kennycrudup

I see you've missed my emphasis.

More and more places are pushing this BS on us now anyway; I'd have to get something eventually- might as well make it truly useful.

PAX62

You are assuming every passenger is a solo traveler that won't be seated together. They are not.

ave1024

What does solo have to do with anything? I am ticketed on sunday's flight from PBI to ISP. They told me they have just over 100 seats sold. Plane seats 143. 36 seats are blocked off in the front and back.

Does it make a difference if its just over 100 single passengers or its a group of 100 college kids on a class trip?

They also haven't flown from BWI or PBI in days. Do you really think this plane won't be anything short of jam packed? Might even make the news. Heard it here first.

expert7700

Blocking just enough to leave middles open still may have several middle seats filled by strangers:

-solo passenger may board early and KNOW (from press release or gate may say spread out only 79 our of 137 onboard)... so they plop down in the middle seat as a "throne" to try for the whole row....

-A solo passenger boards early in the window or aisle. Later in boarding, a husband and wife who want to sit next to each other spot the 2 empties....
​​​​
-People tend to crowd towards the front half of the plane

//I still applaud Southwest for this because unlike other carriers, Southwest is actually giving up even a CHANCE of a load factor over 60-70%. As tempting as it may be to consolidate into fewer, more-full or jam packed flights a day, they are not doing so!

tusphotog

If it’s causing you so much consternation, don’t fly.

Loose Cannon

NOT GOOD. If this was to be done it should have been done from the get go, not now. This is sort of like trying to close the barn door after almost all of the animals have already escaped. Wearing a mask for a short time like when going into a store is one thing. Wearing a mask for an entire flight especially a longer flight is another. I don't think that breathing in all that CO2 would be good especially if you have to wear the mask for the entire duration of a transcon (e.g. BWI-LAX) or even an midcon (e.g. DAL-LAX) flight.

The new mask requirement also begs some questions:

1)Will pax who have medical or psychological conditions making wearing masks inadvisable be exempt?
2)Would the ADA mandate that such pax be exempt?
3) What proof or documentation would pax have to supply regarding a medical or psychological conditions to qualify for an exemption and be allowed to fly?
4)If a pax was to wear the mask and subsequently become ill and a causal link was established between the wearing of the mask and the illness (and the pax wore the mask ONLY because of being told to in order to fly) would that pax have grounds for lawsuit?
5) At what point will the pax be required to don the mask and at what point will the pax be permitted to remove the mask?
6) Has whoever at Southwest considered and promulgated the upcoming mask requirement considered that some pax could experience adverse health effects from wearing the mask particular if pax are required to keep the mask on for the entire duration of the flight?
7) If a pax put on the mask as required but experienced adverse physical (e.g. breathing issues) or mental (e.g. claustrophobia) effects then what? Would the pax be permitted to remove the mask? Or would the flight be diverted?
8) Since Southwest suspended inflight service will pax be permitted to consume any food/drink they brought onboard? Doing so would necessitate removing the mask.
9) What would happen if a pax wore a Guy Fawkes mask or something similar?
10) How many weeks or months will this new mask policy last?

SSF556

all very valid and thanks for posting

once a mask is handled it should be discarded and replaced with a new mask. Will SW provide me with a new mask.

also what if I was eating the entire flight? Lets say I had a bag of popcorn and wanted to casually take my time like I always do. Is the FA going to monitor my eating habits.

this is purely optics at this point and is meaningless

NoStressHere

LOTS of questions that will need time to shake out. Heck, the saving/not saving seat issue has been around for years and is still being discussed - LOL!

As to those trying to do the math... there is another way a few more can be boarded and still have empty seats. Any families of 3 (or 6) would of course take the middle seat. One has to assume they would not stop that from happening... except for the 1% of power hungry flight crew that exists on all airlines.

trouble747

As there seems to be a bit of confusion:


https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...ace-cover.html

This isn't a PR stunt. It's the CDC's recommended practice for all individuals in places where physical distancing is impractical.

Loose Cannon

In regards to seating I imagine that families/households would want to sit together even if it means taking middle seats.

LegalTender

Coming to the airport earlier will increase exposure times.

screeton

As one who wears a mask most of the day during my professional duties, I find some of these comments laughable, others worse than that. Health effects of breathing all that CO2?? ADA concerns?? Seriously??? Posters on this site used to talk about inexperienced travelers Ma and Pa Kettles bringing all family belongings including the kitchen sink, all to be stuffed overhead while other passengers waited during boarding. Are some of the most vocal complainers about masks related to the proverbial Ma and Pa?

You are not going to suffocate, your neighbor will be happier to see you masked, get over it. Southwest made the right choice, and by being proactive they are going to make passengers feel safer and thus build ridership back faster, which is the correct choice for all of us.

PS - if those orange oxygen masks should fall from above, it IS permissible to remove your anti-covid mask and replace it with the O2 mask. Do flight attendants need to add that detail to their pre-flight safety spiel?

storewanderer

The first thing I noticed when people started wearing masks is they started to violate social distancing rules and get within a foot or two of you in retail stores. This is not okay.

Now we have all these makeshift masks, bandanas, which are improperly made and do not in some cases even cover the nose. They are of thin material and air goes right through them.

Then we have the touching of the mask. When you touch your mask to put it on, you need to wash your hands because otherwise that mask you are contaminating it. And when you touch that mask to take it off that mask is now compromised and dirty because you are touching with your hands that outer mask that has all the germs on it that you are blocking from getting on your face by wearing the mask in the first place. So you basically cannot take the mask on and off without cleaning it in between uses. Most of the disposable masks are single use only.

With that being said I would absolutely wear a fresh clean disposable mask when flying in an airplane. Since the mask requirement that means no more eating or drinking in the plane I guess because you can't do that with a mask on. So the airlines can provide a mask in lieu of the previously provided food/drink. Cabin clean up will also be much faster with this requirement of mask wearing which in turn causes eating/drinking in flight to be prohibited. Because if you take the mask on and off you have contaminated the mask and what is the point of having it in the first place if you are taking it off and on. The airplane in my opinion is the #1 venue where I think a mask is needed but it has to be a useful, fresh, clean proper mask. Not this makeshift useless stuff that numerous people are wearing and then re-using (absolutely disgusting and unsanitary- in a few months we may learn that causes even more harm than good and I am sorry for those folks who are doing this thinking it is the right thing to do as it is their health that will be compromised).

lougord99

Or maybe it is simply Southwest trying to do the best they know how to do.

Some of your concerns are legitimate concerns. That doesn't negate that everyone on the plane is safer if everyone on the plane wears a mask.

Loose Cannon

Is Southwest seriously going to prohibit pax from remaining properly hydrated on its flights, especially a five hour plus transcon flight such as BWI-LAX? That's what would happen if WN was to enforce mask requirement to the n'th degree and if that happened that would cause other issues.