Airline Germophobia

Airline Germophobia

One of the travel websites that I visit quite often is posted by one of my favorite travel agent owners and writers, Richard Turen. The site is titled “Traveltruth.com”. He and his staff are very intentional in “telling it like it is”. They answer various and sundry questions sent to them by travelers, and one that I thought was interesting and wanted to share was the question about how to avoid getting sick while traveling on an airplane.

It seems that every time I travel I would come home sick in some form or fashion. So I've been putting into practice what I've seen a lot of our Asian friends do; I've been wearing a mask that covers my nose and mouth. One question asked “Traveltruth” was where is the best place to sit to avoid germs on an airplane. In answering that question he told about an environmental microbiologist at the Univ. of Arizona who specializes in how diseases spread in indoor spaces like airplanes, cruise ships, hotels, and casinos. Of course there are many variables to consider when answering this question, but based on his research, here are some suggestions:

Sitting in a specific location such as aisle seat or exit row is mostly immaterial. The most critical factor is movement about the plane in terms of exposure to bacterial diseases.

Aisle seats are generally the worst seats in terms of contamination. Why? The individual sitting there typically gets up more often than those in the middle or window seats. They are closer to the crew who might be carrying an infectious disease, and the headrests might have been touched by many fellow passengers going to the lavatory and back.

Tray tables are the single greatest source of contamination, along with the arm rests, air flow regulator and info and movie screens and should be wiped as you sit.

Never use airline pillows or blankets unless they have been given to you in an unopened wrapper. No telling whose been sneezing into them!!

Take the sanitizing wraps with you to the lavatory and use them liberally on anything you plan to touch.

Of course, those sitting in First or Business class are less likely to experience being infected because their sections are cleaned more often and the quality of air is generally far superior.

Another consideration that I never thought about is to use your wipes as you are checking in on the self check-in screen. Goodness knows who all have touched that surface!!

Just some things that you don't think about very much when you are planning on taking a trip on an airplane...but I was just reminded of it when looking at “Traveltruth”. And that's the truth!!

You can certainly get some travel truth by visiting The Travel Factory when planning on going on your next trip or vacation. Don't pass up that travel experience in trying to do it yourself but call the experienced travel advisors at The Travel Factory and save some time and money in the process. Call us at 698-1421 or come by our shop at 4150 Southwest Drive, between Rosa's and Chick-Fil-A. We'll certainly tell you the truth about travel!!!