Getting to Taiwan wasn't easy!
It's a weird time to be flying right now. Mind you, flying all the way to Taiwan from Chicago is kind of surreal ANY time. But especially now.
Security was the funniest part- I literally was in and out in about a minute at O'Hare on a Monday afternoon with no one in line with me at all for TSA screening. I just casually took my time putting things into my bin for screening, with no one in front of me or behind. The lane next to mine had one other person. There more at least 5x more TSA agents than people checking in. I'd say more than half the airport was empty, even though it was the Monday after Thanksgiving!
Out of 6 arrival/departure boards, two of them were just blank.
This is my flight to San Francisco- I'm 16 rows back in a 32 row plane.
I got a whole row to myself, along with no one in the row behind me or in front. The flight to Taiwan was no different. This plane seats about 800- I doubt there were even 100 of us onboard. Which is good, because at 14 hours long- it was nice to lay across a few seats to sleep. And the flight left at midnight, so it was ALL in the dark, too!
I know many people haven't had flying experiences as good as this- with crammed planes and all. But mine worked out pretty nicely. Still, it was over 28 hours from leaving home to my hotel in Taipei. Not for the faint of heart!