Originally Posted by
nomiiiii
While alaska airlines does absolutely have the right to make up its own rules, I do think they might want to consider making masks only a recommendation (not required) for in-state alaska only flights. The reason is that every other in-state small airlines do not have a mask requirement while in-flight either (lake pen air, various bush planes and so on). I've taken multiple flights within Alaska on other companies where masks weren't required nor worn by passengers, so having the requirement for in-state alaska travel puts AS at a competitive disadvantage and mostly annoys folks who don't really want to wear the mask.
This is independent of whether masks are a good idea or not or whatever, it is simply the reality that most people within alaska don't really care much for them and don't wear them on other in-state flights done by other companies. Alaska Airlines certainly has the right to force an extra safety step, but they can just try to match the in-state industry standard also.
Wow! I didn't realize that other AK airlines didn't have such a requirement. I bet that's one reason it's spread so much now to more rural areas, most of which don't have adequate medical facilities. But sure, I get that wearing a thin piece of cloth in front of the mouth is a slight inconvenience (I still have troubles with them fogging up my glasses!) Sacrificing people's lives would totally be worth it not to deal with it.
Good for those companies and people for standing up for the freedom to make selfish choices that have been shown to kill people. But not the freedom that people should be relatively safe from others, and not die from something that was preventable with cooperation from fellow humans. Which would have involved an annoying piece of cloth, yuck!