines to comply?

Looks like that will be a problem - Emirates is pushing back hard. They fly big planes and Heathrow wants them to drop half their flights - that's thousands of people a day getting cancelled all summer. And according to this article Heathrow was operating at about 220K passengers a day, not 120K, before Covid.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62163254

The cap on passenger numbers at Heathrow Airport will be in place from now until 11 September.

The BBC understands the Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates airports, has written to Heathrow asking airport bosses to explain why it has introduced a passenger cap and what it means for each terminal by midday on Friday.

Emirates said the reduction represented a "greater than a 50% cut" given that Heathrow handled 219,000 passengers a day on average before the pandemic in 2019.

I suppose those landing slots were under contract and it seems like LHR is in gross breach.

I was thinking of maybe taking DW to visit UK, but methinks not any time soon.

 

[braumeister]

I had a flight scheduled in September, internal within the UK, and BA just cancelled it. Tried to contact them to reschedule, but their phone lines are swamped and said to try again next week.

 

[ivinsfan]

Looks like that will be a problem - Emirates is pushing back hard. They fly big planes and Heathrow wants them to drop half their flights - that's thousands of people a day getting cancelled all summer. And according to this article Heathrow was operating at about 220K passengers a day, not 120K, before Covid.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62163254



I suppose those landing slots were under contract and it seems like LHR is in gross breach.

I was thinking of maybe taking DW to visit UK, but methinks not any time soon.

I've seen both the 120 and the 220 per day pre covid, but if it was 220 and now it's down to 100K that very ominous. Either way it's not good. I see your BBC talking about 100K departing passengers so maybe that's the reason for confusion.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My friend that went to Ireland with me suggested that we wait 2 years before going to Paris so that there’s time for things to return to normal. I totally agree since it was stressful wondering if my flight out of Dublin would be canceled because so many were.

 

[explanade]

I read that this large company which does baggage handling at airports worldwide had 65k employees before the pandemic and now are only up to 45k and trying to hire a lot of people, offering $5k signing bonuses and such.

 

[tulak]

I just bit the bullet and bought a seat on a BA nonstop from Dubrovnik to Heathrow for my return from the E. Europe trip on 9/1. I'd scheduled a flight through Paris to LHR with an overnight stay at LHR before flying home but with all the craziness I didn't want to risk a connection. I was able to redeem a small pile of BA Avios points I've had forever to cut the price by about $100, which helped. Sometimes I spend $$ to save my sanity.

Another option could have been taking the train from Paris to London. I’ve been traveling by train a lot on my current trip and it’s been great. Some of the trains have been full, but no delays and they run often.

I’m all for throwing money at travel to make it easier. Money well spent IMO.

 

[Souschef]

Another option could have been taking the train from Paris to London. I’ve been traveling by train a lot on my current trip and it’s been great. Some of the trains have been full, but no delays and they run often.

I’m all for throwing money at travel to make it easier. Money well spent IMO.

A much better idea. There was a comparison recently on an Amsterdam to London trip. The train was 4 hours, the flight was less than an hour. But, the elapsed time from city center to city center was about the same.
Having taken the Chunnel, and the TGV from Geneva to Nice, it is the way to go, especially if you are retired and travel at your own pace.

 

[gayl]

So I'm thinking about speeding things up at Heathrow by only taking a carryon & purse (think sm beach bag). Packing 2 jeans, 5 tops, 1 dress, 2 wraps, 1 sweater, underwear in carryon; 2 pr shoes, bose headphones, toiletries, regular purse in over-sized purse

Anyone else concerned about lost luggage?? I know that they'll cover up to 3k if it's lost over 21 days but by then I'll be home & won't care. It's those 20 days I'm concerned about

 

[luckydude]

Looks like that will be a problem - Emirates is pushing back hard. They fly big planes and Heathrow wants them to drop half their flights - that's thousands of people a day getting cancelled all summer. And according to this article Heathrow was operating at about 220K passengers a day, not 120K, before Covid.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62163254



I suppose those landing slots were under contract and it seems like LHR is in gross breach.

I was thinking of maybe taking DW to visit UK, but methinks not any time soon.

You don't have to fly into LHR. There are direct flights from the US to Manchester.

 

[yakers]

Just flew ( got to hotel an hour ago) from Burbank to Buffalo via Chicago midway, flight to Chitown was early (!) and to Buffalo maybe 30 min late. Planes were full, airports were packed. Had subcompact rental car reserved but they’re out of them, got a Mercedes 300 no extra charge (but gas will cost more) had a choice of multiple luxury cars, SUVs and trucks, just no subcompacts. Playing around Buffalo and Niagara a couple days and then heading to Chautauqua for a week .
Life is good.

 

[tulak]

So I'm thinking about speeding things up at Heathrow by only taking a carryon & purse (think sm beach bag). Packing 2 jeans, 5 tops, 1 dress, 2 wraps, 1 sweater, underwear in carryon; 2 pr shoes, bose headphones, toiletries, regular purse in over-sized purse

Anyone else concerned about lost luggage?? I know that they'll cover up to 3k if it's lost over 21 days but by then I'll be home & won't care. It's those 20 days I'm concerned about

I’ve only travelled with carry-on for years. Once you start, you’ll never want to check luggage again.

I try to pack for about a week, planning on laundry once a week. In most cases I’ll have an Airbnb with a washing machine to make laundry easy, but I’ve also used laundromats.

I use a carry-on suitcase, which is what I’d recommend. Since I travel a lot, I splurged on an Eagle Creek Gear Warrior, which has been excellent. I bought the international carry-on version, which I’m not sure they make anymore (I didn’t see it on their website).

For the kids I bought Rick Steves’ version, which has worked well for them: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/rolling-carry-on

It meets the size requirements for European budget airlines (but always check to be sure).

For packing advice, here’s a checklist from Rick Steves: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/packing-light/ricks-packing-list

 

[tulak]

A much better idea. There was a comparison recently on an Amsterdam to London trip. The train was 4 hours, the flight was less than an hour. But, the elapsed time from city center to city center was about the same.
Having taken the Chunnel, and the TGV from Geneva to Nice, it is the way to go, especially if you are retired and travel at your own pace.

I’ve done six TGV rides over the few weeks. The longest was from Nice to Paris. They were all comfortable and stress free. All you have to do is show up 5 min before the train leaves and as you mention, you get on/off in the city center, which saves a lot of time.

I enjoy watching the countryside while traveling at 300km/h. Sometimes I’ll even splurge on a glass of wine if it’s not too early in the day.

I have a Eurostar trip next week to get me to London. Unfortunately for that one I have to be there earlier since there is a check-in which closes 30 min before departure. Not sure if that’s something new because the UK isn’t in the EU?

One thing that I learned when planning this trip is that Charles de Gaulle airport has TGV trains leaving directly from the airport without going through Paris. This saved us time, since we jumped on a TGV southward and were in our first destination within a couple of hours.

 

[gayl]

So I'm thinking about speeding things up at Heathrow by only taking a carryon & purse. Packing 2 jeans, 5 tops, wrap, sweater, underwear, shoes in carryon; bose headphones, toiletries in purse

Anyone else concerned about lost luggage?? I know that they'll cover up to 3k if it's lost over 21 days but by then I'll be home & won't care. It's those 20 days I'm concerned about

Well I feel a little better. On Tuesdays there are 22 Virgin Atlantic flights from SFO to LHR. There are 2 more flights (24) on 8/30 -- the day I fly. So my guess is that those additional 2 are probably the ones to cancel if needs be [emoji1696]

 

[gayl]

I’ve only travelled with carry-on for years. Once you start, you’ll never want to check luggage again.

I try to pack for about a week, planning on laundry once a week. In most cases I’ll have an Airbnb with a washing machine to make laundry easy, but I’ve also used laundromats.

I use a carry-on suitcase, which is what I’d recommend. Since I travel a lot, I splurged on an Eagle Creek Gear Warrior, which has been excellent. I bought the international carry-on version, which I’m not sure they make anymore (I didn’t see it on their website).

For the kids I bought Rick Steves’ version, which has worked well for them: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/rolling-carry-on

It meets the size requirements for European budget airlines (but always check to be sure).

For packing advice, here’s a checklist from Rick Steves: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/packing-light/ricks-packing-list

thank you for the checklist! Helped me slim down to my regular purse

 

[Scuba]

So I'm thinking about speeding things up at Heathrow by only taking a carryon & purse (think sm beach bag). Packing 2 jeans, 5 tops, 1 dress, 2 wraps, 1 sweater, underwear in carryon; 2 pr shoes, bose headphones, toiletries, regular purse in over-sized purse

Anyone else concerned about lost luggage?? I know that they'll cover up to 3k if it's lost over 21 days but by then I'll be home & won't care. It's those 20 days I'm concerned about

Traveling with carry on only will greatly simplify your trip. Just make sure your bag meets European requirements as their allowed carry-on size is smaller than the US allows. Also, some countries such as Greece have carry on weight restrictions. My experience is they do enforce the weight and and size restrictions at least sometimes. Check with your airline.

 

[harllee]

Traveling with carry on only will greatly simplify your trip. Just make sure your bag meets European requirements as their allowed carry-on size is smaller than the US allows. Also, some countries such as Greece have carry on weight restrictions. My experience is they do enforce the weight and and size restrictions at least sometimes. Check with your airline.

I have been on some puddle jumpers in the Caribbean where they no only weigh the luggage but the people. I wonder what they would do if the people weighed too much.

 

[gayl]

Traveling with carry on only will greatly simplify your trip. Just make sure your bag meets European requirements as their allowed carry-on size is smaller than the US allows. Also, some countries such as Greece have carry on weight restrictions. My experience is they do enforce the weight and and size restrictions at least sometimes. Check with your airline.

It's 17×13×8 with wheels & collapsible handle so I think it should be ok. But yeah. My real suitcase says it's 21" but 23.5" with wheels & handle (handle almost 1") so too big. Fine for domestic

 

[Chuckanut]

Canada is going to start mandatory random testing at the airports.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sandra...om-covid-testing-at-airports/?sh=49a964d76142

The government of Canada has just announced that mandatory random Covid-19 testing will resume at airports as of July 19, 2022 for fully vaccinated international air travelers. Testing had remained in place for travelers not considered fully vaccinated, however, the government announced it will resume testing fully vaccinated travelers in order to detect new Covid variants.

 

[audreyh1]

I’ve done six TGV rides over the few weeks. The longest was from Nice to Paris. They were all comfortable and stress free. All you have to do is show up 5 min before the train leaves and as you mention, you get on/off in the city center, which saves a lot of time.

I enjoy watching the countryside while traveling at 300km/h. Sometimes I’ll even splurge on a glass of wine if it’s not too early in the day.

I have a Eurostar trip next week to get me to London. Unfortunately for that one I have to be there earlier since there is a check-in which closes 30 min before departure. Not sure if that’s something new because the UK isn’t in the EU?

One thing that I learned when planning this trip is that Charles de Gaulle airport has TGV trains leaving directly from the airport without going through Paris. This saved us time, since we jumped on a TGV southward and were in our first destination within a couple of hours.

We seriously enjoy the high speed European trains, particularly TGV and Thalys.

Instead of taking a plane from Bordeaux to Paris and then US, we opted for the high speed train the Charles DeGaulle airport and a good overnight rest.