D
Go home
for the holidays?
The pros and cons of flying
this year to gather with family
This is one of many questions wrapped up in the larger pro-con conversation about whether extended families should gather this year for the holidays.
The principal pro is clear: You and your kin will have the comfort of being together after a miserable year. That prospect will surely unite many families in November and December, especially if they can drive rather than fly.
The big con, of course, is that you might infect one or more of your kin. Or they might infect you. Maybe your family has been lucky so far, but the U.S. death count passed 190,000 on Sept. 10, and that list is dominated by grandparents and great-grandparents.
There’s no way to know how the infection and death numbers will change over the next few months. But now isn’t too soon to look at the pros and cons of traveling to see family, especially if flying is involved.
Doing some research might help you manage expectations (if you’re against) or get better prices (if you’re in favor).
Begin with a few questions:
How necessary is this trip?
How old is everyone involved and how healthy? How do infection and death rates compare between my area and my destination? Remember that California has more COVID-19 cases than anywhere else in the U.S., and L.A. County has more cases than any other California county.
One who probably won’t take a long-distance family trip this year is John DiScala, who runs the travel advice website JohnnyJet.com. DiScala, who lives in Manhattan Beach with his wife, Natalie; son, Jack, 4; and daughter, Olivia, 1, usually visits his father in Florida and his in-laws in Toronto. But now ….
“I want to go visit my dad, but he’s 92. And I can’t risk giving it to him,” DiScala said. “It’s torture.”
Although DiScala has airline tickets to visit his in-laws in December, he’s expecting to cancel that trip too.
DiScala hasn’t boarded a flight since February — the longest he’s gone without flying in his adult life.
Why? Because DiScala has asthma and because he’s paying attention to infection and death statistics and listening to medical professionals.
“Right now, there are more cons than pros to flying,” he said. “The longer that we wait, the better the scientists and doctors can figure out what’s going on with this virus and how to treat it.”
Henry J. Ortiz, a psychologist in West Los Angeles, has come to a similar conclusion.
Ortiz and his fiancée had planned to fly to New York this winter to join her family. Now, he said, “we have begun some mourning about the fact that it’s unlikely that we’ll get to New York for the Christmas holidays.”
As things stand, that kind of vacation “for most of us is not a smart or moral thing to do right now,” Ortiz said. Yet, “the holidays are so meaningful for so many of us, it’s natural to have a lot of different emotions and excitement.”
Before anyone commits to a trip, Ortiz said, families should reexamine the way they communicate and how they handle changing circumstances.
“More than ever, we need to develop good communication skills,” Ortiz said. “We need to be open and honest with each other about what’s important and why that’s important.”
With California
This means travelers must decide for themselves.
Here are more pros and cons:
Up in the air
Seeing family
Where to sleep?
Be informed
If you’re considering travel within California, the state Department of Public Health offers regular COVID-19 updates on its website at
The Times has a county-by-county virus tracker at
Remember that many states have restrictions. Hawaii, Alaska, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut require 14-day quarantines for travelers from states such as California with relatively high COVID-19 infection rates.