flytoeat

Rhetorical question? Unless you know how to eat or drink through the mask, you'll need to reposition or remove it to be able to access your mouth.

Calculon

As a grown adult, I’m confident in my ability to deal with this without much trouble. I’m gonna wing it!

dayone

Moderator Note: Please check that your posts relate to AS and its mask policy, not mask wearing in general or COVID-19. There are threads on other FT forums where such subjects are being discussed. A few off-topic posts have been deleted. Thanks.

dayone, AS Moderator.

Eastbay1K

Meanwhile, the shop that Hester Prynne used to get her clothing is wondering why it ever went out of business.
This has to be a "one size fits all" approach for AS and any other US airline. While we know that one size doesn't actually fit all (as we've all bought socks), either everyone has to wear a mask, or no one does.

ctporter

I found that at both SEA and at CHS the Hudson News types of stores had plenty of the KN95 masks for sale at $7.99. (also hand sanitizer and wipes btw). I also noticed that the AS FAs all wore masks when walking up and down aisles and serving passengers. It was interesting to see that everyone boarded with a mask. Some passengers left them on for the entire SEA RDU and RDU SEA segments of the flights (they did not take any snacks or beverages). Those like me that took beverages and snacks had our masks off while eating and drinking put them on whenever we got up to use the restroom, and put them back on again when not actively eating or drinking. I got the impression that this would be the policy enforced, have a mask on while boarding, maintain social distancing (mind your wingspan) while boarding - don't crowd the line in other words, but once seated without anyone next to you it would be ok to remove the mask especially for eating and drinking. Also, just as an FYI there are sites like ETSY that have tons of fabric masks, some plain, some very colorful designs, and some with pickets to add filters. It seems as if masks are going to be a "thing" and your mask is can be very personalized, there sure were some very interesting masks I saw going by on the flights.

PDXPremier

Are you talking about beverages and snacks distributed by the Flight Attendants or something your brought on board?

ctporter

Both, the only prohibition on brought on board items is that you cannot drink your own alcoholic beverages, just what AS serves which right now which seems to be only beer. I suspect that the reason they are not offering the little bottles of wine that they used to offer in main cabin is because no one wants to be so inelegant (gauche) as to sip from a wine bottle, but it is perfectly acceptable to sip from a beer can (LOL). Actually, kidding aside, I do not think AS is providing any cups (paper or otherwise) so even mixing your own drinks is probably not allowed during this time.

PDXPremier

Is it still just a bottle of water and Biscoff in Y or did they have anything else? With everyone bringing on a bunch of food (especially on cross country flights), I would imagine it's going to start smelling like a mall food court

ctporter

Sorry, I was in FC both ways. We were offered water or cans of beer and maybe soda (I only had water). We were given the deli pak and the snack basket came around a couple of times. I did not see what they did for main cabin.

beckoa

Anyone find Alaska Airlines themed masks yet?

Don't really want to tear up a shirt- but if there was AS fabric... perhaps some vintage AS a/c or current would work...

nomiiiii

Today started Alaska's mask requirement, took an early morning flight. I won't put the route in to not get the FAs in trouble, but it was approx 3 hour flight.

In the boarding area, 2 out of 3 check-in agents themselves had their masks on the chin, so clearly no one is serious about it (which I appreciated because I don't personally agree with the requirement anyways, it should be individual choice).

Also the checkin agents were literally reading the first-class upgrade rules on alaskaair.com to figure out if they can upgrade 2 people in the same party and seat them together and if that counts as 1 first-class slot or 2 in terms of F seat-blocking/50% full - so looks like frontline agents are still catching up to the rules.

There were about 40ish people on this flight - about 2-3 of them boarded without a mask (I presume they said something about medical condition but who knows).

As soon as boarding happened, at least the people in front of me just took the mask off one ear to let it hang the entirety of the flight (and they were never confronted by the agent). This also included an alaska agent who was flying as a passenger (I think the term is deadheading?), he had his mask just hanging around one ear, a fig-leaf to the requirement.

About 1 hour into the flight I looked around, seems like about 10-15 people (out of 40) by now had their mask hanging down at the chin. This included myself for about 20-30 minutes because I find the mask uncomfortable. I didn't see FAs confront anyone, including myself, about not being fully masked 100% throughout the flight.

So all-in-all, this was great security theater on day 1 and I am no longer afraid of this mask policy making things too uncomfortable on longer flights in US.

notquiteaff

Alaska Airlines, if you are reading this... I am not coming back until social distancing and masks are taking seriously by your employees (and passengers are *required* not just in a press release but in practice to adhere to requirements).

All my flying is purely optional and leisure.

Eastbay1K

As a passenger, I want everyone else wearing masks, from the AS employees, to the other passengers, other than the limited eating and drinking times. This isn't security theater. It is AS health policy. It needs to enforce its policy. (I'm not going to spew further on this, because it will go too far OT). If I choose to fly AS during this policy, I, as well as everyone, should expect it to be enforced.

SEA737

I think it's to be expected that this won't be super smooth from the get go. My guess is that in a few weeks AS and other airline frontline employees will enforce more strictly (and follow the rules themselves), because it'll always take some time for 1) pax to actually know the rules, 2) a twitter-rant-goes-media-story, and 3) employees to be *gently reminded* to enforce. There'll always be the holdouts, but you can bet there will be some serious form of onboard shaming when most everyone actually has a mask onboard.

nomiiiii

Well, Alaska Airlines, if you are reading this ... I will simply shift my flying to other airlines if you become too draconian about the mask policy. I find the current security theater policy for PR purposes perfectly acceptable because it puts the responsibility on individuals who want to mask up to do so without putting the onerous requirement on others.

All my flying is purely optional and leisure also.

The sentiments run both ways in this country, I don't think airlines can choose to be too draconian on this. Specially if someone is choosing to optionally fly for leisure during coronatimes, they typically have a higher risk tolerance.