I am firmly in the pro-mask camp (it makes me sad that I even have to say that--I can't believe it's even an issue). I wore one on my trip to Hawaii in February and my trip to London in March, but admittedly those trips weren't as hard core as things have been recently. I mostly wore them on the plane. We wear surgical masks or bandanas when we go outside to exercise and N95s when we are going to be inside anywhere close to people (post office, grocery stores, etc.). They've been mandatory where I live for a while, and people here get that they are wearing a mask (surgical or handmade) to protect others from asymptotic spread so 99% of people I see are following the mandates.
But to your point, wearing an N95 for International travel in today's world is a different beast. I can attest to that, as DD20 and I just got back last night from a last minute trip to England. I can tell you that after wearing masks for almost 24 hours getting there, and 20 hours on the way back, we were ready to have a bonfire with those blasted things. We double masked--N95 under and surgical on top to keep it "fresh" but they were still icky. But as the alternative was much more unpleasant, we managed, and until there is a vaccine or therapeutic, we will do so again. A little discomfort is nothing compared to the alternative. When you hear someone cough or sniffle on a plane today, I can tell you, you jump and you are VERY happy that they are wearing a mask as are you.
Like you, we have had to cancel a bunch of Disney trips (and Hawaii) but still have International trips planned in September and December--both are to England. As DD is starting Oxford for her masters in the fall, the September trip is going to happen if the UK is open. As of right now, Oxford is "endeavoring" (its word, LOL), to start on time in early October. We will go even if we have to quarantine first for 14-days there. The December trip was to spend Christmas with her and that one is more up in the air. Much will depend on how open things are, whether there is a quarantine in place in the UK, and how many people are traveling. After our recent experience these are all big factors.
I'm still putting my thoughts together on our trip, but it was one that I will never forget. I really feel as if we got *extremely* lucky and slipped through a weird crack in time. We had very little contact with anyone the entire trip. I've had more uncomfortable experiences at the grocery store. But as lucky as we were with our timing, it was also eerie and disconcerting to be walking through an empty Heathrow or sitting on a tube car through central London by ourselves.
DD has been attending University in England for the past few years. She's graduating this year (England is only 3 years), so we had a big trip planned this summer for graduation. Due to Covid she was sent home in March. Unfortunately, she didn't pack up her apartment and we had to get her stuff out before her lease was up. When her university cancelled graduation and British Air cancelled our June flights, we were worried about what would happen if we couldn't get out there next month. Her stuff was all mixed up with her roommates who from Norway and even more locked down than we are, and the apartment had already been rented so we couldn't extend her rent. The company wasn't helpful with options. Anyway, as moving is considered essential, we knew we could get over there now. I'd been following a couple boards, and decided to make a run for it when I heard how light planes were to London. Literally, the day after I changed our BA tickets (a few days before we traveled), the UK announced they were going to be starting a 14-day quarantine at the end of the month or early June. Talk about great timing.
So we flew out last Monday and returned yesterday. As BA has cancelled all direct flights to LHR out of SFO, we had to fly out of LAX. BA has also cancelled the LHR to NCL route so we had to take a train to Durham. It was a logistical nightmare that I put together in three days, with the biggest issue being hotels and food. Literally nothing is open over there. There are only a few hotels open near Heathrow (thank you Hilton points!) and most restaurants are closed even for pick up. There are a handful of restaurants using delivery services (and pizza) so we knew we could eat, but it's very different than here. In general, I would say the UK is much more locked down than we are even in the Bay Area. Even Costa and Starbucks are all closed in England. The streets were very very quiet, even in central London. But they were just easing restrictions as we were leaving so that could change--when I say we slipped through a weird crack I mean it.
Here's a sampling:
--On our trip from LAX to LHR there were about 30 people total on our flight. My daughter and I shared an entire Club World (business) cabin with one other person. There were 27 people on our return flight and we shared the Club World cabin with three other people. Crazy!
--We were the only people on our Heathrow Express car; there was one other person on the entire train.
--On the train from London King's Cross to Durham we had two or three other people in our car; on the way back we were the ONLY people in the car the entire way. I felt like the queen, LOL.
--On our tube ride from London's King Cross to our Heathrow area hotel we had about 5 people in the entire carriage for the first half of the trip. No one got on our carriage through all the stops of central London (I literally saw 2-3 people on the Green park station waiting to get on); for the second half of the trip we had the entire tube car to ourselves. It was a Sunday evening, which I think was crucial timing, but it was crazy.
--There are no restaurants open at any rail station or airport in the UK. The only food/drink available is from Boots or a convenience type store. So yuck.
--British air is not serving alcohol (which was surprisingly sucky) and only had 2 snack services (the food was the same for everyone and was pretty bleak). There were also no lounges open anywhere. In other words, you had to bring your own food and the only reason to fly in business was the lie flat. I had the brilliant idea of buying cup noodle type ramen for our food on the way back and it worked out perfectly.
The one negative of BA is that although all the passengers were wearing masks, only a couple of the flight attendants were. ***? It's too dangerous to serve alcohol or food but not to spread germs on the passenger? Yuck. I really hope they change that. Still, we had little contact with them so I really feel as if the whole international travel part was safer than I've felt at times in the market at home. If we picked anything up, I'd be shocked if it was from any of the international part of the trip. We had almost no contact with anyone the entire time--and except for a handful of times people walked past us on the train or plane all of it was social distanced with us wearing masks. There were a lot more people wearing masks in the UK than in March, but it still isn't like the Bay Area. The difference is that people aren't really out in the UK at all. They are locking down way more than we are even in a place like the Bay Area.
The worst part of the entire trip by far was the Southwest trip from Oakland to LAX and back. Our plane down was probably a little over half full, and the a@#hat in front of me kept lowering his mask as soon as the flight attendant would walk away--in between big sniffs. Seriously? He was the only person in both directions that wasn't wearing his mask, and of course he had to sit right in front of us. On both flights there was enough space for everyone to have their own row and middle seats were empty, but it still felt too crowded. The flight back was a little lighter, but even with 2/3 of the plane empty and everyone masked it wasn't exactly comfortable. There was still someone behind me and in front of me within a couple feet. Southwest is blocking off the first three rows and last three rows to keep people away from flight attendants, which I guess I understand, but if the flight had been any more crowded it would have been an issue. There is no drink or food service of any kind. The flight attendants came by to collect trash one time, but that was it.
It was a Twilight Zone type of experience, but what I'd take from it: Flying domestically is not fun and you will not be feeling social distanced even with 1/3 to 1/2 full flights. Flying internationally was surprisingly nice except for the eerie ghost town part of it. But I expect that will all change as things start to loosen. When planes fill, it's going to be a different. I'm really glad we jumped and went when we did.
We are just glad to be home and counting the days until we can are free from worry of exposure. I wish testing were an option, but they haven't opened it up here to everyone.
Here are some pics to get an idea of how deserted it really was:
1: Southwest flight to LAX (and the a#$hat in front of me)
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2. A deserted LAX international terminal:
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3. Our Club World cabin almost to ourselves
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4: Heathrow on arrival. Our flight was the only one in the entire terminal. We were off the plane and through customs in less than 15 minutes.
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5. An empty King's Cross Rail station (this is the Harry Potter station and usually PACKED). This was lunchtime on Tuesday.
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6: Durham high street midday on a weekday.
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7. Our completely empty train carriage from Durham to London (3 hours by ourselves)
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8. King's Cross tube station on Sunday at about 4 pm.
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9. Our Piccadilly line tube carriage to ourselves
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10. A shuttered duty free terminal at Heathrow. The only thing open was boots and a bookstore/newstand:
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I bought only a giftcard, nothing else.
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