Tag Archives for masks.
I warned you this would happen, but you supported a federal mask mandate anyway. Airlines already required mask-wearing on planes. I told you that if the federal government got involved this would mean fewer options for travels, and less mask-wearing overall. Guess which one of us was right?
Late Friday night the CDC issued its rule for mask-wearing on public transportation and airlines following the President’s executive order asking them to do so….
Twenty passengers headed to Hawaii were kicked off a flight by American Airlines on Sunday. Ten adults and ten children (ages 3 to 13) were on board a Salt Lake City to Dallas Fort-Worth flight when, they say, a gate agent flagged one of them for inadvertently letting their face mask fall beneath their nose.
The Biden administration doesn’t yet know what mask rules will be, how they’ll apply to young children or those with medical challenges, how they’ll interact with private sector rules already in place, who will issue the rules, or what enforcement will look like. We’re likely a couple of weeks away from knowing the answers to these questions.
Germany approved new rules to require medical grade masks on public transportation. Lufthansa has followed suit, requiring masks but banning cloth masks from meeting that requirement effective February 1. France and Austria may add similar rules.
If you travel, you find yourself in airports and on jet bridges, if you’re in indoor congregant settings with groups of other people then you want to use an N95 mask.
According to a memo that incoming President Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff is circulating, Biden intends to take several actions on his first day in office including a federal mask-wearing requirement for interstate transportation and repealing President Trump’s Muslim ban.
Back in November I predicted that mask disputes on planes would become more common over the winter and that seems to becoming the case, at least based on social media reports and continued reporting from airlines on the number of people banned over masks. Even tiny Alaska Airlines is now over 300 passengers banned.
Starting January 26 the CDC will require all passengers flying to the U.S. to have received a negative Covid-19 test within 3 days of travel. For everything else that’s been written about the new requirement, it’s likely to accelerate mask disputes since everyone on board will have tested negative on flights to the U.S. already.
I’ve written about buying N95 masks and using them correctly if you’re going to travel. They’ve been expensive, $3+ apiece. However for a traveler putting themselves in indoor congregant settings I think they’re worthwhile.
Quality masks have become much more available, and prices have come down a lot. Over the summer you might have spent $7 to get an N95 mask from the limited places where you could find them.
Since midday Sunday people were sharing to social media a video purportedly showing someone who attended the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday being denied boarding on Delta Air Lines because he had been added to the government’s No Fly List.
However the person checked in, went through security and was denied boarding at the gate. And the person who posted the original video didn’t claim the No Fly List had anything to do with it.
Howard Altman, the Managing Editor for Military Times, documented his Southwest Airlines flight to DC on Tuesday filled with “Fight For Trump” cheers.
Southwest Airlines for its part takes to twitter to note they have mask policies. Here, on this flight, those weren’t enforced. But Southwest found itself in a difficult position.
On Tuesday night’s American Airlines flight AA2198 from Charlotte to Washington National, a Trump supporter clearly wearing a mask was removed from the aircraft after an apparent ‘joke’ about not wearing a mask. Other passengers around her can be heard asking the airline not to take the time to remove her, and just let everyone get on their way.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
