Well that was an expensive breakfast...... the trip to Georgia is over before it really began and I'm back home safely in Denver. We made it as far as Munich and then we had to turn around. This is what happened......
About an hour or so before I was due to leave for the airport on Wednesday, then the W.H.O. declared a global pandemic for COVID-19. That was very disconcerting to hear. None of the group called in to cancel though, so I continued preparations to leave. We got to Lufthansa check-in and all was fine. The flight was only half full but was still going ahead. We had a row of seats each, that would be nice.
I had read an article from Denver airport that they were ramping up their health and safety measures in light of the Coronavirus outbreak and supposedly there would be extra sanitizing stations provided with hand sanitizing sprays and wipes throughout the airport. There was no warning signage, no thermal scanners, nothing (like we had seen in Japan back in January) that would indicate there was a global pandemic going on. We saw none of that which was very worrying. Only a few people were wearing masks and none of the airport staff seemed to be taking any extra precautions.
We were there pretty early and we went to go checkout the gate. We needed to fly out of the Terminal A. It was pretty quiet so we decided to go to the United lounge at Terminal B. There were quite a few people in there. There was hand sanitizer spray at the front desk. We had a couple of beers and then headed to the gate. The terminal was a lot busier now.
We got onboard and headed to our seats. None of the staff were gloved or masked and there were no sanitizing measures provided and no signage about anything to do with the virus. I had some anti-bacterial wipes so we gave the seats and tray tables a clean. We had hand-sanitizing spray ourselves and lathered up (I'd been spraying my hands every time I had to tough something).
The flight was fine and we landed in Munich a little early. We got off the plane and walked around a little bit. My phone was still switched off by this stage. The airport was quite busy. We headed to the Lufthansa lounge and had some nice breakfast. When we sat down, they had CNN on the big screen TV with the sound on in English, so we settled down to watch. It was then that we received word of the European travel ban that Trump had announced. That announcement came when we were already in the air apparently. The announcement stated that any travel by non-US citizens or US residents from any of the 26 Schengen countries (did not include the UK) would be banned, starting the 13th March at midnight, US time.
Then I logged into the wireless network and I had a lot of messages on my phone via WhatsApp. One of the group was onboard the plane to Munich in Los Angeles when the announcement had been made and airline staff advised anyone not making essential travel to probably get off the plane, so he had de-planed and gone home. We already had 1 person (from Brazil) in Georgia and then 2 others were (presumably) en-route to Tbilisi.
I was with my friend Dave, also from Denver and we started discussing our options. We could try and turn around now or continue on to Georgia. At least Georgia was a non-Schengen country so we could potentially get flights out from there to Istanbul or Qatar and get home that way, but who knew how long those routes would stay open for. Given that ski areas in Europe (Italy, Austria, Switzerland were either shut down or were shutting down, it was obvious that closures would spread to other countries, it as not a matter of if, more likely when. Staying to go skiing was looking like a irresponsible choice. Then Thiago, our Brazilian guest who was already in Georgia messaged us that villages in northern Georgia were starting to shut down and access was being restricted. That was a confirmation that going to Georgia was going to be a bad idea.
Next I went to speak to the agents at the Lufthansa counter. They said that as of Friday, Lufthansa was canceling all flights to the US. We were going to get stuck if we didn't move quickly. There were only 2 flights going back to Denver and they were both full and we would be wait-listed. I didn't like our chances. They did have a flight going back via Charlotte and then changing onto American Airlines back to Denver. The flight was pretty open. Dave and I discussed the options and decided this would be the safest bet for us moving forwards to get us out of Germany and back to the US. So we changed our flights and then got ready to leave. Our bags had to be diverted onto this new flight and then we had to get to the gate. By the time we got there, they were ready to board.
Crazy times. We had been in Munich for literally 3 hours and now we were turning around. I don't think we had any other choice though. Going to Georgia could have put us in a far worse situation. I think it was the right choice. I sent out messages to the others via our group WhatsApp chat that we were heading back to the US and recommended they do the same. Then we boarded. It was a 9.5 hour flight back to Charlotte and I slept most of the way back. The plane was only half full and Dave and I had a free row each.
When we got to Charlotte, the airport was really busy. Again, there was not any warning about the Coronavirus and no counter measures on display. Getting through immigration and customs was no problem. There was no sanitizing measures or any kind of thermal imaging going on. This is so different to Japan where we had thermal imaging camera's scanning people and sanitizing sprays easily available, with signage to match. This to me is a very worrying sign. Thankfully most people are taking their own precautions. It was surprising to see that airport so busy. I had received messages from the rest of the group that they were also going to be returning to the US. I called everyone and made sure they were ok and that everyone had a plan (which they did). It was good to know the group was all getting out safely. Then we had a 3 hour 50 minute flight back to Denver and that was fine. Our ski bags didn't make it from Charlotte and we are still waiting on them today.
I'm back home in Denver now and trying to process all of this. It's been a crazy two days and pretty overwhelming. I'm glad we are back and I think we made the right choice to return, as frustrating as it was. It could have been worse.... Should we have tried going in the first place? Well in hindsight obviously not but things did escalate quickly. Perhaps this travel ban should have happened a week or longer ago. Only now the government seems to be taking things seriously and this should have started a while ago. I don't want this to turn into a political post, but from what I've seen at the airports currently, we are not doing enough in my opinion. That's a worry.
Now I begin a period of limiting my exposure to the outside world. I work from home (as will my wife) so social distancing is easier for us. As a small business owner in the travel industry, this hits hard if it continues on the trajectory that it is. I believe that things will get worse before they will get better, but ultimately as people have become better educated about the nature of the virus and how to limit exposure to it, then the pace of transference should slow. What the government's response to it, remains to be seen. I hope that we can recover from this quickly......
- Matt