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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Passengers not wearing masks on a flight, should I make a complaint?

88 replies

RopeyRuby · 20/01/2022 21:33

Flew on a long haul flight last week with a major UK airline. As far as I was aware masks are mandatory on a flight.

Two men got ion the plane and sat two rows in front of us with their masks around their neck. The flight attendant asked them to put them on but they said they were exempt Hmm which beggars the question of why they had them at all? Shortly after takeoff another man took his mask off and spent the rest of the flight standing chatting to a passenger across from us with no mask on for the rest of the flight. I was not aware of him being asked to put it back on. Meanwhile we’re struggling with keeping our masks on for 7 hours!

On the flight back yesterday, my mask slipped down my nose so it wasn’t covered when I was trying to find space for my cabin bag as the lockers were all full. I got the attention of a flight attendant to ask him where I could put my stuff but he said very patronisingly ‘put your mask on properly then I’ll answer your question’. He then walked straight past a passenger with his mask around his neck and didn’t say anything to him. There was a different flight attendant with his mask only over his mouth not his nose the whole flight!

I’ve just read about a woman being removed from a flight for refusing to wear a mask.

WIBU to make a complaint about this to the airline?

OP posts:
ttcstinks · 20/01/2022 23:04

@Bringmeadog

You’re breathing all the recycled air for hours….. masks will make zero difference. It’s just for appearances.
Exactly
Ragwort · 20/01/2022 23:07

If you are that bothered about mask wearing why on earth get on a plane and choose to spend time on a long haul flight? Hmm

EileenGC · 20/01/2022 23:09

All these posters talking about ‘recycled air’ - do you have any idea what a HEPA filter is and what it does? Confused

CharlotteGoldenblattYork · 20/01/2022 23:15

So many are unfortunately missing the point. The point is not that others didn't have their masks on. It's the fact that OP, being a mere woman, was told abruptly to put her mask on properly, whilst a man sitting nearby had no mask on and nothing was said to him. As per usual in society, little women are expected to accept and comply to the rules, whilst men do as they please!

JazzyBBG · 20/01/2022 23:15

I think you have a point why challenge you and not others?
The other people could be genuinely exempt but as you say why have the mask with them if so.
I agree we are lenient in this country compared to others and have been abroad and seen Brits with sunflower lanyards be made to comply.

ThatNameAgainItsMrPlow · 20/01/2022 23:18

What do you want the airline to do about it? Give you compensation for the trauma you endured?

Puppylucky · 21/01/2022 00:14

I would put money on the airline in the OP being Emirates.

Changemaname1 · 21/01/2022 00:20

I mean the time to complain would have been on the flight of your concern was covid ? Not much point now

If your complaint was that you were spoken to rudely then yes

eldora · 21/01/2022 00:25

@Puppylucky

I would put money on the airline in the OP being Emirates.
Since when is Emirates a UK airline?
Chouetted · 21/01/2022 00:26

I do wonder where people who are exempt from fluctuating conditions sit. I can wear a mask for short periods of time but struggle with long periods of time - I know everyone does, but I'm not sure everyone experiences the sort of uncomfortable that has me sitting around afterwards fantasising about hurting myself (or doing it)

Willing to be told that that's normal and I should just wear it.

LoveFall · 21/01/2022 00:27

Surely if you are truly mask-exempt you might want to show some common courtesy and not stand in the aisle talking and therefore spraying your own secretions everywhere. Yuck.

You have to speak more loudly on an aircraft due to the background noise, meaning more spraying.

Nandocushion · 21/01/2022 00:54

@Puzzledandpissedoff

I thought many airlines said those claiming exemptions had to contact them beforehand with proof?

That said I don't know what they're supposed to do once in the air; they can hardly chuck refusers out of the door, though I suppose they could refuse boarding on the return leg

TBH it's not something that worries me, but I just wondered how they're working it

What can airlines do about it? Well, here's what American Airlines did about it: they turned the plane around and had the passenger arrested.
Nandocushion · 21/01/2022 00:56

But I suppose they'd need a FAA or similar UK regulation to back up that sort of response.

GarlandsinGreece · 21/01/2022 00:58

@Nandocushion, I’m in the US, and there are no such things as exemptions on flights, and they’ll come down on you like a ton of bricks if you refuse to wear one when not eating or drinking.

madisonbridges · 21/01/2022 01:00

YANBU. I'd be so fricked off if I wore my mask for 7 hours, obeying the rules and someone thought it was OK to speak over me without a mask, spraying me with their germs. I'd have been more than complaining to him. Definitely make a complaint. Do it for future passengers like me not just yourself. Good luck.

WTF475878237NC · 21/01/2022 01:19

YANBU, the staff seem to be picking on easy targets (women) but letting men get away with it.

I agree. If those men were exempt and didn't intend to wear them, they wouldn't have had them on their faces at all. They just said they were exempt in that moment clearly.

avamiah · 21/01/2022 01:30

@madisonbridges

YANBU. I'd be so fricked off if I wore my mask for 7 hours, obeying the rules and someone thought it was OK to speak over me without a mask, spraying me with their germs. I'd have been more than complaining to him. Definitely make a complaint. Do it for future passengers like me not just yourself. Good luck.
Yes I agree with you.

Earlier today I was on the underground in London and we still have to wear masks but 3 women came on together and they were not wearing masks and sat there happily chatting away.
This really annoyed me but it’s not for me to question them.

My point is that if there are Rules in place that are a legal requirement why is nobody sticking to them ??

No wonder our PM Boris Johnson is a National Joke as nobody listens to him anymore .

madisonbridges · 21/01/2022 01:46

No wonder our PM Boris Johnson is a National Joke as nobody listens to him anymore.

This is nothing to do with Boris Johnson. It annoys me when people off load bad behaviour onto the govt. It gives people a pass. That guy wasn't spewing germs over everyone because BJ had a glass of wine on a patio. He did it because he was selfish, thoughtless prick towards the op, and didn't care that he was stressing, upsetting and maybe infecting her.
If people think that Johnson is wrong for what he's done, why are they doing the same? I think what he did was wrong but I havent thrown away my mask. I still try to be considerate of other people's feelings.

BritWifeInUSA · 21/01/2022 01:52

What exactly do you hope to achieve with a complaint? The flight is over. The passengers gave all gone their separate ways. The passengers said they were exempt. It’s none of your business whether they are or aren’t.

Find a better use for all that time you must have on your hands.

Em172 · 21/01/2022 02:11

@Bringmeadog

You’re breathing all the recycled air for hours….. masks will make zero difference. It’s just for appearances.
Not true. The cabin air is continually refreshed.

Masks are still bullshit, though.

Covid has turned people into lemmings. So what if a few people weren't wearing a bit of cloth over their face? Is this really how you want to live the rest of your life? Fearful and overly anxious?

GrandDuchessRomanov · 21/01/2022 02:19

Stable door and all that OP.

If you want to waste valuable minutes of your life trying to redeem a situation that you should have dealt with at the time, go right ahead and complain.

That your complaint will make the slightest bit of difference or if you think that anyone at the airline really cares this far in I think you may very well be disappointed.

BABAHOTEL · 21/01/2022 07:26

YABVU

AndAnotherNewOne · 21/01/2022 07:31

Not unreasonable at all. If you were told then so should the others have been.

Cowardly behaviour of the crew and misogynistic.

Isaw3ships · 21/01/2022 07:38

To what end? If they told crew they were exempt what were the crew supposed to do about it?

Isaw3ships · 21/01/2022 07:39

By wearing YOUR mask you were protecting yourself - by not wearing theirs they were putting themselves more at risk.
Also - why complain so far after the factX did it loss you off that much? Move on…