Travelling during covid is not easy. Covid certainly has ruined many our travelling plans. I haven’t travelled since covid started and It has been over 1.5 years, since I saw my parents. That did not bother me much as safety was my first priority. I got vaccinated and decided to visit my parents for the summer holidays. We cancelled the tickets twice before I finally booked and flew on 9th July because of travel restrictions from flights to UAE from India. I hope we will be able to fly back in the first week of august as the cases are reducing in my home country. We would try travelling back in the first 2 week of august. This cannot be planned as you wouldn’t know how long the ban would be or if it would be extended. So you have to keep your booking period shorter.
How is verified to fly useful when travelling during covid?
During my first leg of journey, It was a smooth experience with Etihad Airways. Previously, I had to carry a bunch of printouts when I travelled to Bangalore during covid. Now with verified to fly service of Etihad airways, I emailed all the documents to the Etihad and I received a confirmation email that I am verified to fly. I can then go through the baggage drop as I used to do pre-covid. Give your passport, get your boarding pass and go to immigration. Did you know that Etihad is testing a new boarding pass paper where the information is printed on thermal paper (the kind used in ATM for receipts)? It does make sense as we tear it anyway after the trip. This way even if you forget to tear it, the content on the page would vanish after a few days. Obviously this is a cheaper option.
Etihad Greenliner
Back to the story, I was thinking maybe I am flying in 320 today. Mostly Etihad flies 320 to India. While I was waiting for my flight I saw this beautiful plane and
Thought it would be nice to fly in this. It is a 781 and the business is a flatbed. While waiting, I decided to check my email and realized that I was flying on 781 and not 320. Yeah for a flatbed and definitely yes for a good night sleep. The ambience was amazing. It is exactly as below. Lamps were my favorite!
We landed in Kochi before time. It was a smooth ride. I thought we might get to use the printouts here as we carried them all the way from the UAE. That didn’t happen here either. For us, no papers go to waste.
To my amazement, it was a smooth process here too. You have to go through the PCR test after you have collected the baggage in COK airport. We spend around 2-3 minutes in the PCR booth for a family of 4. They didn’t send me any results on the phone number provided. I am guessing, if it was positive they would have contacted. I am getting used to “new normal” or is this relatable to the “pre-covid” era.