What it's like to fly in the US right now | Hacker News Reader

What it's like to fly in the US right now

thepointsguy.com

37 pointswalterbell64 comments

One line security. Airport is a ghost town. No food. Almost all young people in 20s and 30s. That was my experience

The cynical side of me thinks the airlines might just attempt to push the envelope on the issue of maintaining distancing and see how it goes. These recent photos are certainly not encouraging:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-united...

https://twitter.com/FlyingWithSara/status/125460162362994688...

Curiously United's new policy of notifying customers when their flight is nearly full is only in effect through June 30, which is basically the start of peak summer travel season.

Tangentially related, it looks at though the TSA will now be taking on passenger temperature check responsibilities. This is certain to add to an already very miserable experience of flying domestically in the US:

https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/tsa/498098-tsa-to-...

I read the entire article hoping to find some mention of the air recycle rate on the planes ... which is typically a 50/50 mix of recycled cabin air and outside, fresh air.

It seems like very low hanging fruit to decrease transmission rates by increasing the ratio of fresh air to recycled cabin air ... perhaps there are technical challenges associated with that ?

Are flight crews required to quarantine for 14 days or do they not leave the airport?

Flight crews are exempt from almost all quarantine rules as long as they’re asymptomatic.

The airlines wouldn’t be operating any flights at all if they had to figure out how to quarantine everyone 14 days at a time.

Flight crews are sometimes not except from quarantine rules. Some countries were having issues running repatriation flights when they were upholding their quarantine rule for airlines, making it so that if the crews stepped off the airplane they'd be subject to quarantine. I believe Vietnam was doing this.

Put people in hotels? Have groups work for 30 days and rotate out.

They have enough staff to make this happen.

To do anything else puts everyone lives more at risk including their families.

They are in New Zealand, depending on where they’ve been.

The title here is missing the "right now", why leave that out?

Added. HN 'submit' button seems to strip certain words which are associated with clickbait.

(I checked the javascript on the submit page. It's done server-side.)

That's mildly evil. And frankly speaking offensive. I take offense to any discussion platform that modifies the message content without at least notifying the poster. Keep in mind that people are legally responsible for what they post, in most countries. If what they post is silently modified, this breaks down.

See also: When YC alumni Steve Huffman - "spez" - decided to edit many thousands of reddit comments written by other people on a lark.

I think there needs to be an understanding that the site will not silently edit your posted comments, period. I don't want to be responsible for HN's potential coding bugs.

Cc dang.

> an increasing number of men, women and children that find themselves needing — or perhaps wanting — to take to the skies each day across the country

But where are these people going? What are they doing?

Are they medical professionals urgently needed in a different location for some reason? Military personnel? Specialist engineers who are needed to maintain critical infrastructure?

Presumably all of the normal reasons except for tourism. Imagine you just got a new job a thousand miles away. Imagine you're a 25-year-old who lost their job and need to fly cross country to stay with family. Imagine you're a regional inspector for a food production company and you need to get from Minneapolis to Cincinnati. Imagine your grandma is dying a few states over and you want to be by her side.

It shouldn't be hard to imagine a vast number of different reasons that a person might want to fly during this pandemic.

Or imagine your job being is being a flight travel blogger, apparently.

I didn’t realise you were allowed to travel to do things like see a relative even if they’re dying, but I guess all countries are doing this differently.

It's frightening to me to think that people assume it would be OK/normal for a government to have the power to allow travel.

(I don't mean this as a personal attack on Chris.)

> it would be OK/normal

I don't think anyone thinks it's OK or normal.

Does the US have no absolutely mechanism at all for restricting travel if there is an emergency? What would they do if there was an invasion or a pandemic where there was a much higher proportion of people dying?

This is correct, there is no legal mechanism to restrict travel as it is a constitutionally protected right, like free speech. In fact, the US Supreme Court has ruled that it is illegal for the government to enact de facto restrictions on common means of travel via regulatory powers e.g. closing all the roads. Restrictions on use of means of travel are allowable for narrow, limited purposes, like when the FAA grounds aircraft due to imminent safety issues pertaining to their operation (e.g. 9/11 or design defects).

Like with all fundamentally recognized rights in the US, there are no exceptions for broad emergencies, and the Supreme Court has consistently upheld this view in modern history. Abrogation of fundamental rights can only be done in very narrowly targeted ways and generally comes with a due process requirement.

Yes, that's correct. There is no mechanism to restrict all internal travel, no federal power to stop people from traveling between states. The FAA can ground flights and stop trains. The various state police forces can set up road blocks at borders.

>The various state police forces can set up road blocks at borders.

They can (and did to at least some degree early on in the current situation) but it's probably unconstitutional. Of course, in an emergency for a limited time, police and military can go ahead and do things knowing they have the force and it will probably take a while before the courts can tell them to knock it off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_under_Unit...

>Does the US have no absolutely mechanism at all for restricting travel if there is an emergency? What would they do if there was an invasion or a pandemic where there was a much higher proportion of people dying?

I'm not a lawyer, but I really don't think it does. As mentioned in a sibling comment, flights might be grounded, but that doesn't stop you from getting in your car and driving. Freedom of movement is enshrined both in the constitution and in the culture to a very high degree.

all flights were grounded for two days after 9/11. not sure if there's a strictly legal mechanism or if no one protested at the time.

I guess not being able to travel and not being allowed to travel are two separate things.

>Does the US have no absolutely mechanism at all for restricting travel if there is an emergency?

I certainly hope so. I wouldn't support such mechanism. Yes, like anything, I understand there would be trade off.

On the other hand, we've had global border control for decades, so it is in fact completely normal.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. That all travel should be allowed by default, and the government should never deny you the right to travel?

Because I'm sure that any reasonable person could name at least few situations when obviously the government does have and should have the power to limit the ability to travel within its own borders.

Or are you arguing that it isn't in the government's power to "allow" travel, merely to restrict it in special cases? Well, then I'd like to point out that pretty much anywhere in the world if you want to travel, you need to ask your government for permission(obtain a passport or a form of internationally recognized ID).

Do you remember 9/11 and the restrictions on airline travel?

Why would you think you would have open access during Covid when you never ever had open access before?

What point are you trying to make here - just letting others know your a libertarian, or that you’re terribly naïve? Or both?

It is normal and pretty much always has been throughout human history, stretching back to hunter gatherer groups that wouldn’t let you just wander off and go traveling without them. I mean, ever heard of a passport or a Visa? And that power becomes particularly useful during a pandemic, a war or any one of a huge number of other relevant occasions.

Please don't take HN threads further into ideological warfare. Please keep personal swipes out of your HN comments. And please don't be snarky.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Within the US interstate travel is protected by the Constitution In my non-expert opinion the government could hypothetically ground all flights, and could restrict an individual with just cause, but to blanketly restrict interstate travel seems illegal on the face of it. Crossing national boundaries is a different kind of beast.

FWIW we've seen some kinds of restrictions already knocked down as unconstitutional. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/04/28/judge-slaps-down-ill...

>Ever heard of a passport

Why are you being this combative? Do you think the person you are replying to has never heard or a passport?

In case you simply don't live here, or are unfamiliar with the US: the freedom to travel in the united states is well established and well protected.

The comment didn’t specify a specific government, it made a general statement. One that seems as absurd, and ultimately empty, as “I don’t see why anyone would find it normal for a government to collect taxes”.

And the EU, Canada, Russia, India, Japan also have well established (and in some cases constitutional) freedom to travel laws.

>One that seems as absurd, and ultimately empty, as “I don’t see why anyone would find it normal for a government to collect taxes”.

Perhaps they expect a freedom to travel because:

>And the EU, Canada, Russia, India, Japan also have well established (and Possibly constitutional) freedom to travel laws.

I don't think any of these places have a constitutionally outlined law against paying taxes. And if they did, then I think that it would be reasonable for people to find it abnormal to pay them (since it would be illegal to do so).

> I mean, ever heard of a passport or a Visa?

You should drive up to the Canadian border and try to use that passport. Or try to get on a flight to Australia or NZ.

Your passport is currently useless for those purposes, you can't go, no matter how badly you want to (unless you are a citizen of those countries)

If most people reported in airports are 20 and 30 year olds most will not fit in the regional inspector category. Most places are not flying new hires in. Most are traveling for some sort of leisure or visitation.

You shouldn't be able to fly commericial now period. If your inspector job requires a plane flight private planes should be used. Grandmas are dying in old aged homes now and people aren't allowed in, stay home you are not going to save her life by flying.

Everyone put everything on hold so a few people can ruin the effort.

My live-in girlfriend broke up with me on Thursday. I’m flying from Seattle to San Francisco today to stay with family for a bit. Actually, I’ll be staying in an empty house for two weeks. Then family.

Condolences. Hope you find every next day brighter than the one before.

Thanks.

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