Spain vs the US: Who Does Travel Better?

By Robert McGarvey

The sad, startling fact is that in autumn 2021 I felt much safer traveling in Spain than I did in the US portions of my recently completed three week visit to Spain.

Fact: three in four Spaniards are fully vaccinated.  Just 57% of Americans are fully vaccinated.  How dumb are we?

Spain also requires incoming Americans to be fully vaccinated and – quite wonderfully – everywhere I went in the nation, at least indoors, mask compliance was at or near 100%. It’s just something Spaniards do as a commonsense measure to protect self and others.

I spent most of my waking hours outdoors – walking 130+ miles of the ancient Camino de santiago, enough to earn a compostela – 

And on the hiking trail masks were rarely worn (I don’t recall ever wearing mine).  But walking around city streets, especially in bustling Santiago which was bursting with pilgrims who had also walked enough to claim a compostela, masks outside proved to be the norm.

I just felt safer in Spain.

I also tested negative in the rapid result antigen test that I took at Madrid Airport, a requirement for re-entering the US.  Personally I am not thrilled at spending over $100 on a test where I knew the result. Most of my time in Spain was spent in Galicia which statistically is the second safest region in a very safe country. Spain is way ahead of us in winning the fight against Covid. So I thought the test superfluous.

But if the US requires it, of course I will do it.

What Went Wrong and Sometimes Right

Nothing went wrong in Spain.

In the US, much did.

It started when my flight from Phoenix to JFK touched down in NYC and simply sat on the runway. And sat. And sat. 

Lightning was why, they said.  

The upshot is that I missed my connecting flight to Madrid – by probably 10 minutes (thank you, Delta) – and of course the customer service at JFK was woeful.  I rebooked in the Delta app and, rather than endure a night at a JFK hotel, I taxied into Manhattan, booked a night at a midtown hotel in HotelTonight and headed to the nearby Empire Steakhouse where I forgot my airport grumbles with a few Manhattans and a lovely steak dinner. One thing Manhattan still does extraordinarily well is steak.  Personally I had never heard of this joint but the hour was late and Wolfgang’s, my preferred NY beef place, was too far away so I took a chance and it paid off.

It almost made me forget missing the Madrid connection.

Almost.

The Delta flight back to JFK was uneventful but I will tell you a curiosity.  At the Madrid Airport four different Delta employees asked to see my passport.  Exactly one asked to see the negative Covid test result and yet the US government does not in fact check those results itself. It kicks that can to airlines.  And one employee asked.  

At JFK I of course headed to the Global Entry portal where, seemingly, half the passengers on the plane also headed.  The kiosk snapped a picture of me and then identified me as someone I am not.  

I looked at the print out with the wrong name and the long, slow moving line in front of me. Paces away, at the general entry portal, there was no line. I jumped the Global Entry ship and went there where I was processed in seconds, no sweat.

Note: I am not grumbling about Global Entry which I got for free with a credit card.  But I find it amusing and bemusing that the free entry portal was faster.

At LAX – my next stop – the trip took an annoying turn when Delta had changed the gate of my plane to PHX a number of times and seemingly no Delta employee I asked could provide any help regarding the correct gate.  

LAX, by the way, was stuffed with passengers.  Empty seats were few. Mask compliance was lax.  I have to ask: why doesn’t the US government require that air travelers be vaccinated?  For the airline business to recover that is a necessary step.  I felt real risk at LAX, something I hadn’t felt in three weeks in Spain.

I finally did find the gate and so was I home free?  Nope. Remember the JFK wait to deplane.  It was topped at PHX where just before we landed we were informed that law enforcement would be coming on board to remove a passenger.

There had been no drunken, rowdy incident on board, no violent mask defiance.

What had this passenger done? I had 10, maybe 20 minutes to contemplate that as we sat at the gate with the doors locked and nothing happening.

Finally a woman passenger was escorted by a flight attendant and exited.  Maybe five minutes later a man did likewise.

Law enforcement never entered the plane.

After five more minutes we were told we could deplane.

What the hell happened?  Your guess is probably better than mine because I mainly see only bullying bureaucratic incompetence.

Flying domestically sucks.

A Bright Spanish Moment

The bottomline: Spain shows that travel can work.  Be vaccinated. Wear masks.  Stay safe.

When will the US get the message?