Federal mask rules mean more loopholes to avoid wearing a mask inflight, not more masks. That can’t be called an unintended consequence because it’s been obvious for months this would be the result.
The CDC was never going to require masks for those with a medical challenge that prevents a passenger from wearing one. And once that exemption is in place, there’s a process that passengers can follow to avoid wearing a mask while flying – whereas there were no exceptions permitted by American, Southwest, or United Airlines before the federal mask rule went into effect.
American Airlines has publicly outlined its mask-avoidance procedure of a medical note provided in advance and a negative Covid-19 test.
United Airlines has shared that it now has a mask avoidance process, too although they haven’t put out a press release on it. Those who are looking to skip mask wearing for medical reasons should contact United directly in advance.
According to an internal United Airlines memo cited by Live and Let’s Fly,
Extraordinary circumstances are thoroughly reviewed by a panel of experts – including internal and external medical experts, legal and security – and follow a strict approval process.
From time to time, customers contact United before a flight or at the airport to discuss rare, sensitive situations that may make them exempt from our onboard mask requirement. While we’ll make every effort to brief you of these situations in advance of boarding, there may be a situation where this information isn’t relayed to you in a timely manner.
If, prior to departure, a customer states that they have an approved exemption while onboard, please consult with the Customer Service Representative (CSR) and the Captain using the huddle process for resolution.
Remember that conservative activists have recommended claiming medical exemptions to mask rules. It won’t be tough to find a doctor willing to write a ‘no mask’ note to give to an airline. Everyone in California had a doctor’s note for medical marijuana 20 years ago…
This guy brought his mask protest to United in December after being banned by American.
This finally happened. #MAGA@DavidJHarrisJr pic.twitter.com/6yjeuctVis
— Jillian Anderson (@Jillie_Alexis) December 21, 2020
I’m in favor of mask wearing (as long as it’s a good mask). I was against a federal mask rule because it was going to lead to fewer masks worn, and more exceptions. Very few readers believed me but this seemed obvious and new airline mask rule exceptions to conform to the federal mask mandate bear this out. Thanks Joe Biden, and thanks airlines and airline unions who lobbied to take the mask enforcement onus off of them and put it into the lap of the TSA.
Interesting how a bureaucratic mandate from the CDC has morphed into federal law. Will the TSA now be patrolling airport restaurants & bars to ensure patrons have their masks on between bits & sips? Is the TSA now considered law enforcement?
And the mandate that masks must be worn on all public transportation as well as private ride sharing. Who is going to enforce it?
I just don’t get this at all. If you have a condition severe enough that you can’t wear a mask on a plane, maybe rent a car?
This world where everyone needs to make accommodations for selfish cowards just aint it…
This could work, only if lets say you have to get your “mask note,” from an approved CDC credentialed doctor. They could add something like when a provider prescribes controled substances its associated with their DEA#. They should require if a doctor is going to give you a mask note they have to log it in to a TSA database with their name on it. Doctors would have to receive special training in order to be given this privilege of giving TSA related mask notes.
The training would be:
1. A two hour webinar;
2. The provider has to register with TSA/CDC and maybe pay a $300-$500 annual fee to be added to the system;
3. There could be C DC chart reviewers who make sure hundreds of people did not just suddenly have the required medical conditions. You could be required to show in the medical record the condition was documenbted in most cases prior to the mask order. Only a small percentage of people would now have this new diagnosis;
4. If a provider is found to be a mask note mill, they are fined $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 for each subsequent offense. The offender patient is fined 1,500 and put on a do not fly list for the pandemic.
See I can come up with a full policy in 5 minutes and I haven’t even had a cup of coffee!
I flew back from Hawaii in December. The older child was about 4-5, but was mentally challenged in one way or another. He did his best at wearing a mask, but was not 100%. I could see autism or other condition beyond a reason for not wearing a mask. But once one goes down that path, claustrophobia isn’t far behind, with wearing a mask contributing to problems with being in a small metal tube. And, if one cannot wear a mask, it’s our worth the risk to that person and their family to potentially be exposed. Perhaps those flying without a mask will need to undergo the anal swab to confirm they aren’t contagious.
In college, I read a study on price controls on carrots during WWII. It started as one paragraph on the allowed price for carrots. By the end of the war, there were 10-20 pages defining what a carrot was, because if it wasn’t a carrot, the price wasn’t controlled. I foresee the mask mandate going in this direction. If someone has issues with oxygen, they probably shouldn’t be flying at 8000 feet pressurization. How the airlines can distinguish among all the exceptions is beyond me.
“There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” Fauci told CBSNews’ 60 Minutes in a March 8 interview with chief medical correspondent for CBS News Dr. Jon LaPook.
“When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face,” said Fauci at that time.
lol. I really miss the Dr. Fauci of less than a year ago, before the Left convinced him he’d have iconic, celebrity Dr. status if he changed his tune and denied pre-covid science and jumped on board their “masks magically stop a virus” train. The stupidity people are willing to join in on just to “win” a political debate. Very sad.
What a crock of crap!!! Make way for the “bogus” permission paperwork.
More work for the already overworked airline people. If you cannot wear a mask then stay home or drive.
I like @Boston’s plan for doctors’ notes.
@Brady. I miss the old Dr. Fauci too. The one before he learned new science about Covid19. Oh for the good old days when even the people at the top knew so little and so they got it wrong.
Perhaps now that so much is known and we all need to wear masks we’re in the age of enlightenment.
Great now all the ENTITLED will find ways to circumvent the mask rules just like they abused the service animal rules. NOT FLYING UNITED
Please bring back regulation and raise ticket prices
I’m simply not flying until Covid is over! All the fighting over a mask Is ridiculous. My 5 year old wears a mask and understands that it’s important. I am not looking forward running into a MAGA person to bug my flight with all the blah blah my rights have been infringed…
Guess you’ll never fly again…if you think that COVID-19 & all the mutations to come will ever be totally eradicated, then you’re not being realistic…I go along to get along…just flew to Puerto Vallarta & back in January…everyone wore their masks except when eating & drinking…no big deal…I will ignore the trouble makers, although I haven’t encountered any to date.
Tim, you are right on…worst thing that ever happened to the airline industry was deregulation…an unmitigated disaster!!
“My comfort pangolin has a no mask note too.”
How about those who shouldn’t fly stay home or have someone drive them.
A PLANDEMIC PLAIN AND SIMPLE! THE POWERS THAT BE KNOW IT BUT MUCH OF THE MASSES DON’T. IM NEITHER REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT , JUST RATIONAL AND A THINKER.
All airlines have experienced passengers on subject of Comfort animal rule abuse. Later airlines regulated which ones are legitimate claim.. passengers who claim to have legitimate documented proof from their attending physician can submit online way ahead of flights.
Airlines will be responsible for infections caused by non masked passengers with fly by night medical authorizations. Rest of us won’t feel safe to fly with any airline that doesn’t respect majority of passengers . Mandate must be enforced or be put on no flight list for the sake of all of us, including flight attendants and pilots. It’s a pandemic and will more likely be an Endemic.
People shouldn’t be flying if they have a such a severe medical condition that they cannot wear a mask during a global pandemic.
I too am worried that they’ll get fake doctor’s notes, or exaggerated doctor’s notes, but if they have to pay for a test and provide negative results that should be a decent control.
People need to stop being selfish and entitled. Wear a mask when you’re around other people.. airport, restaurants, Ubers, buses…. Just wear the mask, it’s not hard. And we know it isn’t 100% effective, but it will reduce the chances by a huge amount, and it will show the world that you aren’t an entitled snowflake.
So what will the airlines do to accomodate the person sitting next to the person with the ‘medical excuse’ but who isn’t comfortable sitting there?? My luck is I get stuck next to the jerk. And I paid for my seat too. (WFBF). I certainly should be rebooked in my same class of service.
I wish for TSA and our policy is strictly this: you must wear a mask during the screening process, almost no exception. What you do before and after the checkpoint is the airport and airline’s problem. It’s ridiculous that the airlines are making exceptions for the people hanging on to the political nonsense of not wearing a mask. If you truly have a medical problem you shouldn’t be flying right now.
I told my military son to fly an Asian airlines because they wear masks to protect each other and we Americans are too selfish to care for each other. Not flying United now after doing so for 20 years every year.
Hmm all these people worried about someone not wearing a mask… seems to me if your wearing one you should be safe if mask really make a difference….
Not flying United anymire. As 1k member, I don’t feel comfortable with United with recent changes.
Seems like most everyone is dismissing the minority. In the past the minority had equal rights no matter how it affected the majority.
@TS, Bonnie, Ryan: I agree completely.
@Boston: extremely good plan. You got my vote on this one!
@Meg Ryan: seriously, this is a very valid point. I always said, back when there was talk about allowing people to jabber away on their cell phones during the flight that they could be invited to step out doors as they would with smoking in the olden days. Oh, it’s thousands of feet up in the air? Well, your choice. Same thing for non-mask wearers.
A lot of people wearing these stupid masks are fooling themselves. What’s next? Why not mandate condoms so less abortions have to be performed?
FALSE! Every Airline requiring everyone to wear a mask! It’s Biden’s executive order! No way around it!
PS: Flying is SAFE!
Why wearing a piece of porous cloth that does virtually nothing to slow the spread of a 99.7% survivable virus has become so important to rhe left shows that they are drunk with power and controlling you. I proudly wear my chin strap only when absolutely necessary when in the presence of mask nazis, and usually as what I listed, a chin strap. Unless we, the people fight back at these ridiculous edicts, we will be wearing them forever.
So what I’m taking away from all of this is that private companies were able to make rules and enforce them. Then the government comes along and f**ks everything up per usual. When will people learn that less is more. I’m really confused here, a republican mindset (free market, less govt intrusion) was able to implement a sensible rule that offended far right republicans (anti-maskers) but allowed airlines to keep everyone safe (if you believe masks do) and now a democrat administration comes in and adds more bureaucracy and creates a loophole that the far right is going to gladly exploit…wth is going on here
Oh boy people!
Where’s the science about the efficacy of mask wearing and social distancing?The Truth is that no mask wearing will stop or prevent the spreading of any virus!It’s about control!!Keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told!!Population control!!
It is pure propaganda from the elites and the technocrats who think they know better than us about how we should be in charge of our own autonomy!!What happened to the flu virus?COVID19 hype took over!! And the shot isn’t going to make it disappear!!It will be an increase of many getting sicker or dying!!
Masks are nothing but theater. I would be happy if they would have flights available with no masks. Let people choose. If you are fearful, then take the masked flights.
I have no desire to fly because of the mandates. It’s ridiculous.
Naw forget y’all ideas about masks rules. Nonsense this fasad has gone on long enough I can’t believe you are all gullible. Lift the fake mask mandates!
Wow so many hateful virtue signals. Instead of saying how about if you can’t wear a mask don’t fly How about if you are the one in a million who actually may catch covered on a plane and may die from it or maybe infect someone How about you stay home? I think this pandemic has run its course for the most part, and we now need to quit punishing the majority of people just for the very very very tiny infintestinal amount who might possibly have something happen because they rode on an airplane
To me, the neigh sayers, are the anal ones. Some of us just flat out get sick from wearing a mask. I flew out to Colorado to visit my son and his family and because of my limited intake of oxygen, I was sick for 2 weeks afterwards. Coughing, snoring at night, wheezing, and coughing up flem. I had an exemption from the VA for 2 months but the Governor of Minnesota nixed that with his “No exemption” list and so the story goes. So now, instead of flying for 4 hours. I have to drive for 3 days. That’s discrimination and my governor has no medical expertise to make that choice. Law Suit.
To me, the neigh sayers, are the anal ones. Some of us just flat out get sick from wearing a mask. I flew out to Colorado to visit my son and his family and because of my limited intake of oxygen, I was sick for 2 weeks afterwards. Coughing, snoring at night, wheezing, and coughing up flem. I had an exemption from the VA for 2 months but the Governor of Minnesota nixed that with his “No exemption” list and so the story goes. So now, instead of flying for 4 hours. I have to drive for 3 days. That’s discrimination and my governor has no medical expertise to make that choice. Law Suit. Oh ya. Do make people in wheel chairs get up and walk into the plane. That’s the same as making a breathing challenged person wear a mask. It’s a handicap.
For masks – against federal mandates. However some common sense does need to be used- a kid whose masks slips or kids with autism etc should be allowed exceptions. If you are THAT afraid of a mask less person perhaps it’s YOU who should be staying home. Some people try to “actively” eat or drink nearly the entire flight too. Better would be rapid testing an hour before flights so the mask police don’t have to cause scenes. Or proof of vaccination (the absolute nonsense being peddled that a fully vaccinated person is able to carry around enough INFECTIOUS virus to “kill” someone else is BS. Top researchers who actually study and develop vaccines have pointed this out.).
At this point I’m as tired of the virtue signaling mask shamers as I am of the idiotic attention seeking anti maskers.
There’s technically been a legal mandate for exceptions all along under the Air carrier accessibility act. DL was the only airline to comply with this. Thus I’m shocked the other airlines are now coming up with policies to comply.
As with all disability related laws, there’s room for abuse.
As a former flight attendant. I would be pissed if I was still flying. These ppl not wanting to wear a mask and have a bogus note that as a flight attendant you would not be able to challenge because it goes against their rights. So when these ppl are hacking up a lung or sneezing next to the person who wants to eat their snack or take a sip of their drink in between wearing their masks will risk being infected. Because even with a negative covid test as to when or how long ago they were tested and how many other non maskers they were around before flying. If you cant do something as simple as wearing a friggin mask then stay home. But a holes like to prove they’re a holes
Masks are useless talismans. Wear one if you wish, wear two or three but this coercion and lack of empathy must stop. People have various conditions, physical and mental, that prevent them from being able to wear a mask. Who are you, you self-righteous and smug people to deny them the right to fly? To assume you have the right to coerce others. Your logic is upside down: if you’re SO afraid of Covid – YOU don’t fly. Or wear manifold masks and a visor. Covid may not have affected your body but it has rotted your brain, all you self satisfied maskholes
All of you blaming the airlines, this was not the airlines making the decision. It was Biden and the new mask mandate becoming a federal order. Although Gary does enjoy being an I-told-you-so in his columns, he actually did tell us so and I will give him credit for this one, though the constant bragging is a bit much, Gry. The fact is, the airlines, except for Delta, had zero exceptions until this order came in to play, but the order requires that they allow exceptions.
There actually are reasons that people cannot wear masks, although not that many. And asking a person, for example, who needs to be on oxygen, to travel in a car for 20 hours, rather than on a plane for three, it’s not very realistic either. Or compassionate just because people are so much living in a state of fear. Some people in this column sound like they have become little gods who know what’s best for everybody. The bottom line is, if you don’t like the way things are then, you stay home and shut up. Stop expecting everyone to cater to your every wish.
I’m going to travel, and if someone next to me is not wearing a mask, that is the risk that I will have to take. If I’m not willing to take that risk or believe that the mask that I have on is going to protect me, then I need to stay home. We used to be proud of having a pro-freedom of choice mentality in this nation, and it all went out the window with Covid. I am so ashamed to be an American these days. People need to grow up and stop expecting that everybody else act like they do over a virus that is literally not killing most people. Yes, you are hearing horror stories. Yes, it’s real and you may get it bad. So stay home if you are afraid. But you also hear horror stories every time a plane crashes. Think about it. We don’t all have to live in YOUR fear zone.
I used to criticize The Points Guy for stopping their commenting— and I do read them less since they’ve stopped because it’s made their writing worse since they’re not accountable on their blog —but now I’m just surprised that Gary doesn’t do the same thing. I can’t believe the sanctimonious garbage that I read on here. We just don’t get to decide how everybody else lives their lives. Sometimes it’s like that cartoon of the little child who screams, “you’re not the boss of me!”
Obviously, even the Biden administration thinks that there are reasons for exceptions, and the Trump administration didn’t think there should be a mask mandate, so if you think that you know more, you are free to run for office, but until you raise some money and start a campaign, maybe you should get off the Internet. Or at least start with your own blog and stop taking up everyone else’s space thinking that you get the right to run the world. I’m sure the airlines don’t need your money that badly.
The mask isn’t to protect you. It’s to protect others from you. A year ago there wasn’t a significant infected population and a misguided hope it might stay that way with no action in the federal government.
Now we must assume everyone you encounter outside is infected.
I dont wear a mask anywhere, not even from the start. My body my choice.
Children need to be prepared for a flight. They can practice normal safety procedures like masking. The pediatrician can recommend Benedryl for many cases, which will encourage napping.
Masks don’t work! I wear one to conform but People understand, they don’t work. All they do is give you false security. Surgical masks are designed to keep large droplets out during surgery, but surgical wounds get infected all the time. Why? Masks don’t stop tiny things. N95 masks protect the wearer, but only for a short time. These are only available to healthcare, police, and first responders, etc. The use of a surgical or cloth mask is to try and keep your germs in, not others out, but it was never going to be effective. It has always been a mind screw and nothing more.
Typical selfish Americanism at its finest. “I’m too important to wear a mask, screw everyone else. My convenience is more important than everyone else’s health.”
Pickens,
Do you also to refuse to wear a seatbelt when flying as a passenger on commercial carriers in public airspace or when seated in a moving vehicle on public roads?
Joe Biden didn’t do nothing, except increase unemployment, in the US, in ruling by fiat.
What the CDC did was basically remind the airlines about this thing called the Americans with Disabilities Act. They seem to forget it and play fast and loose with it from time to time. Sure it gets taken advantage of by some but that does not justify anyone in the the sanctioned discrimination against the disabled. This is no different than prohibiting the airlines from stopping a person missing a limb from flying because it’s slightly more inconvenient for the airline. Step back and take a look at the big picture here. Instead of saying someone who has a health condition that prevents them from wearing a mask should drive, how about say well if they won’t wear a mask on my flight, I will drive or wait for another flight. Discrimination is wrong no matter the basis, not just when it’s against you.
Just because the sardine canners want to get around the mandate, does not mean that everybody has to go stupid, or is it the foregone conclusion of this article that anyone that steps in a plane is a brain dead idiot? Just use your brain for a change!
It is a LAW across the USA that you must wear a seatbelt. NO ARGUMENT THERE!
It is SUPER ILLEGAL to drink alcohol freely, as much as you want to drink, but YOU GAVE UP YOUR RIGHT TO DRIVE.
The sheer stupidity of not wearing a mask right now (after 430,000 fellow Americans are dead, and plenty more on the way), to look upon mask wearing when distancing rules of only 6ft as some sort of plot to to take away your freedom.
The USA ranks 17th most FREE country in the world. We are 17 points away from being the most free country in the world.
This simple and intelligent mask wearing for another year or so is simply NOTHING to be upset about. In fact NOT wearing a mask is about the most un-American thing you can do.
Don’t be selfish and wear a mask on airlines so you don’t get other people sick. By doing so hopefully this virus will finally go away soon. If not then the longer we have to wear a mask. So be nice to others and wear a mask.