Originally Posted by
johan rebel
I don't keep track, and am too lazy to go back and check, but my pandemic flight count certainly stands at 50+. Various airlines; short, medium & long haul; international and domestic; day & night. Despite pushing the boundaries, I can't recall any mask issues other than when boarding an AF longhaul I was asked to change my cloth mask for one of those blue & white ones that everybody knows is 1001% effective against Covid, TBC, hepatitis, the plague, and everything else nasty out there. On that very same flight the purser at some point politely asked me to put my mask on at the very moment I had unscrewed the cap of bottle of water and was about to take a sip. Bad timing.
I'm at a similar count I believe, 50% Y, 50% J, although roughly 90% AF/KLM, the rest spread thin over SK, UX, IB, LH and others. Never even once was told to put my mask back on, however witnessed it dozens of times happening to other pax, as recently as Sunday evening on an AF CDG->CPH flight.
Then again, I kept it on
at all times* and unscrewed the cap from the bottle before taking the mask off. At some point - must have been hilarious if someone saw - I tried to drink from my bottle of "pre departure drink" (Spa still water) with the mask still on. I only realized just in time, when the first drop of water hit the mask - luckily didn't empty the bottle onto my clothes.
*at all times: I usually do bring a large bag of Duyvis "crac-a-nut" paprika coated peanuts with me on TATL flights. There's always this moment where I got so sick and tired of the mask on long haul... At least I could pop a peanut into my mouth every time a FA walks past and pretend to be eating them. I usually keep up with this charade for an hour or so, before getting tired of playing the "pretend to be eating game" and putting the mask back on. 100% success rate so far😄 - nobody seemed to care much.
Originally Posted by
johan rebel
In the many conversations I had with FAs, masks and mandates were a given topic. I heard plenty of anecdotes. My favorite one is about four pax who boarded a KLM flight with a generous supply of lolipops. Their plan was suck on them continuously, so they could claim to be "eating". The purser said that she was very easygoing when it came to masks, but she drew the line at that one.
That is hilarious. I don't think I would go to such lengths to get rid of the mask mid-flight (although my peanut game is less obvious yet just as effective).