Swine Flu and Air Travel – 8 Tips to Make it Safer

Swine flu is making air travel for most Americans something of a crap shoot. There are the obvious exposures of re-circulated air, close proximity to strangers and other risks almost none of which are controllable. However, there are a few things you can due to defend yourself.

• The first question is do you absolutely have to fly, particularly during a pandemic flu season? If you’re flying for business could it be handled with a webenaire instead or is your personal prescience required. If you’re traveling for pleasure and you get sick shortly after you arrive, how much fun is that going to be?
• The second question is to call or visit online, the carrier you’ll be traveling and see if they have a policy of refusing to seat passengers with obvious symptoms. If they don’t, find another carrier.
• Once you’ve made the decision to fly, make sure you have in your carry on sanitation wipes, sanitizing gel and a little salt. At the airport, try to find a waiting seat that is separated from others even if this means a longer walk to the boarding gate.
• Shortly before you board use a rest room and mix the salt with some warm water and gargle. This will discourage germs from taking up residence in your mouth and throat.
• When you board, before you take your seat, use a wipe to sanitize the headrest. Once seated, use a wipe on the armrests and on the seat back tray. Share the love and offer wipes to your seatmate(s).
• If a seatmate is displaying obvious symptoms like runny nose or coughing, ring for the attendant and demand to be seated elsewhere. This guy wasn’t supposed to be let on in the first place right. Hopefully other passengers will chime in and the sick guy will get the boot. Cruel? Not really.
• Use the hand gel before and after you eat or drink anything or touch anyone on the plane.
• Lastly, if you bought travel insurance make sure it was for “cancel for any reason” and even then read the fine print. Otherwise if you have to cancel because you get sick you will not be covered as the insurance industry views the pandemic as a “known event” and treats it the same as a known hurricane.

If you have to fly know the risks and have a plan for getting sick. There’s nothing worse than having the flu in a strange town. Planning can at least make it manageable