You can't eat or drink without removing the mask. Plus, as someone pointed out, you need to be careful about touching your eyes.

I appreciate the mask suggestion. Frankly, the experience is giving me newfound respect for the tendency of many East Asian travelers to wear them while flying. My only concern would be that others would think I was carrying some awful illness. (Though, then again, it might make someone less likely to recline into me. )

Fortunately, I was on a full-fare ticket, so rebooking wouldn't have been an issue, though flight availability later in the day was tight.

My concern about W&B stemmed from an experience I had several months ago flying PHL-IAH-LAX. We were moderately delayed in Philly due to MX. Just as we were finally ready to push back, a passenger announced that she was going to miss her connection to Vegas, that she had previously been told she could get off if she needed, and that she was therefore going to do so and drive to EWR in hopes of catching a nonstop. The captain made no effort to hide his contempt over the intercom, explaining that, due to one passenger, we were going to have to recalculate W&B and wait for approval. Delay wound up being about 15-20 minutes, if I recall.

I did not want to be that villain.

Thanks for the tip. I just did a little research on masks and ordered a 3M N100 mask with the exhaust vent as a travel emergency item. Hopefully I don't have to use it, but will be glad I have it if the need arises. I think I can flat-pack it in my carryon without too much of a penalty on space.

Also, I'm not too worried about my eyes as I can sleep quite readily on any flight. Eyes shut= should be good. Right?

Zeug

I too employ the air defense method - creating my "germ block" / "stink shield" wall (do a search for stink shield on FT if you want a laugh). Unfortunately, since the air is partially recirculated on the plane - you can't block what is already in the air coming out of the vent...

The other reason I keep this mask is for actual emergencies - in the event of smoke, fire, noxious fumes, etc., this mask could be the difference between evacuating alive or......

It's something everyone should have in their carry-on.

They only get in trouble if the passenger was speaking Arabic at the time of the removal, per recent news reports lately...

Or a terrorist planning some sort of gas attack, which would likely resolve the sick neighbor issue while creating some new ones . . . .

Apparently most modern aircraft have pretty good filtration systems. Most sickness from travel is, I think, related to direct proximity more than recirculated air. Close quarters and the inability to move are a bad combination if one of your seatmates is sick.

I am no expert, but I always assumed that the close proximity to such a diseased person would only slightly increase the risk of infection; after all, we are ~250 persons sitting in close proximity in a small, confined area with air circulating all around us, and therefore even if the person sitting two rows in front of us, or across the isle, or behind us, starts sneezing, we are inevitably going to inhale [or come in contact with] its contents.

But yes, I too naively use the wet towel they provide to disperse & spread all existing germs around the pull-out trays, arm rests, and my face and hands, believing it is somehow going to protect me from getting whatever disease the person had who was sitting in the same seat on the previous flight; or from the FAs for that matter.


Since I pretty much consider the inside of any plane to be cesspool-like, I now follow these two simple and very related principles:

1) As regular flyers we are building up an extremely strong immunity through light exposure.

2) What won't kill you, will make you stronger.



Added: As an aside: the "infected" person in OPs post might have only been suffering from hayfever!

The virus is mostly in water droplets that are sneezed or coughed out -- they don't float around for long, settling out of the air fairly quickly. That's why proximity is the culprit in terms of "inhaling" the germs. So unless someone is near you (within a row on either side) you're not super likely to inhale their sickness. Of course, you are right the nasties last a long time on surfaces -- which is why we usually get sick from our hands more than breathing it in.

Good idea not to touch your face much on a flight, unless immediately following handwashing -- because the surfaces are indeed a cesspool (that goes for the airport too though).

I am reminded that once at CDG security I switched lines because the screener was having an awful nasal discharge and snorting it back up. The particular screener noticed and asked me why I had switched. My reply: I was getting on a transatlantic flight and wanted to avoid catching anything. He claimed allergies, not infection.

Jim (sorry for that particular image, ewwww...)

CDC seems to disagree
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals...resettings.htm
as well as others.

Bottom line is it works if you wear it properly and remove it properly.

I'm starting to believe this. I'm probably exposed to a lot more things every week than the rest of my family, but they get sick a lot more than I do.

Then again, maybe it's just the placebo effect, and I just think myself well.

You keep it out in your lap at all times or are you counting on being able to make it to your pack in any circumstance?

That mask is not really designed for a smoky environment. It can't handle a lot of trash and if that trash is oily or wet it cannot handle hardly any load at all.

I now keep Zicam Ultra with me when I travel (all year around).
I once got stuck in a middle seat (full flight) next to a woman coughing, sneezing, nose- blowing, etc. No amount of "avoidance" on my part, including leaning as far away from her as I could, not touching my face, washing my hands at the first chance I could get, etc. prevented what felt like the absolute worst cold I ever had ever "caught" in my life.