Flight travel during Covid

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by cSpooge

This is because the federal mandate for WFH hasn't been lifted. All federal regulated workplaces have still not returned to the office. It doesn't matter what the provinces say about WFH mandates the federal rules are what have to be followed.

The fact federal workers are still WFH just further reinforces the incompetence of this government. There’s no reason for them to still be in place.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

I wonder when the mask mandate on flights and in airports will be lifted in Canada. It is non existent in the US and much of Europe at this point. It becomes harder to enforce the more of an outlier we become.

The sooner the better. I have to say, wearing a mask for an entire flight from Calgary to Paris was a pain in the ass.

Especially because you land in Paris and toss the mask because nobody is wearing masks in France.

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by Locke

The sooner the better. I have to say, wearing a mask for an entire flight from Calgary to Paris was a pain in the ass.

All depends on your tolerance and opinion. Wearing one Toronto to Dubai wasn’t so bad, and 90% of people there were still wearing masks.

[Manhattanboy]

Nm

[cmyden]

On Friday June 10th more than 150,000 travellers passed through Canada's airports in a single day for the first time since February 28th of 2020 (833 days ago).

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by cmyden

On Friday June 10th more than 150,000 travellers passed through Canada's airports in a single day for the first time since February 28th of 2020 (833 days ago).

You're on top of flight deals more than anyone, what's your impression of the market today? I see not a lot of deals posted on your Twitter in recent times but is it as bad as the media keeps reporting?

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

You're on top of flight deals more than anyone, what's your impression of the market today? I see not a lot of deals posted on your Twitter in recent times but is it as bad as the media keeps reporting?

In late March and April there were a decent number of great deals to be had. It actually felt a bit like the pre-pandemic days. But in May things took a turn, and great deals dried up.

There's still some pretty great domestic prices relative to historical prices (thanks to all the new low cost carriers) but the best prices are now all in October and beyond, into the colder months of the year. But these sorts of prices will likely start to pop up for April/May 2023 travel going forward. Long term, I think we'll continue to see relatively great domestic prices. It wasn't that many years ago you'd be hard pressed to find a Calgary - Toronto flight for under $500 roundtrip. Now it would be difficult *not* to land one for under $300 roundtrip outside of July/August/Christmas. If the pandemic and legal challenge of not being Canadian enough couldn't get rid of Flair, it would appear the low cost carriers are here to stay.

Internationally, prices have gone up significantly overall in the last month or so. At least 30%. I don't think it's unexpected given that you have this huge increase in demand for travel while the airlines are still working on bringing supply (number of seats) back to pre-pandemic levels. And then all the rising costs for the airlines on top of that. At some point supply and demand will balance themselves out again, but it's not looking pretty right now for prices.

[calgarygeologist]

I have access to flight loads for one of the Canadian carriers and I periodically poke around the various routes to help us plan out our holidays. Prices have definitely been going up over the last 6 weeks with a lot of demand for European routes. US and Mexico demand for the summer season appears to be somewhat low so there may be some decent last minute deals at some point unless flights start to get trimmed and consolidated.

[calgarygeologist]

The feds are finally ready to drop the vaccine mandate for domestic air travel.

Hopefully they drop the ArriveCan app as well very soon. My mom is flying home from Europe with my grandma at the end of the month and apparently she is having issues getting the app setup properly for my foreign national grandma. She says that she registered and received some sort of access code but the code was working and now she is locked out and has to call some number to get things figured out. It sounds like a real hassle.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Do international visitors still need to be vaccinated? I imagine that ArriveCan will be required until that goes away.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Do international visitors still need to be vaccinated? I imagine that ArriveCan will be required until that goes away.

Yes. Canadian citizens as well. Everyone actually.

Edit:
or alternatively testing and quarantine upon arrival.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The feds are finally ready to drop the vaccine mandate for domestic air travel.

Hopefully they drop the ArriveCan app as well very soon. My mom is flying home from Europe with my grandma at the end of the month and apparently she is having issues getting the app setup properly for my foreign national grandma. She says that she registered and received some sort of access code but the code was working and now she is locked out and has to call some number to get things figured out. It sounds like a real hassle.

Maybe they'll be able to disband the army of Quebecois call centre staff calling to check on compliance at the same time. I've received over 2 dozen calls this year checking on quarantine obligations after international travel we don't have (vaccinated). Each call takes at least 10 minutes, and they always end with "thank you for your help in stopping the spread".

I'm sorry, but a government employee calling and asking if I'm taking a (not required) day 8 test, then another one calling 5 minutes later asking the same questions for each of my kids is asinine, and isn't stopping any spread whatsoever.

Maybe they could redeploy those people into getting passports issued in a timely fashion.

[Ryan Coke]

I’m surprised you answered. I just never answered the calls, and was just annoyed for having to spend the time deleting them from my voicemail.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

I’m surprised you answered. I just never answered the calls, and was just annoyed for having to spend the time deleting them from my voicemail.

Did they eventually stop calling? One of the trips I tried that but they kept calling over and over again leaving increasingly nasty messages. Plus they seem to call once for my wife and I and once each for our two kids, so we were getting either 6 or 9 calls per day.

[Flambé]

Originally Posted by Flambé

My wife went to the South passport office, was a line of 30 people. She was told you needed an appointment to see anyone at that location, and that she should go to the Temple location. Drove to the Temple location and was told they can't see her either.

We are traveling end of June so now we are driving to Brooks tomorrow to get the kids passports initiated. Brooks, Lethbridge and Red Deer have available appointments. Calgary and area are booking mid May to beginning of June.

Update!

Made that special trip to Brooks, and we are still waiting for the passports. Hopefully they arrive in the mail before we leave in 10 days...

[Ryan Coke]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Did they eventually stop calling? One of the trips I tried that but they kept calling over and over again leaving increasingly nasty messages. Plus they seem to call once for my wife and I and once each for our two kids, so we were getting either 6 or 9 calls per day.

They never got nasty at all on the messages they left. Just a “please try to answer next time” thing. But like you, they were checking on a quarantine that we didn’t need to do, so just seemed like a disorganized waste of manpower.

And then after the 10 days they just stopped calling.

[Weitz]

Are masks finally done on planes and airports?

[Ryan Coke]

No, not in Canada sadly.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Flambé

Update!

Made that special trip to Brooks, and we are still waiting for the passports. Hopefully they arrive in the mail before we leave in 10 days...

Were they expedited at all? Or was that based on their posted “processing time”?

I applied in person in early April and as of last week they hadn’t even started processing my application (for travel in July). If you haven’t done so I would try to follow-up to confirm they have been printed and mailed out by now, or at least are in the process of doing so.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

No, not in Canada sadly.

Lol of course not.