The union representing United Airlines flight attendants has admonished them not to “cede authority” onboard to anti-maskers and that non-confrontation is not an option.
Flight Attendants Urged Never To “Cede Authority Onboard” By Ignoring Passengers Who Refuse To Wear Mask
United Airlines has largely been out of the news this year concerning mask compliance in part because it has taken a different approach than other airlines in enforcement. Its three-step policy for handling passengers who refuse to wear masks prioritizes deescalation and ultimately results in the passenger being ignored rather than the flight diverting.
A recent diversion on a Houston to Honolulu flight over what began as a mask issue likely does not signify a change in policy, as the passenger onboard also refused to remain in his seat and became aggressive with flight attendants in the galley.
> Read More: Pair Of Diversions On United Airlines Suggests Change In Approach To Mask Enforcement
But the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents more than 25,000 flight attendants at United, has told flight attendants they need to step it up in enforcing the mask ordinance.
A memo first links masks to seatbelts and also laments that masks have become such a political issue:
Unfortunately, mask compliance has become a politically polarized issue and not everyone sees these requests as a matter of safety. As a result, a simple request to a passenger to wear their mask properly can become contentious in the blink of an eye. As Flight Attendants, we understand what is expected of us. We know that asking a passenger to wear a mask is the same type of safety and regulatory request as asking them to fasten their seatbelt. And, we know, passengers are expected to comply with requests of the crew.
Recognizing that masks are political is an important first step: there is simply no avoiding that. I do find it interesting that masks are put on the same level as seatbelt, when the type of mask you wear makes all the difference in the world. Most cloth masks are the equivalent of wearing a seatbelt but not fastening it…pointless and ineffective.
It continues to puzzle me that flight attendants have not insisted that surgical masks be mandated if the number one concern is safety.
The memo next tells flight attendants they must enforce the mask ordiance, not leave it to their colleagues:
Let’s remember that as a crew we work together and support each other. All crew members on a flight must step up, as we do every day, to enforce our safety regulations in a collaborative way and keep people safe and to support each other in our work. t’s never only one Flight Attendant’s job to remind people about mask compliance. We are all in this together and each one of us needs to do our part.
While it is not an option to decide that you are not going to enforce mask compliance; all Flight Attendants are responsible for mask compliance and it’s also very easy to understand the reticence to broach the subject. We all ask ourselves, is the confrontation worth it? What are the implications of my efforts to use reason to ask someone to comply with federal law? More importantly, will I be supported by management if I make this request?
Those rhetorical questions are important – flight attendants must carefully balance the enforcement of the federal mandate (note, it’s a mandate, not a law – there is a difference) with the imperative to avoid another David Dao incident (one reason United no longer provisions duct tape onboard).
In my own travels on United, I’ve certainly noted varying degrees of mask enforcement and reminding flight attendants not to dump that enforcement role on one colleague is quite reasonable.
Memo: If You Don’t Enforce Masks, You Are Put Of The Problem
In particularly harsh language, the memo tells flight attendants that if they are not vigorously enforcing the mask mandate, they are part of the problem:
We do all need to be clear with each other. It’s about an honest conversation. If you do not address non-compliance on the airplane when you see it, you are not fulfilling your role as a safety professional. And, as difficult as it may be to accept, when we don’t, we are becoming a part of the problem. We simply cannot cede our authority onboard the aircraft, ever. And, we must continue to demand through our daily actions and our commitment to safety that management support our efforts.
“Ceding authority onboard” may sound like a stereotypical flight attendant overstatement of their purpose onboard, but it is a valid point – if flight attendants do not enforce mask rules, passengers onboard (reasonably) would be less inclined to follow other rules.
Ultimately, the union urges solidarity:
By standing together on this issue, by requiring compliance and never ceding our authority on the aircraft, we become collectively and individually more capable of meeting not only the mask compliance issues, but the vast challenges we face daily in our current work environment.
Only time will tell, however, if this memo will push more flight attendants on United to actively patrol for mask compliance.
CONCLUSION
Flight attendants at United Airlines have been warned not to cede their authority onboard to anti-maskers who refuse to comply. The devil is in the details, however, as flight attendants have also been told by management not to escalate conflict onboard. With masks serving as a hot-button dividing line in the current culture wars, the “damned if you, damned if you don’t” approach leaves flight attendants with two unappealing options.
(H/T: Paddle Your Own Kanoo // image: United)
Matthew, if I had told you five years ago, that the vast majority of the posts on your blog five years later mostly would consist of reports of passengers’ “air rage”, and the airlines’ “service persons” cracking down on passengers freedoms and/or kicking them off flights more frequently than they credit points to their frequent flyer accounts, would you have laughed or cried?
Sad world indeed, Roland!
He’s talking what you choose to write about. LaLF has become the Jerry Springer of airline blogs, but that’s why I love it. Gary is more Phil Donahue. And Lucky is Ricki Lake.
(I know)
My response:
Can you please use spellcheck when you write an article. I have never seen so many typos in one article.
Plus, get your facts correct.
The airlines not flight attendants, make the rules what type of face covering is allowed.
Thank you.
Flight attendants have a powerful lobbying voice – obviously it would be an airline (or government) that makes this decision, but flight attendants have been the catalyst for many safety changes in the past. In this case, if this is genuine concern and not smoke/mirrors, than FAs should be concerned about mask types and the AFA should be pushing United and other airlines to further restrict the type of mask that can be worn. Right, Typo Queen?
Why is the AFA encouraging confrontations with passengers?
I think the way United has handled the mask policy is working, they have their flight attendants ask the passenger to wear the mask properly and if they don’t comply flight attendants fill out a report and let management deal with the passenger which could result in a passenger being banned from United for a period of time. I understand the importance of mask I wear a mask even though I’m fully vaccinated but not to cede authority is the wrong approach and will lead to confrontations with customers which is something it looks like United is trying to avoid or at least avoid the public scrutiny. I don’t blame United for wanting to stay out of the spot light because any confrontation between United and a passenger and the new media will immediately recall the Dr. Dao situation which really wasn’t United’s fault at all. The AFA should be working with United Airlines on sensible ways to gain compliance not tell their membership not to cede authority.
Requiring surgical mask to board an aircraft is a moot point, it is something that will never happen in this country. The issue of masking has become so toxic, so political that any changes to the current policy will only feed the flames and put flight attendants in a more precarious position than the one they’re already in. This isn’t Europe this is America and unfortunately the surgical mask ship has already set sail.
Once a crew member cedes authority on ANY issue, disruptive passengers will take that as a sign of weakness and will tend to push the limit.
Despite the mask order being a “mandate” and not a “law”, it is against the law to “… threaten, intimidate, or interfere with a crew member in the performance of the crew member’s duties.”
It is one thing for a intimidate, threaten or otherwise interfere with crew member performing their job functions. United’s Honolulu diverted because the passenger became aggressive with the crew member which no passenger should do. The moment a passenger becomes aggressive, intimidates, threatens or interferes with a crew member then yes the pilot should divert the aircraft. Does United need to start diverting aircraft if the only offense the passenger has committed is not wear their mask properly I don’t think this is what United wants. When I look at United’s approach thus far I compare it to a police officer whose pull a person over has their driver license and plate number but then the person decides to drive off and flee. Why chase them and put others in harms way when you already have their license and their plate, with that information you have all you need. The same with United Airlines you have the passenger name, seat number the flight attendant can fill out the information on the hand held device there is no need to create a confrontation onboard a flight over a mask and there is no need to inconvenience hundreds of passengers over non mask compliance.
The AFA should not be encouraging flight attendants to be more aggressive or more authoritarian over masks when there are better ways to deal with it that does involve escalating a political issue.
I have no issues with wearing a mask from entry at departure airport until exiting arrival airport. But for the past 18 months my few flights have been between MCO and IAD, on United. I agree with the comments above that UA is handling this matter properly. But my air trips are not lengthy. A colleague of mine who has made biz trips to west Africa via CDG reports that the 30 hours one-way with a mask on the entire time actually made him ill (not with covid) upon his arrival. Not fun.
Comparing mask compliance to seatbelts is ridiculous. I have never seen anyone refuse to wear a seatbelt in well over a million miles of traveling. I wear one as I’m a coward don’t want to get banned but I understand why one would not wish to. And nothing to do with a political viewpoint. That is an American-centric point of view. I have friends in Europe – where there were no political implications – who also consider it pointless given that in stores and trains they don’t need to wear one. Airline air is probably cleaner than the airports from which one departed.
@Airfarer:
The seatbelt comparison is relevant. Seatbelts are required on airplanes, but provide nearly 0% protection during airplane crashes. Seatbelts are not required on subways, ferries, buses, or trains but they are fairly effective at reducing the death and serious injury during crashes on all non-plane modes of transportation.
Either masks (and seatbelts) are effective and should be mandated on all forms of transportation, or they should be optional.
I fly over 300,000 miles per year and regularly fly without my seatbelt on but I would never ride in my car, Lyft, Uber, etc. without a seatbelt. Why? Because, at 550 mph a seatbelt on a plane will not save me during a crash but it might in a car crash at 55 mph.
Seatbelts on planes are for pax control. They do save lives like they do in cars.
I hope I’m never sitting next to you on a plane.
The vast majority of aircraft accidents are not “fly into a mountain at 550 mph” catastrophes. In 2021, most aircraft accidents are completely survivable if you’re wearing a seat belt. Moreover, the analogy works because if you’re not wearing a seat belt, you pose a threat to others. Unless you weigh more than a drink cart, in severe turbulence you could be tossed around.
@Greg
What are you, a flight attendant? If unbelted flyers are a risk, unbelted flight attendants are exponentially more risky, because they are unbelted during most of the flight. Maybe you believe flight attendants can defy the laws of gravity and inertia that apply to paying pax?
If anything you wrote had even a shred of truth to it, flight attendants would have to be belted during the entire flight and heavy metal food carts would be banned. They are constantly up and around, even during mild to moderate turbulence.
It’s unbelted flight attendants and food carts that have caused injuries and killed pax during rough flights.
Zero unbelted passengers have ever caused a single death on any plane. But unbelted car, bus, subway, ferry, and train pax have killed and been killed.
Our nation is a mess. What’s the big deal about wearing a mask? A mask protects others if you have covid. Don’t be so selfish and make it a political issue-a disgusting political issue when it’s just an issue of health.
Not following crew member instructions I believe is a Federal offense. Inform the unruly passenger of the consequences, hand them a form stating the legalities and ask them to sign it. If the passenger continues to defy instructions, contact the local authorities at the next arrival. Once the aircraft is safely parked at the gate, make a public announcement asking all passengers to remain seated while the passenger who refused to wear a mask gets escorted off the plane by the authorities.
From the youngest age little children are taught to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze – why is this so difficult for anyone to cover their mouth with a mask ?
The Bizarre Refusal to Apply Cost-Benefit Analysis to COVID Debates, Glenn Greenwald. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-bizarre-refusal-to-apply-cost
I’m a flight attendant and I personally cannot anymore with the mask mandate, it’s passengers being jerks over asking them simply to wear a mask which they agreed to when they bought their ticket, them lecturing us over how they’re wearing it properly, or how it doesn’t work, how covid isn’t real, how they’re vaccinated, how they just took it down to drink, how its fogging their glasses, how their children can’t recognize them with it, how they can’t breathe. It’s you giving them a paper reminding them to wear it and they call you a mask nazi, covid Navi, snowflake. How you’re tired and actually scared of it getting physical because that’s how mad they get and then having several passengers pressing their call light because they “don’t feel confortable” traveling with a person that isn’t wearing their mask properly (but for drink service I guess nobody is scared of covid) but they don’t have the guts to speak to their seat mate themselves, it all gets put down on us, and if neither party is happy it’s “I’m never flying this airline again”, “this airline is the worst”, when did everyone become a child again?
Are you seriously equating pax who refuse to follow the rules with those who are following the rules and are rather understandably upset that the situation is ultimately being “dealt with” by ignoring the rule breaker at everyone else’s expense?
I have sympathy for the predicament that the FAs are being put in, but let’s not lose sight of who is actually at fault here.
Put them on the no-fly list. Such people do not deserve to fly and endanger others and create a scene that is offensive to the rest of the passengers. They knew going into the airport that masks were mandatory, not optional. These are people with inflated egos and feel they are immune to the law. Let them take Greyhound or Trailways, no flying for them.
I think United has it right here in how they are telling their crews to deal with it. You warn non compliant individuals and in the end if they simply won’t comply leave them alone.
I’ve had this happen on a few of my flights were someone didn’t want to follow the rules. So they we warned multiple times but in the end when they wouldn’t comply we simply had them met by someone from the company on arrival who informed them that they were no longer welcome to fly my airline. No diversions and no fights or anything like that onboard.
It sounds to me like the Union wants their members to be the mask Police. And that’s exactly the wrong thing for them to be doing right now. Not to mention that masks and seat belts aren’t even remotely equivalent.