I attended a family event this weekend in Washington, D.C. The Cirrus is in for annual inspection and, in any case, is not suitable for transportation on a rigid schedule so I bought a ticket on JetBlue. On Monday, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle famously freed Americans from the rule of the CDC (“Our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends”). On Tuesday, however, JetBlue emailed to say
Federal law requires masks to be worn by all travelers 2 years and older at all times during air travel including during boarding/deplaning, on board and at the airport. Failure to comply may result in denied boarding, removal from the aircraft and/or penalties under federal law.
Here’s the core of the “Need-to-knows for your trip” email:
The IT department was still catching up or should we read something deeper into this apparent defiance of Judge Mizelle’s authority to say what Federal law does and does not require?
I haven’t read it, but presumably her order had to do with the statutory authority of the CDC not whether private parties such as airlines could require masks. I mean an airline could require you to wear shoes to board a flight so i guess it could require a mask. I suppose the solution is to research which airlines require masks and direct your business accordingly.
I was mostly joking. JetBlue doesn’t require masks anymore, but the IT monkeys hadn’t caught up. The passengers cheered when the flight attendant announced that no masks were required (except for the handful who were righteously following Science on this Democrat-to-Democrat-area flight.)
Well, Bill O’Reilly cussed out a Jet Blue gate worker over a flight that was more than three hours late to take him to the Turks & Caicos for some R&R. Then he apologized but said:
https://liveandletsfly.com/bill-oreilly-jetblue/
“Discussing the issue this week, O’Reilly apologized for losing his cool, but tried to reframe the issue as an indictment on JetBlue: “The story is JetBlue can’t get their flights off the ground. It was crazy in the terminal.”. … O’Reilly even spent an entire segment on his podcast highlighting JetBlue’s recent operational woes.”
Then he accused JetBlue of “Fraud in the Inducement” and blamed the Biden Administration for not taking the problem seriously.
So maybe they’re hoping Bill O’Reilly will notice that they haven’t updated their mask policy and go bananas again on his way back from the Islands, this time with a few drinks in him, so he socks somebody and winds up in the hoosegow.
How was your flight? Was it on-time and orderly?
I think their IT people are waiting from some directive from higher up in the food chain before making the changes, and given how poorly JetBlue is reportedly being run these days, that may take until after the Justice Department’s appeal of Kimball-Mizelle’s ruling is over. I’ll bet none of their IT workers do anything without a Direct Order from above.
Any plane ride where I don’t have to plan and fly it myself is a good one. This one was arguably great, though. On time. Empty seat next to me. Nobody arguing about masks. Pilots unmasked and flying the River Visual 19. The airport panic level was back to 11 (regular announcements about unattended bags. TSA liquid policies, etc.). I was able to harangue the gate agents myself and didn’t need to call in O’Reilly!
@philg: Well maybe in that case we should give O’Reilly credit for puttin’ the Fear into ’em and straightening their mealy-mouthed a**es out!
I’m glad you had a safe and uneventful flight. I wonder if the airlines scan their databases for “Greenspun, Philip” and take appropriate steps to prepare?
“OK everybody, on your TOES. Here comes Greenspun! Cut the crap!”
Phil, so sad… I’m quite opposite, any flight that I don’t plan or fly myself is a chore. Only self-piloted flights are the good ones, even with level 11 turbulence 🙂