Jayden writes about the struggles of catching an International flight during COVID 19
A father has been waiting for this trip for years to finally get the chance to reunite with his family in Africa after two decades. Along his two sons and their mother, who he wanted to bring along with him. After waiting for the time when spring break has arrived so the kids are off of school, the parents make the necessary preparations to get ready to travel by plane.
The family gets tested for Covid and the results come back negative. In the appropriate span of time, they have all the forms ready, bags packed, IDs and passports; they are ready to go. They arrive at the airport two hours early.
The family has to go to separate terminals since they were taking different planes. The younger son went with the mother and the older son went with the father. The son and father went to the station where they were supposed to go to catch their plane but were told that the forms that were invalid since too much time had passed since they were tested. Even though they were tested about a week or less prior for Covid-19 before arriving at the airport.
While the mother and younger son were allowed to board their plane the older son and father who had been waiting 20 years to see his family in person went home that day, despite taking an immediate Covid test at the airport.
They went home that day with their luggage while the mother and younger son were on their way to Africa. The next day the father and son went back to the airport, arriving early to catch their plane but they still weren’t allowed to go. The father spent hours trying to schedule airfare, but didn’t make it that day.
A similar case can be seen during 2021 when Sally Shiels and 30 other passengers weren’t allowed to board their plane. In their case it was a mistake of the type of testing to do instead of the testing being invalid even though it should have been valid.
Although it’s understandable why more precautions are taken to allow people to be on planes. Ever since Covid and travel is more challenging.
The case of being denied access to board a plane, even though the right preparations were made prior wasn’t right. Their family had been planning this trip for months and took the correct preparations for it. Only the mother and the son were able to board their plane while the father and the other son couldn’t.
Even when they went the next they still weren’t able to go on the plane was outright stupid and unfair. Even if there was a error what happened still wasn’t right.