Originally Posted by
Kacee
This has nothing to do with UA, it's a TSA directive, and all US carriers are required to comply.
TSA SD-1544-21-02A
As with all airlines, enforcement levels depend on the particular crew.
While the directive may not be airline specific, where it comes to the policing of the policy during food/beverage consumption, UA seems to be on a very different level from most of the others.
At least in premium cabins flying on AA, B6, and DL, I'd say it's relatively common for passengers to remove their masks, or drop them below the chin during food/beverage service consumption without re-masking between individual sips/bites. I've yet to see a crew on any of these airlines ask the passenger to replace their mask during food/beverage consumption. Things might be different in the back, I'm not really sure. YMMV.