Question mask

What's the new etiquette for travellers?

Tokyo, Aoyama, taken before the pandemic. Photo: tony@tonyamos.com

The man sitting across the aisle from me on the flight from Paris to Dubai was wearing his face mask on his chin.

We hadn’t taken off yet, and the flight attendants were busy getting everyone settled. Occasionally, they’d walk up and the down the aisles, checking on mask compliance. One attendant stopped and gently reminded the man that he needed to wear his mask over his nose throughout the flight, except when he was eating or drinking. He nodded dutifully and pulled his mask up.

It had crept down to his chin again by the time we took off.

This freaked me out.

I was already very concerned about the chances of catching COVID on a long-haul flight. I wasn’t sure my booster shot or my surgical mask would be enough protection over twenty or more hours. In December we were all flying blind, as there wasn’t enough information available about the new variant Omicron or the effectiveness of aircraft air filters against it. There still isn’t.

Travelling, especially anything involving mass transport, is a constant game of risk assessment these days. There are so many ifs and quite a few buts. What if I test positive before I get on my flight home? Will I get really sick? Will I get proper health care? Will my insurance cover it? What do we do if only one family member gets it?

Then again, life is short. What if I haven’t seen my family in two years? If I don’t go now, when will I go?

This mental dance is something every potential traveller is doing right now. Many decide a holiday is too risky, even on a short domestic flight. There’s a lot of ‘wait and see.’ On the other hand, if you do a risk assessment and find that you’re fine to go, the silver lining is that you’ll possibly snatch some very cheap airfares.

My personal risk assessment on the Paris trip took many factors into consideration, but it hadn’t involved other passengers not wearing their masks properly.

(Anti-maskers can log off now.)

It’s clear a few weeks later that my booster offered the best protection of all, but properly fitted masks are still a crucial weapon in controlling the spread of the virus, according to just about every infectious diseases expert in the world and guidance from WHO.

Even with a booster, it’s still possible to catch the very contagious Omicron variant through close and prolonged contact with an infected person. We don’t really know how our individual immunity will shape up, as it’s dependent on so many factors. I found this recent article very interesting.

Just this past weekend, John Simpson, the eminent BBC foreign correspondent, announced he’d contracted COVID. ‘Tested negative when I left Kabul with my colleagues,’ he wrote on Twitter ‘but sat next to someone on the plane to Dubai who coughed all over me. When I got home I was positive.’

That sounds like the person next to him wasn’t wearing a mask, was wearing a mask improperly, or was wearing the wrong type of mask. I suspect, as in my case, John’s flight wasn’t policed that rigorously. Flight attendants are busy and many of them must be understandably nervous about provoking air rage in those who feel they are above the rules, those who will meekly put their seat belts on, but argue a mask takes away their ‘sovereign’ freedoms.

According to the International Air Transport Association, there were 5,400 air rage incidents between January and November last year in the US, 72% due to non-compliance with mask wearing. One unnamed airline in the report had one thousand cases in one week. 85% of US flight attendants said they dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021 and 17% had been physically assaulted.

Apart from that, they were bone weary of repeatedly having to tell passengers to wear their masks. I’m bone weary just thinking about it.

Interviewed in The Guardian, one attendant said, ‘I go to work now and I always worry what’s going to happen, what’s going to trip somebody up, trigger their anger. It’s a whole new ballgame out there right now and it’s a different type of passenger we’re seeing.’

Back on the tarmac at CDG airport, I was worrying about flight rage as I assessed the passenger opposite me.

What is the etiquette here?

Is it OK to reach across the aisle and politely suggest he pull up his mask?

Would he ignore me? Swear at me? Unbuckle his lap belt, jump up and give me a thumping?

Or would I join the ranks of the world’s Karens, ruthlessly filmed and shared on social media for my bossy interference in another person’s space?

(By the way, I don’t love this term. I feel sorry for all the nice Karens.)

But maybe I am a bit Karen-ish? I’d once asked a woman seated next to me on a flight, who was still chattering into her phone as our plane rattled down the runway, to turn the phone off, as was the pilot’s request. Because cellular interference is a problem for some planes, I imagined our aircraft’s fried radio systems going haywire and causing our metal jacket, with all of us inside, to plummet to the ground.

The woman did what I asked but gave me a withering look, which made the next fourteen hours very uncomfortable.

Was it my business to police her? Was it my business to police the man opposite me?

As we started to taxi in Paris, it was obvious no one else was going to do it. He looked a bit unwell, and I was imagining the microscopic, spiky balls of virus he expelled into the air swarming my way.

He was an older man and he was sweating. Not a good sign. But as I looked more closely, I could see that he was frightened. I was once scared of flying, until I talked myself out of it. I knew the signs.

I left him alone.

I did not cause a scene. I did not get COVID. I hope he didn’t either.

But I wondered in other circumstances, say a more blatant disregard for safety rules, would I have said more? Should I have said more? Who would have breached the unwritten etiquette - me for pointing out the rules, or the person who didn’t give a damn about the well-being of other passengers?

What circumstances would cause you to speak out?

I’m reminiscing about the good old days, when I could get on a plane, open my book, and the only irritant was the kid in the row behind kicking the back of my seat.

And yes, if the parents are AWOL, I ask the kid to stop.