The truth about what it's like to fly on a plane right now

That said, I felt surprisingly at ease in a flying aluminum box with everyone wearing masks, the vaccine rollout well underway, and knowing experts agree travel is generally safe when safety precautions are followed, even if the science is incomplete.

West Coast airports are quieter than those in the Midwest

Data from the Transportation Security Administration shows that the number of travelers passing through airports is at its highest level since March 2019, and Kevin Williams, a Yale economist who analyzes air travel data, said airports are becoming increasingly busy.

"Demand is up," Williams said. "Prices are up."

The busiest airports in the country right now are in Florida, Puerto Rico, Colorado and Arizona, according to TSA data that Williams monitors.

"Generally, heavy tourist destinations (beaches, warm, outdoors) are seeing a surge in demand," he wrote in an email. "There are more passengers flying to San Juan [Puerto Rico] now than there were pre-pandemic."

Large airports, including Salt Lake City, Chicago Midway, Phoenix and Fort Myers, Florida, are at 80% to 90% of 2019 levels, he added.

SFO has seen the slowest recovery among all the major U.S. airports, and air travel is down 68% from 2019. The lack of international flights is a significant factor, Williams explained. On the West Coast, travel isn't only down at SFO. Almost all West Coast airports are trailing the rest of the country in terms of air travel recovery. "In general, the coasts have been the most affected due to being international gateways," Williams wrote. "SFO is only slightly worse than Boston, Washington (IAD), and New York (JFK)."

The middle seats on planes are occupied again

My travels between the West Coast and East Coast, which put me on four flights and brought me to four airports, generally reflected this data. On the flight from San Francisco International Airport to Chicago Midway, I sat next to an empty middle seat. This helped ease my anxiety about traveling after being holed up at home for a year — where the closest I came to travel was watching "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy" on CNN.

But on the flight from Midway to Boston Logan International Airport, every seat was taken. Same thing on our return flights from Boston to Denver and Denver to SFO. I sat with my mask strapped on tight and my arms squeezed against my body like an anxious sardine.  

At the height of the pandemic, airlines started to block middle seats to maintain distance between travelers. Airlines have stopped this practice despite an April 23 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kansas State University revealing that leaving the middle seat vacant can reduce exposure to coronavirus particles by 23% to 57%, compared with full aircraft occupancy, depending upon the aircraft model.

Delta Airlines is the only U.S. airline continuing to block middle seats and will end their system on May 1, according to a statement from the airline.

Masks are a must and required on planes and in airports

Everyone wore a mask on my four flights, a handful of people were double-masked, and on one flight a person was extra-prepared with a plastic face shield. Nobody on the plane refused to sport a face covering, but the flight crew made very clear that federal law requires everyone to wear a mask in flight as there's a large body of research revealing masks stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The CDC requires both people who are unvaccinated and vaccinated to wear face coverings on planes. 

The CDC advises against travel until you're fully vaccinated

I was three days shy of my Johnson & Johnson vaccine going into full effect when I flew from San Francisco to Boston, and I followed the Massachusetts guidance for unvaccinated travelers and got tested 72 hours before arrival in the state. At Boston Logan, nobody asked me for proof of my negative test, but I was glad I followed the recommendation. Knowing that I was COVID-free put me at ease. 

On my return to San Francisco, I was past the two-week waiting period after my injection and considered fully vaccinated. A test wasn't recommended by the California Department of Public Health. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against travel until you're fully vaccinated, but unvaccinated travelers can still legally board planes.  

"If I was unvaccinated, I’d be trying to get vaccinated as soon as possible – and if I was going to get vaccinated, then I’d try to wait on flying until I was fully vaccinated (or at very least several weeks after shot 1)," Dr. Bob Wachter, a COVID-19 expert and chair of UCSF's department of medicine, wrote in an email. "If I wasn’t ever going to get vaccinated (which, of course, is a terrible decision), I’d want case and test positivity rates in both the source and destination cities to be very low, which would likely mean that the probability that people sitting around me on the plane are not infected. So today, if unvaccinated, I might be OK flying SFO-LAX (both very 'cool' (COVID-wise) but would not be comfortable flying to Michigan or Florida (case rate is 5x as high)."

Planes are serving drinks on planes, but experts advise caution

Many airlines stopped drink service but they're now bringing it back, and Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said it's fine to pull down your mask to eat and drink. "Out of respect for those unvaccinated, please keep your mask on at other times," said Gandhi.

Wachter advised unvaccinated people to skip the drink on airplanes. "I would minimize the amount of time with my mask off, particularly if I was unvaccinated," he wrote. "But even for the vaccinated, I try very hard to keep my mask on for the entire flight, taking it off very briefly and trying to do so while others have their masks on."

On my flights, Southwest Airlines had a nifty system for ordering drinks where a flight attendant shows you a laminated card with images of drinks, each given a number 1 through 4.

I opted to get a drink on the first leg of my travels when the plane wasn't full. When the flight attendant took my order, I held up four fingers that corresponded with water. I quickly pulled down my mask and drank my water in less than a minute. 

Vaccinated and masked, I was generally relaxed and felt safe during my travels — although after so many months of socializing outdoors with a limited number of people, the neurons in my brain may have been thrown into a state of chaos as they processed the more than 100 strangers surrounding me on the plane. 

And experts agree that it's safe to travel if you take health precautions. "I have flown on a plane a few times since getting vaccinated," said Dr. Monica Gandhi. "I feel safe after vaccination from contracting severe disease or giving the infection to others, but I continued to mask of course and kept the ventilation on above my seat. I would advise those flying to stay masked as is the rules on planes, know that the ventilation is excellent on airplanes, and try to group with their party or distance from others as much as possible."

One thing I would have done differently in my travels is pack my own food to eat on the layovers. The lines were long at all food outlets in Denver and Chicago, and there's no food beyond the free bag of salty snack on planes. I would have preferred to escape to a quiet corner of the airport and eat a sandwich from home than wait in line for a soggy slice of pizza. Any line for decent food, say Shake Shack, would have taken more than 30 minutes.