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Do flights that have 1 stop instead of being nonstop pose more of a risk?

Biancanoel177
Explorer C

I'm looking at flights to Ft Lauderdale for late September-early October. Not gonna purchase tickets yet I'm gonna wait a little and see how things are looking there with reopening and everything. But I noticed there are pretty much but no nonstop flights anymore. I was thinking that having a stop on the flight is probably more of a risk with the virus. Just wondering what everyone else thought. Is it THAT much more of a risk?

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Do flights that have 1 stop instead of being nonstop pose more of a risk?

dfwskier
Aviator A

Morning.

 

I wouldn't think that a one stop is any more risky than a non stop.

 

If people are wearing masks and practising distancing, that is if you do things like wiping down your seat and avoiding touching your face and washing your hands.

Re: Do flights that have 1 stop instead of being nonstop pose more of a risk?

SWFlyer007
Aviator C

I disagree that a one flight stop vs a non-stop doesn't make any difference.  But again that is only my opinion.  I think the fewer people you encounter you decrease your chances of contraction.  Getting off a plane and expose yourself to hundreds of more people than the 134 on the flight you came on could increase it.   And then you have a new population of people on the second flight and the contacts they have encountered from the multiple airports they flew out of.  But you have to decide what you feel is best.  When I start to travel I will only do non-stop flights with no plane change.  Things will eventually.  

Re: Do flights that have 1 stop instead of being nonstop pose more of a risk?

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@Biancanoel177 wrote:

I'm looking at flights to Ft Lauderdale for late September-early October. Not gonna purchase tickets yet I'm gonna wait a little and see how things are looking there with reopening and everything. But I noticed there are pretty much but no nonstop flights anymore. I was thinking that having a stop on the flight is probably more of a risk with the virus. Just wondering what everyone else thought. Is it THAT much more of a risk?


 

With things changing all the time, it's difficult to predict what air travel will even be like that far out. Keep in mind that if you do book and later find that you need to cancel your flight, the current policy exception will give you until September 7, 2022 to use the travel funds from the canceled flight, as long as you cancel before September 7, 2020. If that policy isn't extended, any customer-initiated cancellation made after September 7, 2020 would give you travel funds good for one year from the date you first booked the flight (assuming no other travel funds used in the booking).

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Re: Do flights that have 1 stop instead of being nonstop pose more of a risk?

gsking
Aviator C

Let's look at the odds in total.  Try to follow me here, because it's statistical logic that's hard to follow.

 

Option #1:  The chance of you avoiding the virus until then, but getting it on your layover, and having bad results (ie. bad symptoms, no therapy figured out by then, etc).

 

Option #2:  Everything else.  Getting it before then, getting on one flight vs. the other, having a vaccine or other medical solution by then, etc, etc, etc.

 

In other words, the likelihood after the fact of saying "If only I'd taken the direct flight" is vanishingly small.  You're talking about September.  Things will be different. 

 

And hopefully the direct flights will be back by then.