[BLU/Officers] Webcam for peering into things

[Shankar Viswanathan]

On 12/14/21 17:01, Bill Ricker wrote:
> Safe Travels, Shankar!

Thanks everyone! It was a really hectic trip, but everything worked out 
well. I was able to spend time with family that I've only seen on video 
for the past 2.5 years.

The travel though was really brutal. My itinerary was non-optimal due to 
the last minute nature of my flight booking. This caused a lot of 
headaches due to various COVID requirements of every transit airport 
along the way. On the way back, the US changed the requirements of a 
negative test from within 72 hours before departure to 24 hours before 
departure - later amended to day before departure (to account for 
flights that may be leaving late evening). But my flight was at 2:30am 
and nobody could tell me if a sample from day X-2 would be acceptable 
where X was the actual date on my ticket (nobody would guarantee results 
under 24 hours). It was also not clear if a rapid test would be 
sufficient since my first layover point (Dubai) required results from a 
full RT-PCR test. They also required testing from one of the approved 
labs - which I can understand as there could be rampant cheating 
otherwise. But the nearest approved facility was 75 miles from where I 
was - and it was an absolute nightmare to get to in torrential monsoon 
rains and flooded streets.

In addition, since I had a 10+ hour layover at Dubai, they would not 
consider me a "transit" passenger - which meant I had to also meet the 
requirements of the UAE government as someone "entering" the UAE. This 
required getting another test at the airport 6 hours before departure - 
they won't even let you into the terminal building till you show a 
negative result from that test. So I had to get to the airport 6+ hours 
before my flight and wait outside in the parking lot till they emailed 
me the results 2.5 hours before departure (going back home after 
submitting the sample wasn't an option since home is 2 hours from the 
airport).

The worst part is that interpreting the various rules is left to the 
person at the airline checkin counter - my situation required speaking 
to their supervisor's supervisor and begging them to let me on the 
flight as there was no way I could satisfy all the rules given my long 
layover. In addition, the could not verify the result from the QR code 
on my result - the URL in the QR code did not work because the website 
appeared to be down for maintenance at that early hour. I was allowed to 
board only after I agreed to taking another rapid COVID test at the next 
hop - for which I had to pay the equivalent of $50 (they didn't issue me 
the boarding pass for my final leg till I got that result and I just 
barely made the flight).

The second worst part was wearing KN95 masks for 42 hours straight - I 
used a fresh one approx. every 8 hours. Only break was while 
eating/drinking at the airports or the flight. Except one leg, the 
flights were relatively empty so I didn't have to worry too much about 
someone on the next seat being unmasked at the same time I was eating. I 
breathed properly only once I got home - and it was a big sigh of relief 
after the COVID test I took 3 days after my return came out negative (I 
had to wait an hour in freezing cold in Cambridge to get the test).

So, I highly recommend avoiding international flights unless absolutely 
essential. Also, try to get the most direct flight possible - fewer (and 
shorter) layovers the better.

-Shankar

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