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-   -   AS Bans Alaska State Senator After She Repeatedly Refuses to Wear a Mask (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan/2028709-bans-alaska-state-senator-after-she-repeatedly-refuses-wear-mask.html)

beckoa Nov 16, 2020 11:07 pm

AS Bans Alaska State Senator After She Repeatedly Refuses to Wear a Mask
 
From ADN:

https://www.adn.com/politics/alaska-...i-covid-masks/

sea_jeff Nov 16, 2020 11:19 pm

Covidiots. What is with the people that are so entitled that their families, our families, healthcare workers and anyone else that isn’t them in particular warrant zero consideration.

So frustrating. They must obviously believe somehow it’ll just magically disappear. :rolleyes:

Klrduks Nov 17, 2020 10:33 am

I would love it if Alaska banned her.

notquiteaff Nov 17, 2020 11:26 am


Originally Posted by Klrduks (Post 32825950)
I would love it if Alaska banned her.

Right. Defend your employees and other passengers, AS! Let the senator find some other transportation that suits her better.

nomiiiii Nov 17, 2020 11:31 am

While alaska airlines does absolutely have the right to make up its own rules, I do think they might want to consider making masks only a recommendation (not required) for in-state alaska only flights. The reason is that every other in-state small airlines do not have a mask requirement while in-flight either (lake pen air, various bush planes and so on). I've taken multiple flights within Alaska on other companies where masks weren't required nor worn by passengers, so having the requirement for in-state alaska travel puts AS at a competitive disadvantage and mostly annoys folks who don't really want to wear the mask. Well I guess due to them being a near-monopoly its not a big disadvantage but regardless, the rules are different on alaska vs other smaller instate planes.

This is independent of whether masks are a good idea or not or whatever, it is simply the reality that most people within alaska don't really care much for them and don't wear them on other in-state flights done by other companies. Alaska Airlines certainly has the right to force an extra safety step, but they can just try to match the in-state industry standard also.

notquiteaff Nov 17, 2020 11:37 am


Originally Posted by nomiiiii (Post 32826148)
While alaska airlines does absolutely have the right to make up its own rules, I do think they might want to consider making masks only a recommendation (not required) for in-state alaska only flights. The reason is that every other in-state small airlines do not have a mask requirement while in-flight either (lake pen air, various bush planes and so on).

in which case I personally would add AS to my no-fly list (everywhere, not just Intranet-state, which I am unlikely to fly) for the foreseeable future. I won’t do business with companies that don’t protect their employees, do their share to fight the pandemic, and pander to covidiots.

Fortunately I don’t think AS is stupid enough to do that.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...-guidance.html

alphaeagle Nov 17, 2020 11:51 am


Originally Posted by nomiiiii (Post 32826148)
While alaska airlines does absolutely have the right to make up its own rules, I do think they might want to consider making masks only a recommendation (not required) for in-state alaska only flights. The reason is that every other in-state small airlines do not have a mask requirement while in-flight either (lake pen air, various bush planes and so on). I've taken multiple flights within Alaska on other companies where masks weren't required nor worn by passengers, so having the requirement for in-state alaska travel puts AS at a competitive disadvantage and mostly annoys folks who don't really want to wear the mask.

This is independent of whether masks are a good idea or not or whatever, it is simply the reality that most people within alaska don't really care much for them and don't wear them on other in-state flights done by other companies. Alaska Airlines certainly has the right to force an extra safety step, but they can just try to match the in-state industry standard also.

Wow! I didn't realize that other AK airlines didn't have such a requirement. I bet that's one reason it's spread so much now to more rural areas, most of which don't have adequate medical facilities. But sure, I get that wearing a thin piece of cloth in front of the mouth is a slight inconvenience (I still have troubles with them fogging up my glasses!) Sacrificing people's lives would totally be worth it not to deal with it.

Good for those companies and people for standing up for the freedom to make selfish choices that have been shown to kill people. But not the freedom that people should be relatively safe from others, and not die from something that was preventable with cooperation from fellow humans. Which would have involved an annoying piece of cloth, yuck!

nomiiiii Nov 17, 2020 12:11 pm


Originally Posted by alphaeagle (Post 32826216)
Wow! I didn't realize that other AK airlines didn't have such a requirement.

To clarify, those airlines do have a "requirement" (i.e. on their websites they mention masks) but real-life experience from multiple interior alaska planes taken during the summer, no one enforces nor follows them. Which makes sense if you think about the demographics on who is taking these planes to remote parts of alaska for hunting and fishing.

mrow Nov 17, 2020 12:16 pm


Originally Posted by nomiiiii (Post 32826148)
While alaska airlines does absolutely have the right to make up its own rules, I do think they might want to consider making masks only a recommendation (not required) for in-state alaska only flights. The reason is that every other in-state small airlines do not have a mask requirement while in-flight either (lake pen air, various bush planes and so on). I've taken multiple flights within Alaska on other companies where masks weren't required nor worn by passengers, so having the requirement for in-state alaska travel puts AS at a competitive disadvantage and mostly annoys folks who don't really want to wear the mask. Well I guess due to them being a near-monopoly its not a big disadvantage but regardless, the rules are different on alaska vs other smaller instate planes.

This is independent of whether masks are a good idea or not or whatever, it is simply the reality that most people within alaska don't really care much for them and don't wear them on other in-state flights done by other companies. Alaska Airlines certainly has the right to force an extra safety step, but they can just try to match the in-state industry standard also.

Interesting, I didn’t realise you were only able to catch COVID if travelling out of state. I thought you could catch COVID from anyone who was infected.

pinniped Nov 17, 2020 12:43 pm

Those tiny in-state airlines probably don't connect passengers to/from the rest of the world at the scale that AS does. As long as covid is a significant risk in much of their route network, people should wear masks throughout the *entire* route network.

I'm sort of assuming that the caseloads in rural Alaska are low. You could argue that all passengers on any airline should mask up on every flight - no matter how small - and won't get any argument from me. It's a tiny inconvenience that can reduce the spread of the disease by a modest amount. It's an easy, free, zero-side-effect thing we can do right now. It continues to boggle my mind how this, of all things, became political.

EAJuggalo Nov 17, 2020 12:49 pm


Originally Posted by nomiiiii (Post 32826148)
I've taken multiple flights within Alaska on other companies where masks weren't required nor worn by passengers, so having the requirement for in-state alaska travel puts AS at a competitive disadvantage and mostly annoys folks who don't really want to wear the mask.

Alaska Airlines certainly has the right to force an extra safety step, but they can just try to match the in-state industry standard also.

While it may put them at a competitive disadvantage with some flyers, it puts them at an advantage to others. How many people are we seeing talking about switching flights from WN to DL in Dec when DL is blocking some seats and WN is not? I am much more likely to fly an airline with a strict mask requirement right now.

Why would they try to match the in-state industry standard when they are matching the national and international industry standard? Wouldn't you rather have the other airlines match those standards?

ashill Nov 17, 2020 2:05 pm


Originally Posted by pinniped (Post 32826381)
Those tiny in-state airlines probably don't connect passengers to/from the rest of the world at the scale that AS does. As long as covid is a significant risk in much of their route network, people should wear masks throughout the *entire* route network.

I'm sort of assuming that the caseloads in rural Alaska are low.

That assumption would be wrong from a casual glance at, say, the NY Times county-by-county (or census area by census area) case map. Some of the rural areas in Alaska have north of 100 daily cases per 100,000 people, consistent with the pattern pretty much everywhere else: this is no longer confined to dense urban areas.


You could argue that all passengers on any airline should mask up on every flight - no matter how small - and won't get any argument from me. It's a tiny inconvenience that can reduce the spread of the disease by a modest amount. It's an easy, free, zero-side-effect thing we can do right now. It continues to boggle my mind how this, of all things, became political.
For sure they should. Or, more precisely, all people in any place in close proximity to people outside their household should wear a mask. Airplanes don't appear to be especially good places for transmission, but there's no reason to believe they're especially safe for droplet transmission either.

PV_Premier Nov 17, 2020 2:37 pm

I'm completely mystified that 8+ months into this we are still having a debate about this topic, and furthermore, that this debate is being championed by no less than 50% of the supposed "leadership" of this country. What an absolute embarrasment.

eponymous_coward Nov 17, 2020 4:28 pm


Originally Posted by nomiiiii (Post 32826148)
I do think they might want to consider making masks only a recommendation (not required) for in-state alaska only flights. The reason is that every other in-state small airlines do not have a mask requirement while in-flight either (lake pen air, various bush planes and so on)

Aside from the "well, we should ignore good safety guidelines because following them might anger customers- sure, let's put our employees and customers at additional risk", how many of those other airlines are flying 737s that seat over 100 people in a confined space for hours at a time?

Are there any other safety guidelines you'd like Alaska to ignore, while you're at it? Maybe quit doing some maintenance? It's probably not THAT important to be safe.

chrisl137 Nov 17, 2020 4:58 pm


Originally Posted by EAJuggalo (Post 32826394)
While it may put them at a competitive disadvantage with some flyers, it puts them at an advantage to others. How many people are we seeing talking about switching flights from WN to DL in Dec when DL is blocking some seats and WN is not? I am much more likely to fly an airline with a strict mask requirement right now.

Why would they try to match the in-state industry standard when they are matching the national and international industry standard? Wouldn't you rather have the other airlines match those standards?

It also puts their crews at risk of getting covid and a) suffering from it, and b) spreading it farther. The aircraft and crews that serve the state of Alaska also fly to and around the contiguous 48.


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