lincolnjkc

Well... technically the oxygen mask also meets the requirements of covering the nose and mouth.

I find it depressingly amusing that (at least on most of the express carriers; it's been harder and harder to find mainline) that's been tacked on to the safety briefing in the past few months. I think maybe 20% of the passengers would actually remember that advice in the panic induced by a decompression unless it were reiterated at the time of decompression.

(And my GoJet flight on Tuesday had a started with a loose main door seal that went AWOL midway through... sounded like I was inside a blender chopping ice cubes for the last 2/3s of the flight... I wouldn't have been surprised if the masks dropped but we descended below 10k far earlier than usual for that route presumably avoiding that becoming an issue) -- never a good sign when the captain pops out of the flight deck and starts taking pictures though.

NewYork1K

I hadn't checked in on United.com for a while (I use the app mostly) and I was surprised to see that the health acknowledgement is built like an old continental.com page. I know there are still some relics of this (primarily the post-check-in travel options page where you can SDC) but I'm surprised to see a page that's about such a current issue to look so old and dated.

DELee

old programmers die hard.

David

WineCountryUA

Old style templates never go away

lincolnjkc

I'm not sure if it's a useful metric or not, but I'm flying DCA-ORD-CLE tomorrow and have gotten the "fairly full" text for both segments.
Using DCA and IAD as origin options the next option, period, that UA offered me from either airport was on Tuesday morning-- nearly 48 hours after current scheduled flight. For today, tomorrow, and Monday I get:


I'm pretty sure they mean to say "We don't have any flights to Cleveland with available seats..." or possibly "with available seats in the cabin you're flying in" but still, its the illusion of choice and not a particularly good illusion

DELee

Perhaps. You'd think that with all the website mods done over the past year that the new templates are serviceable.

Clearly there's a comfort of use level involved.

David

ISTFlyer

I am not sure if it was reported before but United had started modifying their boarding process. On my 2 UA flights today, boarding was enforced in the following order rather than a complete back to front boarding.

- Passengers requiring extra assistance
- Global Services
- Active US military
- Families with small children
- Premier 1K
- Domestic First or Polaris Business

Row by row boarding for remaining passengers ( back to front )

cmd320

Was the Premier Access lane available throughout the boarding process to bypass general boarding or was there only one lane?

ISTFlyer

No, only the green ( pre-COVID Group 2 ) lanes were open for general boarding.
Passengers who were eligible for pre-boarding or priority boarding directly headed towards the podium when they were invited to board.

lincolnjkc

(insert awkward feeling here)

My understanding is UA policy requires masks in UA gate areas and MWAA requires masks in their airports with the usual exceptions.

Flying out of one for the DC area airports this morning there were a few groups completely maksless -- I only noticed because they were varying on loud conversations including that "their" governor had declared no one was required to wear a mask so they weren't going to.

Mentioned it to the first UA employee I saw who said "if they're in our gate area I can't enforce it" supervisor confirmed both the policy requirement and the lack of enforcement but did make a PA and airport PD did a tour

I'm not sure what I'm more irritated by -- a policy that isn't supposed to be enforced or the response, but I'm also not sure it's worth (or what avenue) I should push it, just forget about it...which is probably the right answer, especially since everyone was masked on boarding.

NewYork1K

First class boarding order has been the most inconsistent aspect of United's changes that I've noticed flying UA on a more or less weekly basis the past month.

Let's agree that when boarding a widebody (except a 763) or 757 using door 2L, it makes sense to keep boarding the first class cabin after the pre-boards.

That said, about 80% of the non-757 narrowbody flights I've taken have boarded first class last, which frankly is fine by me. Also, every gate agent has permitted non-GS/1K pax seated in F to board before F is called. I wait but I understand why others might want to board first.

Today at IAH C South, which at least in the morning bank is 100% Mesa E175s at this point, I heard agents call first class first on some flights, and for some other flights I heard them call first class last. On my flight, first class was called in the middle of general boarding, before economy plus. That was a new one. Same aircraft type, depends entirely on gate agents.

cmd320

I imagine this is a challenge for the employees. First of all, the DC area airports are all in Virginia (unless you want to include BWI, but I don't), so VA law applies, not DC.

Now, to the point of enforcing mask usage in the gatehouse, theoretically the GA should be able to ask people to have them on at all times in the gate area, but what happens if someone chooses to step back from the carpeted line denoting the gate area into the general terminal walkway area (I'm assuming this was at Dulles)? Can the GA do anything about it then? I would guess not and then it would have to fall on the airport authority to enforce the rule and quite frankly, I'm not aware of any airport authority which actually has the staff to be able to realistically do this.

I'm not really sure why the GA would have said "if they're in our gate area I can't enforce it". That doesn't really make sense to me. The only thing I can think of is they were thinking trying to do so would be relatively pointless because as soon as the person is told they have to wear a mask in the gate area, they could just as easily step outside the gate area. Probably worth noting to UA.

ISTFlyer

I have flown from DCA last month and could verify that the airport authorities mandate the use of a face mask/covering rather than the state law.

As the operator of IAD is the same company, the policy should be the same over there.

lincolnjkc

This was DCA actually...

I think the "not my problem" attitude from UA was what was most irksome... Even if they have little actual power a PA, a just friendly "reminder" from an authority figure, etc.

According to the Virginia Department of Health masks are required in public in Virginia and, as you noted the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA - the agency operating not DCA and IAD) also requires masks and I have seen MWAA PD at both IAD and DCA "reminding" people to ensure compliance.

lincolnjkc

Wrote to 1KVoice last night and got this official reply:

So apparently the entire policy is sham window dressing except the "onboard" portion...

This is also a somewhat sad excuse since every airport lease I've read (granted only about a dozen) gives the tenant the authority to control and direct their exclusive use spaces to the extent not in conflict with airport policy/regulation or applicable law.

But I guess "drop 'em if you want to" is the new mantra for airports when the airport itself has no requirements for masking.