Contradancer

I have a flight this coming Friday 24 September from ATL to NBO through CDG. The CDG to NBO portion is on AF and of the three operating carriers I am flying roundtrip--DL, AF, and KL--it looks to me like AF (or maybe it's the French government) has the most stringent mask policies.

The Air France web site indicates either surgical or FFP masks are acceptable and nothing else is. When I google surgical masks I get lots of hits but the details of each hit don't use the term "surgical mask". Same with FFP.

I am fully vaccinated and am not as concerned with having the best mask to protect myself (I'm guessing that would be N95) but more concerned with complying with the letter and spirit of the rule and protecting others.

I'm thinking to just go to Walgreen's or CVS and make my best guess but I thought I'd post here first to find out if anyone knows from experience what flies and what doesn't (pun not intended when I wrote it but I'll take it ) on Air France and in CDG.

MSPeconomist

IIRC FFP is just what the French call N95. Look for information in the Coronavirus and Travel, FB, AF, and France destination fora to verify this.

SUPERTRAVEL

I purchased a package of N95 masks on eBay.
They're black and they have the loops that go around the ears.
Flew AF from CPH to CDG, connecting to Delta.
Most passengers had those light blue "surgical masks" that were popular when masking first began last year.

flyinhwn

I recently flew six Air France flights over the past two months. All they require is the typical blue/yellow and white doctor's masks. This is also what they hand out to all passengers during longer flights.

MSPeconomist

CLEAR tends to hand out a packaged blue surgical guest as swag if you ask, although some airports distribute clip-on travel hand sanitizer instead.

safigan

If you're concerned, just go on Amazon and search for FFP2 masks. That's what I did, making sure that the mask itself was labeled FFP2. In my experience these masks tend to run small. But you'll almost certainly be fine with an N95 mask, which is more protective.

MSPeconomist

Just don't get an N95 with a vent unless you want to wear another (surgical in this case) mask on top of it.

Synapseturquoise

You can use the regular paper masks that are sold at Walgreens, CVS etc. We flew in July and used ones we bought at Leclerc(supermarket) in Brittany. They even provided us with the same paper masks and asked us to please replace them every 4 hours. Somehow the quality of the ones they provided was not that good for me as it triggered my allergies.

El Boocho

This was our experience as well. Just the old-school rectangular blue and white masks. In fact they gave us two on long-haul flights. In theory they wanted you to switch it halfway through (this was a few months ago so it could be different now), but there didn’t seem to be any enforcement of the mask swap out.

Utskicat

I flew YYZ-CDG-SIN Last week and honestly I didn’t find Air France overly picky at all. People had all sorts of different masks on. Basically I think they just wanted any sort of disposable purchased mask. Anyone who had cloth masks they would hand a blue surgical mask at the boarding door. Honestly it wasn’t a big deal at all.

On both flights I was in business class, there were six of us on the first flight and three of us on the second leg. On two occasions I fell asleep after eating and forgot to put my mask back on and no one ever said anything. But then again I was metres away from anybody remotely close to me so maybe that’s why they didn’t care?

On a side note, the CDG-SIN flight was a 787 and there were 19 total passengers. I still can’t fathom how airlines are running flights this empty. I talk to the captain in the galley at one point and he said there was hardly any cargo on the plane either.

keitherson

The disposable blue masks are perfectly fine. They hand out one also in flight if you're in J in their "kits sanitaires".

They just are on the lookout for cloth/fabric masks.

paperwastage

IF they have earloops, most likely they are not N95 (aka they are counterfeit, or mislabeled KN95)

I only know of two products that have one headband or strapless - most N95 have two headband straps.


Strapless (uses adhesive): https://readimask.com/

One strap: https://www.moldex.com/product/ez-on...te-respirator/



You can get legit USA-made 3M/Honeywell/... N95 for $0.80-$1.50 now(via manufacturer or authorized distributor), so don't spend $2 on KN95 (unless you think the headbands are too tight compared to earbands). Also why trust ebay

emma dog

No N95 has loops around the ears… you’ve bought fraudulent masks. An N95 has to have a perfect seal around the face and meet NIOSH testing standards. They all loop behind the head.

emma dog

the Readymask ones are fraudulent. That’s not a real NIOSH authorization code and they don’t appear on the official list of approved devices.

source: https://www2a.cdc.gov/drds/cel/cel_form_code.asp

paperwastage

it does show up? 8133?

NIOSH Certified (TC-84A-8133)
https://www2a.cdc.gov/drds/cel/cel_d...ds=50&sqlstmt=