Travelers rip airlines for rewarding maskless passengers with Champagne
Are maskless passengers benefiting from flight privilege?
COVID-conscious travelers are excoriating staff on various US airlines for celebrating the end of federal mask mandates by reportedly encouraging passengers to remove their personal protective equipment — and even showering maskless travelers with Champagne and compliments.
“Hi @Delta. Your flight attendants greeting us ‘Would you like champagne?’ ” wrote traveler Ify Ike on Twitter about an alleged recent experience on the airline. ” ‘Let’s celebrate no more masks’ is not what I paid for.”
She continued, “It’s not only childish but also creates an uncomfortable, and potentially hostile environment for those of us still masked. COVID is also not seasonal.”
The irate flyer’s tweet is just one of many detailing mile-high antics since airlines pivoted on mask policies, currently amassing hundreds of thousands of likes and comments about the change in tone. The alleged celebrations are a stark contrast to previous airline rules, which notoriously dropped harsh punishments on maskless travelers.
Multiple videos circulated on Twitter showing passengers and flight staff celebrating onboard after a Florida federal judge voided the Biden administration’s mask mandate for planes, trains and buses on Monday. The Biden administration confirmed that evening that travelers can stop wearing masks for the time being, pending a review and possible appeal of the ruling, with this caveat, “CDC recommends that people continue to wear masks in indoor public transportation settings.”
Ike specifically found the anti-mask incentives particularly troubling given the potential plethora of immunocompromised Delta passengers.
“Your political and capitalist practices aside, please recognize that all types of diverse customers ride your planes,” Ike wrote on Twitter. “This insensitivity is costly and I’m curious to know what your affirmative practices will be for those with conditions that may be at higher risk.”
One Delta passenger named Brooke Tansley described how she was flying with her kids when one of these impromptu unmasking ceremonies broke out.
“I am on a plane with my 2 not-yet-eligible for vax kids & the pilot just announced that the mask mandate has just this minute ended,” she tweeted. “Ppl clapped & took off their masks. Here we are having boarded a plane with our kids. Very upset, @Delta, that this was announced mid-flight.”
The concerned parent added in a follow-up post, “Here we are, trapped in the sky with our 8-month-old unmasked baby (you can’t actually mask a baby that young) under the supposition that everyone who can be masked would be masked, and the flight 325 crew has taken our choices away from us. Very very angry about this.“
Some critics analogized PPE-free flying to lifting the smoking ban on flights.
“Thrilled to announce I’m going to smoke cigarettes on my next @Delta flight because I’m really not worried about the health risks and @Delta puts my personal freedom first,” snarked writer Bess Kalb.
There have even been reports of in-flight PPE-shaming: In a since-deleted tweet, Alaska Airlines customer Jonathan Evans said he was hounded for wearing a mask on an Orlando-Seattle flight, the Independent reported.
“The pilot created an anti-mask party from the start, which encouraged the non-mask wearers to chide the mask-wearers,” adding that he was called a “freak” and that staff awarded the most “outspoken guy with free drinks.” Evans has reportedly since reported the incident to the airline.
In an even more unbelievable incident Wednesday, former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams claimed that a Delta pilot told him to unmask at an airport.
“Flying today. A @delta pilot walked by me in the airport and said, take your mask off man- breath free!” the health expert tweeted alongside a selfie sporting a face covering. “Why is it those who so strongly felt others were imposing their beliefs (in health, wellness and compassion) on them, feel so free to impose their beliefs on others?!”
Adams was subsequently torched by critics online, with many calling him a hypocrite given his statements at the start of the pandemic, in which he labeled masks “not effective” against COVID. He had added that mask hoarding also caused a shortage in hospitals, where they were actually needed.
Adams, who served as the surgeon general under the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, addressed detractors in a follow-up tweet. “So many are (perhaps intentionally) missing the point,” said the doctor, who has since done a complete 180 on mask mandates. “While I have legitimate reasons to have been personally upset [his wife reportedly suffers from metastatic melanoma], I was more surprised than anything.”
“But what made me upset was the idea that the kids/ others nearby who had masks on were made to feel ashamed by a @delta pilot,” he added.
Adams wrote in a follow-up tweet that he found the “Scarlet Letter”-ing particularly disheartening as he’d “stood up for people who for personal reasons choose not to mask or vaccinate when they were shamed.”
“Didn’t agree with them, but stood up against shaming,” he added. “Yet so many are fine with vengeance shaming now that they got what they wanted…”
In line with the new mask rules, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines have relaxed their PPE policies for customers, crew and workers.
United and Delta lifted the mask requirement for all domestic flights. United also said the change in policy would apply to “select international flights” while Delta said masks would also be optional on “most international flights.”
Southwest and American Airlines also nixed the mask requirement for travelers and employees but did not specify if the switch extended to international flights.
Meanwhile, Delta announced Wednesday that it plans to restore flight privileges to about 2,000 customers who were barred from flights after failing to comply with mask rules.