Originally Posted by
garykung
That's my point - even you have FAs policing, people still do stupid things. Do you really believe that starting policing the "headphone" will resolve the problem?
1. I do think that most people obey personally directed FA orders most of the time, so it at least cuts down the problem.
2. Regarding masks, you say "people still do stupid things" but isn't it a lot fewer than if FAs didn't police? Mask compliance rates are very high. It sounds like maybe you're using "FA policing" to refer to asking/cajoling that isn't backed up by real consequences. But refusal to wear a mask does result in real consequences to the pax as you noted, hence my confusion. Indeed, in principle, disobeying any valid FA order (for rules filed by the airline with the FAA) can result in actual police/legal consequences, and even short of that, FAs and pilots have wide discretion to remove uncooperative pax from the current flight. And the knowledge that this
can happen incentivizes many more pax to comply with rules.