Saturday, December 12th, 2020
Unbelievably we made it to the airport and boarded the flight. Dulles airport was almost deserted. There were three other people at TSA-Pre.
The concourse was equally empty.
Thinking as First Class passengers we would be secluded in the lounge we made directly for Lufthansa’s Senator lounge, well everyone and their grandmother was there as they have ceased to operate the business class lounge. It was packed with almost no food or drinks available. After about ten minutes of this we headed to the Turkish Airlines lounge. It was like night and day.
The TK lounge is about one and half times the size of the LH lounge. Other than us, there were maybe ten other people in the lounge versus the at least thirty in the LH lounge, which also featured a bunch of screaming infants and toddlers. Unlike the LH lounge TK served various juices, beer, wine, champagne and sparkling water. We sadly left a little too early as boarding was delayed; exposing ourselves to some more LH lounge; at least the numbers had halved as the Austrian flight had left.
Now aboard the plane, because of the frequent air exchange it feels not too unsafe, even though business class is full, and economy seems to be almost full. Sadly, there is a screaming infant in the row in front of us and an infant and a toddler right behind us. This is likely going to make for a sleepless flight. I am unsure yet as whether or not to eat on board as it will entail taking my N95 topped with a cloth mask off. We have already quarantined one surgical top mask as soon as we boarded the flight. The current N95 will go halfway through the flight. Everyone is wearing a mask. Some have added swim googles not the mix.
We have seen people board wearing face shields and the most outlandish a thing around the head connected to a tube which presumably is connected to an air purifier this person had strapped to the back. Now that is conservative! Very much hoping we will arrive healthy on the other side.
Finally, the vaccine is here and now distribution starts. Flights shipping the first doses around the country will be given priority at airports. It is only 2.9 million doses in total for now, so will at most immunize 1.5 million people and the first truck with vaccine doses left Pfizer’s plant in Michigan today. Not a minute to soon, given new cases reported increase by 230k + per day.