I just flew home to New York City from South Africa after cutting my vacation short because of the explosion of the coronavirus pandemic, and it was a completely surreal experience
On Sunday, South Africa announced a travel restriction on foreigners from eight countries, including the US. The president said that those foreign nationals already in South Africa would have their visas canceled, and would have to present themselves for COVID-19 testing. A lot was left unclear, and airlines were slashing flights and grounding planes left and right, so we decided it was prudent to get out of the country as soon as possible.
Prices were obscene. This is what I found when I searched for flights for two people, with filters for one-stop, economy, on any airline. The prices shown are total for two tickets, and were not all accurate — the Turkish one came down significantly when I clicked through.
While the Emirates and Qatar flights were both the least expensive, I was nervous about the overnight layover. We wanted to get home, and out of South Africa, as quickly as possible, and wanted to minimize transit time to avoid any complications that could arise if we "visited" another country.
Qatar had already announced that it was closing its borders to foreigners, meaning we wouldn't be able to leave the airport during the layover, and I was worried that Dubai could do the same.
That left the Turkish Airways flights as the cheapest viable option.
This was the first moment I realized we'd booked business class seats — you can see the fare mentioned toward the bottom of the page.
We were tense, and got to the airport a few hours early, expecting crowds of foreigners trying to get back home. In reality, it was pretty empty, at least compared to what we expected.
The one exception was people lining up for a British Airways flight to London. There were hundreds of people, I'd guess spurred on by the news of the travel ban, and of British Airways cutting flights.
All around the airport, there were signs of how much travel has changed in the past few months.
There were also hand-sanitizer stations in pretty much every hallway, although some of them needed to be refilled.
We made it through security and passport control fairly quickly. I was a bit worried that we could get held up at passport control given the new travel ban, even though we were exiting the country, but it was fine.
We boarded about 30 minutes later. The Boeing 777-300ER we'd be flying on had a business class cabin in a 2-3-2 layout.
As soon as we got on board, we wiped down every surface of our seats with Clorox wipes we'd brought from home.
This is something I've never done before, and have even scoffed at previously, but on this trip, I decided it was worth it for the sake of risk reduction.
It took a few minutes, given all the surfaces, controls, reading lights, and other seat features.
Each seat's ottoman opened to provide some storage space — we even wiped that down.
We skipped the pillows, though, given that new, clean ones are brought onto each flight.
Here we are, two sanitized seats later, anxious to take off and get on our way home.
The business-class cabin was only about half-full — the coach cabin looked the same, maybe even less. Since there were so many coach seats free, my guess is that the pricing quirk happened because our next flight, to JFK, was completely full.
A lot of people we overheard had booked the flight last-minute to try and get home before coronavirus-related shutdowns expanded.
Despite the unusual circumstances, service on the flight was pretty much the same as it would normally be, and started with a refreshing drink as we waited for boarding to finish.
We were also given menus and drinks lists. There would be two meals on this flight ...
... Dinner ...
... And breakfast.
The flight attendants passed out headphones, which airlines typically sanitize after each use.
The flight attendants also handed out amenity kits — men and women got different ones.
The amenity kit was stocked with the normal goodies — plus a small vial of cologne — and was higher quality than you normally see. The eye mask, for instance, was excellent.
Then the flight attendants passed out health screening forms from the Turkish government. We filled them out, but since we didn't go through passport control, no one ever collected them.
Right on time, we pushed back, taxied to the runway, and took off. I guess that with all of the canceled flights, airport congestion wasn't really an issue.
I wanted to keep an eye on the whole flight-cancellation situation, so I connected to the Wi-Fi to buy service for the flight.
It turns out, though, that business-class passengers on Turkish Air get a free gigabyte. That was enough to last the whole flight.
Dinner service began about an hour after takeoff, with a selection of starters ...
... And a main course, plus dessert.
There was also breakfast before landing.
We landed in Istanbul at about 5 a.m. local time.
We were in the city's brand new, sparkling airport, which was massive and full of modern amenities like these rentable scooters.
The airport was eerily empty, even for early morning, given Istanbul's status as a connecting hub. It did fill out a little later in the morning, at least.
There were signs of COVID-19 precautions everywhere, including temperature screening stations all throughout the arrivals hall — there was a person behind this booth watching a monitor, which was connected to the thermal camera on the tripod.
There was also hand sanitizer everywhere.
It was jarring to see how many flights had been canceled, mostly due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions and drop in demand.
The gate area was packed — this flight seemed completely full, mixed with people who were scheduled to travel already and hadn't canceled, and those who, like us, booked last minute to try and get home as things deteriorated.
This flight was on a Boeing 787-9, which featured Turkish Air's new, modern business-class pods. They were a bit narrow, but still very comfortable, and unlike on the previous flight, we had individual air vents on this plane.
A sign of the times: An informational video after the regular safety video, which played in Turkish ...
... And English. We were in the air shortly after that.
More free Wi-Fi!
On the last flight, I mostly slept, anxiously read the news and Twitter, and watched some offline Netflix on my iPad. On this one, I watched a few movies on the in-flight entertainment monitor, and then did some work.
It was a comfortable flight in the new 1-2-1 cabin layout, but we were exhausted, stressed, and eager to be home. It felt like it had been an eternity at this point, although we'd only been traveling for 20 hours or so.
Right after takeoff at just after 9 a.m., we were served breakfast. Shortly before landing; lunch.
Finally, we made it to JFK.
It took a little while for the doors to open — not ideal social distancing as everyone stood in the aisles.
We were at JFK's Terminal 1, which mostly serves international airlines. It was a bit surreal. At 1:30 p.m., it was relatively empty. Normally the terminal is bustling all throughout the day as flights depart and arrive from Asia, Europe, and South America. But then as we got down to the main floor ...
... We realized that the few people who were waiting to get through passport control — mostly from an Aeroflot flight from Moscow that had landed earlier — were in an incredibly slow-moving line.
We went to the Global Entry kiosks, but got the dreaded "X," meaning we'd have to wait in line to be manually processed. A security guard helping manage the queue told me that "almost everyone" had been getting the X in the past few days — she suspected it was because of the coronavirus.
The line situation was confusing. This was a queue for Global Entry members who got the X ...
... And this was the line for diplomats and non-US passport holders. They both merged to feed to the same customs officer.
More social distancing challenges!
Eventually, we made it to the front of the line. We said that we were flying from Cape Town and transited in Istanbul — the officer wasn't sure if flying through Istanbul meant we would need to be screened, so he called another officer over.
That second officer took our passports and brought us to a small Centers for Disease Control and Prevention office set up within the Customs and Border Patrol area at the terminal.
We took a seat in the waiting area, which was completely empty.
There were two Customs and Border Patrol officers processing travelers, and one CDC worker taking temperatures. The officers asked the CDC worker whether transiting through Turkey counted as having traveled to Europe, even though Turkey is not part of the Schengen Zone. She checked a list, and decided it did not.
And that was it. We were asked to leave the health screening forms we'd filled out on the plane, but didn't need to have our temperatures checked.
The whole process seemed disorderly. Admittedly, there were no planes landing from "hot zones" or countries covered by US travel bans as we arrived.
But everything still felt arbitrary. Confusion over which countries were included, about what information we needed to provide, and what screening would be necessary was confusing.
The slow-moving line was also concerning at a time when Americans are being urged to practice social distancing.
We got an Uber home within two minutes of calling one — a personal record — and were home within 30 minutes — another record.
Some 47 hours after deciding to cut the trip short, and 46 hours after buying the tickets, we walked into our front door.
I'm sad that our vacation had to be cut short, but relieved that we were able to get home before more flights shut down or more borders were closed. Given the US State Department's warning on Thursday, I think we made the right call.
Now, we're working with the travel agent who helped us plan the trip, plus our travel insurance, to figure out what our options are for recouping expenses or maybe getting to finish the trip once this is all over.
We're also self-quarantining — like pretty much everyone else — given all of the exposure risks during our trip. So far we're feeling fine, and hoping it stays that way.
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