I flew yesterday for the first time since the mask mandate was lifted…it was a bit surreal, to be honest…but strangely satisfying.
My Airplane Trip Without A Mask…Two Years In The Making
I am glad to see the mask mandate come to an end. At the same time, I respect those who choose to continue to wear a mask in crowded public settings like airports or airplanes. As I mentioned earlier, I am happy to wear a mask if someone asks me to sincerely, particularly if they are immunocompromised.
I was originally scheduled to travel midday from Los Angeles to New Orleans via Houston, but wanted to maximize my time at home so I changed to a redeye via San Francisco. That gave me several extra hours with my family, but it did mean I lost my upgrade and did not even wind up with EconomyPlus (extra legroom economy) on the Los Angeles – San Francisco leg.
It also meant it took me 90 minutes to travel 18 miles to LAX…
Upon reaching LAX, I noticed that one CLEAR agent was wearing a mask and one was not. Three of the four TSA agents I dealt with were not wearing masks, while one had one on under his nose and mouth.
My first real interaction was at the United Club at LAX. There, the ladies at the check-in desk told me that it was so nice to see me smile and made a joke that I actually have teeth. We shared a laugh…it was a kind moment. Neither was wearing a mask.
Inside the lounge, the cleaning staff, a demographic who has been hit hardest by the pandemic, continued to wear masks. Very few passengers had masks on; I’d say less than 10%.
My flight to San Francisco was delayed due to bad weather, but we finally boarded 45 minutes late. I had an aisle seat in row 23 and was among the last to board. I noticed that roughly half the plane had masks on, which was not surprising considering this was a flight between the blue cities of LA and San Francisco.
The three flight attendants onboard did not wear masks, nor did the pilots.
One exchange struck me most of all. As I was stepping off my flight, I smiled at one of the the FAs standing by the door and said it is so nice to see her face. A big smile spread across her face and she responded that it was nice to see my face as well.
I fly a whole lot and this was really the first time in two years I’ve seen the face of a United flight attendant. It was lovely. All three flight attendants were lovely. Face-to-face interaction has been greatly missed. I do believe we’ve been too quick to dismiss its importance as human beings.
Since it appeared my upgrade would not clear, I used Priority Pass to have dinner at Mustards Grill at SFO, breaking my diet to have a cheeseburger (I left most of the French Fries).
I then boarded the flight to New Orleans where we faced another delay. The captain, without a mask, came out of the flight deck and provided an update to everyone.
Flight attendants were not wearing masks. I’d say about 1/3 of the passengers on this flight were wearing a mask.
I tossed and turned from my economy class bulkhead seat and we finally landed in New Orleans…my red eyes proving I had just stepped off a redeye.
Before heading into town, I stopped at The Club and got some work done and had breakfast. Lounge staff were wearing masks, but very few lounge patrons were.
My Lyft driver into town was not wearing a mask, nor was the staff at my hotel.
CONCLUSION
With full flights and no masks, travel now seems so much back to “normal.” I was happy to leave my mask in my pocket and thankful that there were no issues onboard: everyone was respectful of one another.
Finally, I state once again that I do take seriously that my decisions not only impact me, but others. I insist upon respecting those who continue to wear masks, even if it is done out of fear. We have asked for months for the courtesy to make up our own minds about masks: that means some can choose to continue to wear them.
Have you flown since the mask mandate was lifted? What was your experience like?
Flew out of MSY Tuesday morning and no FA’s had masks and maybe 20% max of passengers. There is no easy way to say this but I clearly noticed the majority of those still wearing masks were black. I wonder if others are seeing the same and I wonder why? There were early reports they were among the most resistant to get the vaccine. Maybe this is contributing to the enhanced mask wearing?
Or what I observed was just a minor abnormally in a small sample size.
The government wants to take your happiness away. For your own good, of course.
That said, I’ve gotten used to just hitting up a lounge to grab “free” mediocre-to-decent grub and have not had a real cheeseburger in an airport like that burger.
It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.
And yet you fly without one? Follow the science.
“Follow the science” is not the same as “follow the government scientists.” There remains almost no data suggesting that airplanes are a vector for spread or that anything other than properly fitted N95/KN95 masks do anything to reduce spread. People are and should be free to choose to wear a mask, but acting as if choosing not to is unscientific or immoral is intellectually dishonest.
Joe don’t forget this is the same dude who sued some airline about a mistake fare years ago (what was it Swiss airlines?). And clearly had a settlement in which he was not allowed to talk about it cause after 50 posts crying about it we didn’t hear a peep.. I wouldn’t worry about what goes through this guys head he’s not thinking clearly
And you lived to write about it. WOW. As did everyone else. Nobody cares about your beloved chin diapers Chivas. Ya’ll covid cultists gotta give it up. IT’S OVER!
Maybe over the past 2 years some people have decided they enjoy not getting sick, and that wearing a mask for a few hours is an acceptable trade off in order to avoid a week of a miserable cold. The Hepa filter on the airplane is great but it does nothing when the person next to you is hacking up their lung and the virus filled air reaches your nose before it gets to the filter.
If there’s truly somebody sitting next to you that’s “hacking up a lung” then 1) you need to move to another seat 2) that person needs to be removed from the plane and 3) a silly paper mask wouldn’t protect you from that kind of acute close up exposure anyway, so you’re already sick and infected and probably gonna die, just like you see in the Hollywood zombie movies…..only it’s real life, not a Hollywood zombie movie, so stop living in a movie world and wake up to the real world….nobody ever died from Covid or any other member of the mild coronavirus family, they are common viruses been around forever that the majority of healthy human immune systems can easily detect and adapt to, only someone with a weak immune system that’s already compromised by multiple pre-existing conditions would have trouble fighting it off. So, if you smoked all your life, overate, became obese, got diabetes and failed to exercise don’t fault the rest of world for your own bad choices and deviant behavior. Wear a silly mask, put a bag over your head, whatever makes you feel better, but don’t force your personal preferences on the rest of us educated folks.
Yes, Robert, educated by who? In one study in England, 9% of the Covid deaths had no pre-existing medical conditions. Covid is not like other coronaviruses. The others do not attack the brain and other organs. Please get educated. Lat time I checked, there is no long cold or long flu, but there is long Covid.
Wow – you truly are a horrendous prick
A mask is a very simple, cheap and easy step to take to stay safe during a pandemic.
When they go over the safety rules before a flight, they show what to do in the event of a drop in air pressure. Oxygen Masks, yes, masks, will drop down. The instructions are to put them on. They do not say “we recommend that you put this mask on but it’s your choice.” Nobody has ever complained about this.
Driving down the highway, there are overpasses with fences along them. The fences are to prevent things from falling onto the cars traveling below. They are a mask for large objects. Some things may fall by accident and some people throw rocks. The objects that fall could kill a driver going underneath. You may have driven under them countless times and never saw them stop something from falling. You may have driven under ones without a fence. You may have driven under one when something fell off, but it didn’t hit you. Yet I have never heard of anybody complaining about those fences. They are there for public safety.
The other day I saw a truck carrying a large load of dirt. There was a tarp over the dirt, functioning like a mask for the dirt. Some dirt still flew out of the sides, but not much. Without the mask a lot of dirt would have flown off and could have covered peoples’ windshields and caused an accident.
This list goes on and on. What is so difficult about wearing a mask for a few hours to protect you and your fellow passengers from a potential disease?
I am so happy for you. If you want to share your address I will happily ship you all my leftovers masks that I don’t plan to use anymore. Heard from so many people not wearing a mask:” it is great to see your face.” That alone is enough to make me never wear a mask again.
There’s a lot of people that should remain in masks because it’s not so good to see their faces.. probably about 90% of people
I am happy to see everyone’s faces. That is called life. If I wanted to live masked I would move to countries where women cannot show their faces. See people smiling is priceless. But you can keep your mask on. You probably never smiled in your entire life.
I smile plenty, but I don’t get a kick out of someone I don’t know being happy. As long as you aren’t doing anything to negatively effect me, that’s all I need.
Yes, it’s lovely to see smiles and faces! It’s not so lovely to catch covid. The mask mandate was put into place so we could continue to travel and live without putting ourselves and others at risk of catching covid. It was not put there to prevent us from living. Quite the opposite.
If people weren’t so reluctant about masking the pandemic would have probably died down much sooner and we could then go maskless. It’s the antimaskers and antivaxers keeping us in masks.
from seatballs to fences and tarps.
seatbelts*
So much bias shown in such little time. Blue cities, masks out of fear, yeah yeah we get it – you are one of those “I’m not your regular conservative ” conservative who thinks he’s not biased but somehow shows so much of it in a quick blog post.
Of course I am biased. We all are. But your labels are superficial.
If you sit down next to someone on a plane that is visibly sick will you put on a mask?
If you were visibly sick, would you be on a plane? That’s probably the last place someone visibly sick should be.
Key word “should”. People fly sick all the time. I’m talking tissue in hand, red nose, sounding like they have a clothespin over their nose. You’ve never run into that on a plane?
You should talk to a few of my very liberal friends. So liberal that they attended the Democratic convention, had yard signs and still have B_____n bumper stickers on their cars. One of them have a son on my son’s class. Every time someone on the kid inner circle tested positive for Covid they decided as a family to not get the kid tested. No symptoms, life goes on. On one of these events, my son decided to get tested and although he had absolutely no symptoms he was positive so missed school for a week. We did the right thing but out liberal friend kept his kid at school.
The second one is my neighbor. Loves B_____n and is the first one in line for every booster shot Lord Fauci releases. Takes his family of 4 to Disney Woke in California. Entire family gets sick, they have all symptoms of Covid but hey…. who wants to be on a quarantine in a hotel. They all flew sick back home and once they landed they got home and tested. All positive. For some reason his family is one of those that although fully vaccinated they felt the worst of Covid and were down for almost 2 weeks at home. So, you see how minds work. Do what I say, not what I do.
Haha you sure love your nicknames for everything. I would never argue that there aren’t plenty of hypocrites that identify as liberal, and they certainly make it more difficult to bash Republicans with that behavior. My guess is your friend that got sick was a bit more careless than he let’s on.
I’m not living like your neighbor with the N95 in the car, but Ive had 3 pfizer doses and mask where I think I should and I haven’t had even a stuffy nose since 2019. I fly once or twice a month and always mask on the plane. But traveling for work I’m obligated to go out to dinners so I’ll eat in a restaurant, and like I said so far so good.
My brother thinks masks are useless and got 1 j&j shot. He went on one business trip last year, didn’t wear a mask where he wasn’t required and got covid. So there’s my anecdote.
@Matthew: just boarded a Delta plane in LAX. Terminal 3 Delta which apparently is new (at least to Delta) as Uber got to T2 and there people directing Delta passengers to T3. Absolutely not a single TSA wearing a mask. Visited the spanking new Delta lounge (I was told it opened yesterday) and it ia probably the most beautiful lounge I have seen in the US. Beautiful decor, outside area, great food. Maybe 10% of people in the lounge wearing masks mostly people serving and cleaning in the lounge. Now at the terminal, maybe 30% wearing masks with the stupid announcers with a recorded audio saying federal law requires masks all time so lots of confusion among passengers. Delta gate agents had no masks. FAs had no masks. Among 20 first class passengers, 2 had masks on. Overall plane around 20% with masks.
I flew TPA-PHX yesterday. Roughly 10% of passengers wore masks. No crew members wore them. Great to see faces and feel human. Side note: how did you get lounge access on arrival?
Many Priority Pass lounges offer access on arrival (restaurants too)
Good to know. I was under the impression that the benefit only applied when departing. I’ll have to see if this applies at Mise en Plase TPA (my home airport).
In the middle of a DFW-EWR-LAX-DFW blog boondoggle as we speak. I have to admit, doing this series of flights maskless is such a relief. Mask usage was probably 15% at DFW, 20% DFW-EWR, 1!3 in deep blue New Jersey, and 25% EWR-LAX. Clearly the public is done, regardless of what that AP push poll tried to insinuate. Funny thing is the people that seem happiest to be done with masks are the FAs on this EWR-LAX transcon…
For the records – I’ve seen zero evidence of hostility towards mask wearers contrary to some of the social media reports circulating.
Mid flight from LAX to MSP. Absolutely no hostility to anyone wearing a mask. BTW, I mentioned there were 2 people masked in first class. They are both now unmasked savoring a big meal served on first class. Apparently Covid is in time out. Also, kudos to Delta. Meal options on first class were awesome. All served on real plates with real silverware. I got a salmon with quinoa and cauliflower salad that was fantastic. Simple, tasty and very healthy.
Sadly DL was still playing hygiene theater DFW-MSP a couple weeks back and offered nothing but Biscoff. But I did quite enjoy the pumpkin ravioli UA served EWR-LAX in Premium Plus today.
It’s just under 900 mi, I don’t remember how it was in 2019 but I don’t think that route would get a hot meal again.
I too have not witnessed any hostility to those who still choose to wear masks.
In fact I respect their decision even if it is not the decision I make for myself.
I am very disappointed at Matthew for having such poor medical judgment. Tired of wearing masks? That’s not a reason to stop. Should surgeons rip off their masks because they are tired of wearing them during surgery? Should airline pilots just ignore ATC because ATC slows them down? Just jet up to 35,000 and in the direction they want, hell with ATC.
The pandemic is still with us. The way people are acting is worse than people acted 100 years ago. It is like there is no Covid. Complete disregard for safety except 45% of people have received a booster. That is like the Department of Defense getting rid of all weapons except one type of fighter, like the F-16. F-16 and no tanker aircraft, no tanks, no ships, no ICBM’s, no sidearms, no grenades, etc.
Terrible.
Did you read my post about my neighbor that has been vaccinated with every shot Lord Fauci has released? He got hit pretty bad by Covid. There is no vaccinated vs unvaccinated, boosted vs non boosted. Covid will never go away so you are suggesting we keep masks forever? Move to China and you will be happy there.
Traffic accidents are not going away. So why don’t people rip off their seat belts? No vaccine is 100%. Mumps, measles, polio, hepatitis, all not 100%. Neither are the Covid vaccines.
Pandemics do end. Look at the 1918 Spanish flu. It ended. So people shouldn’t be impatient and give up early. What if Britain gave up early in World War II? (I’m sick and tired of Luftwaffe bombs, let’s just stop sending Spitfires after them and stop using anti-aircraft guns…)
Look at AIDS. Say “I’m tired of wearing a condom”? Do that and you can get AIDS and die.
This pandemic is over *and* has been over and *and* really never began. COVID never met the actual definition of a pandemic.. and/or the CDC changed their definition of the word pandemic along the way, like they did for the word vaccine.
Either way please visit any airport and take any flight to see the percentage of people that are wearing masks. this is the percentage that you are in when it comes to masking.
the losing side. we’re sorry but game over.
derek, if people like you were in charge during the Spanish Flu we would still be having mask mandates for the seasonal flu today.
By the way, the spanish flu got weaker and weaker, just like this covid. Weaker with every variant.
“Lord Fauci”
Turn off Fox News you jagoff
“Wow – you truly are a horrendous prick” That’s your earlier comment. Oh the angry liberals. God forbid you don’t agree with Them. Simply cannot accept the fact that someone may have a differing opinion from you as you wrap yourself in your cloak of self righteousness. Jesus you must be a miserable human being. bet your gobs of fun at a party
We hope you have made arrangements for someone to keep publishing the blog in case you die of covid.
And nonsense like this is why no one believes The Vid is dangerous anymore. Instead of saying healthy vaccinated people like Matt might get sick, you go to the very minimal death threat. Even far left scientists know he is at next to zero risk of dying from Covid.
Total clown and you know it. Now back to cleaning my bathrooms buddy, I don’t pay you to post nonsense, I pay you to clean.
Dollar store Debit.
wow, the maskers will never stop.. let me guess.. the polypropylene and minuscule fibers that are in so many masks.
it isn’t from your mask, right?
it’s from.. Putin,
right?
>>
ScienceDirect : Detection of microplastics in human lung tissue using μFTIR spectroscopy. Highlights
A] Microplastics were identified in all regions of the human lungs using μFTIR analysis.
B] Polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate fibres were the most abundant.
C] The results support inhalation as a route of MP exposure.
I was in Hawaii when this all suddenly broke, so 1 inter-island flight on Hawaiian Airlines then HNL-ORD-BZN, all maskless, going to the Hawaiian Premier club and United clubs. I’d say about 15-20% of people were wearing masks–all ethnicity. I do remember saying to one of the flight attendants how lovely it was to see her smile without a mask. I supported masks and social distancing throughout the pandemic but have been done for over a month since the numbers came down. I was quite surprised how it unfolded. The pandemic is on its way out despite the media still hyping it and there has to be an end to its controls, too, including all the testing coming back into the USA.
two mask segments back to back on NBC News tonight.. what a clown show. toeing the line. Kirby at 6:22.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka4HQqt1H5k
to be clear, Kirby and Isom aren’t the clowns in this, thank god. about time we heard more pointed remarks.
And I suppose Kirby and isom are ready to give back the billions in aid they got to keep from going under. Otherwise The only thing they should be saying is “what can I do for you Mr. President?”
I am delighted that face masks are no longer required for air travel. Even more enjoyable has been the howls of anguish from those who still want to make others wear masks.
You can still wear your mask if you want to, n-95’s are a dime a dozen, you can even wear two or three.
I’m on a flight from SNA > IAH right now and all of the flight attendants are wearing masks but very few passengers are.
I just flew out of EWR on United yesterday and was surprised that about a quarter of passengers and staff were masked. Admittedly I was too but for those of us who travel outside the US for work, we now have to face increased risk of testing positive and quarantine before being let back into our own damn country. I was all for the mask and test requirements but it makes no sense to drop the mask mandate but keep the test on entry requirement.
Yes we would like this to be over with
HOWEVER that is not the reality. People are still dying from Covid. Hospital beds are filled up, surgeries are being cancelled because of staff getting covid. So your need and desire not to wear a mask seems to override your sense of empathy. Was it really that much of a hardship to wear a mask?? Ukranians fleeing they own country are experiencing real hardship. So wear a mask you crybabies and protect others.
Hello Matt. First off, my relatives in Odessa are still ok (for now.) None want to come to the states despite invitations. We will keep the option open. I have 80K worth of United points available which should cover at least two one-way trips for emergency purposes between IAD and RZE.
Secondly, I thought you’d appreciate my “mask” story on my trip last year to Ukraine and Poland. I was being extra cautious because while I don’t fret too much about COVID itself (I have an excellent doctor), I didn’t want to be inconvenienced. So of course my wife goes out with a friend to a shopping mall and catches it. She was stuck in Poland in quarantine and drove our friends insane as she got cabin fever. No serious symptoms which cleared up in 2 days and my daughter and I didn’t catch it despite sleeping with her.
And that’s the only reason I might wear a make in certain travel situations: If there’s any mandates in place that might mean inconvenience I’ll try to reduce my exposure but largely I don’t mind. I think exercise, full vitamin regimen, and lots of fruit juice matters as much as masks. I drink lemon juice almost straight now.