Update: The Washington Post has corrected their article and added the following note, “An earlier version of this post misstated Delta Air Line’s face covering policy for children. This version has been corrected.”
Originally posted on 7/26:
Last week, American, Southwest, and United eliminated medical mask exemptions and added requirements for anyone 2 or older to wear a mask.
I’m all for mask requirements on a plane, but anyone that’s a parent knows that toddlers don’t exactly listen to requirements. Requiring a 2 year old to keep a mask on for the duration of a flight might sound good to a policy maker, but that doesn’t mean it’s practical. One of the many reasons we fly with carseats for our toddlers is so they will be secure in their seats for the entire flight. It’s just too easy for a toddler to take off their airplane seatbelt!
Commenter aaron may have said it best last week, “I have a hard enough time getting my 2 year old to keep his pants on!”
The Washington Post features an article declaring that, “Under new rules announced by American, Delta, Southwest and United, only children younger than 2 will be permitted to fly without a mask.” The article goes on to state that Delta’s new rule requiring those over the age of 2 to wear a mask went into effect on July 20th.
Surprised, I wrote to Delta’s media team to inquire if the WaPo was correct.
Delta wrote back to me that their policy did change on July 20th as described here to require a clearance to fly process if a passenger requests a medical exemption. However Delta said their policy remains that mask exemptions are available to “young children who cannot maintain a face covering and unaccompanied minors.”
I asked Delta to clarify what exactly they mean by young children and provided them with the WaPo link. They wrote back that children under 8 remain exempt if they can’t maintain a face covering and that their policy has not changed to include children 2 years and older.
So there you have it. Delta retains a medical mask exemption with pre-clearance from a medical advisor at the airport and retains a mask exemption for children under 8 or for unaccompanied minors.
JetBlue also retains mask exemptions for medical reasons and for young children who aren’t able to keep their mask on.
Delta and JetBlue are also blocking middle seats, though they can be opened for families traveling together.
American, Southwest, and United have onerous rules requiring toddlers from the age of 2 to wear a mask at all times in the airport and on the plane.
American and United are not blocking middle seats, so perhaps they have more incentive to require masks for all…
What do you think of requiring toddlers and young children to wear a mask on a plane? Does a cutoff of just 24 months old make sense?
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47 Comments On "[Updated] Delta: Washington Post Article On Toddlers And Young Children Needing Masks Is #FakeNews"
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My 3 yr old with sensory issues won’t wear a mask no matter what.
Don’t fly
Ok. So kind of you to provide your expert advice free of charge
@Jeff:
Don’t comment
This guy is an idiot.
Jeff I mean.
Maybe from age 6 and up can be required, but not even that. Perhaps 8 or even 10 should be the minimum. 2 to 3 year old is ridiculous, not happening. Let’s see who will be the first to have a run-in due to their 2 year old being unmasked…
Can you imagine a Dr. Dao situation over a 2 year old not wearing a mask?
Pure and simple, crazy
Anyone know the policy of Frontier?
I heard Spirit & Frontier are not requiring young kids to wear a mask if you pay a $5 “Mask Waiver Fee for Young Children”
Kidding of course but I guess I shouldn’t give them any ideas, right Dan?
Im booked mint on JetBlue from lax to ewr with an infant. Will I be allowed to put a car seat on one of the blocked off mint seats?
Jetblue is blocking middle seats in Economy through at least Sept 8. I don’t think Mint is blocking any seats.
“ Their mint business class seats normally sell for $599-$1,599 each way, but are on sale for just $368-$398 each way between Newark and Los Angeles.
Plus, they are blocking seats through at least September 8th, so they are only selling 10 out of the 16 seats in the cabin:”
According to Dan they are
I don’t see mention of it by Jetblue regarding Mint. Nonetheless, if Mint has a nice showing on their flight, it’s possible that it may cause an uproar if one tries to put their ‘free’ infant in an empty blocked seat, which is situated near someone else.
I spoke to Delta this morning and the rep told me there is no exemptions for any children over 2 years old when i told her i don’t think my 3 year old daughter would keep on a mask for the whole flight she said her that if I tell her to she would listen. I asked her if she has a 3 yr old. Lol
We recently flew WN with almost-2, 3, 5,9.
They all wore masks except the almost-2 yr old.
Kol hakavod!
I think parents should at least try, just like you try to keep their shoes on. Most kids can get used to wearing masks. But 2 is not realistic snd there will be some older kids who can’t eithet. But don’t just sau oh they’re kids so it doesn’t matter. Try! And try to get kids as young as possible to cover their coughs or sneezes.
Every effort is important and appteciated!
Can a parent be put on the no fly list for there 3 year old boy wearing a mask?
It seems so.
As careless an inaccurate as the Post article may have been, to call it ‘fake news’ is to lump it in with contrived news stories (primarily but not exclusively from another news organization) that are creating serious trust issues with journalism. Best if the term is applied only to attempts to distort facts.
I expect articles from major newspapers to be fact checked.
If an article is blatantly wrong, not just by typo, but multiple times with the same error, how is that anything but fake news?
When Dan!s Deals posts an article or a deal that is not 100% correct, do we call that fake news? Are you saying that the Post was notified of the error and refused to correct it? I do not see that info in your article.
All newspapers print unintentional errors; that’s why they dedicate a column or more each day to announce them and correct them. However we are currently contending with a crisis of elaborately fabricated news stories to advance particular political agendas. I do not think that this is one of them.
Actually that’s exactly what comments and tweets would say 😀
I understand your viewpoint, but I view it as humor more than making a statement. After all, this is a blog and not a newspaper.
A News Company that claims “democracy dies in darkness” and writes an article about airline policy and did not even asked Delta, is outright fake news. It’s foolish to defend them.
A blog discussion website that never was a news outlet, is allowed to make mistakes right and left, as no one considers it that serious news outlet.
Mandatory masks for children is nothing short of child abuse! Based on pseudo-science, study after study shows the same thing children rarely get the virus, and even if they do, they don’t transmit it to adults.
Until it’s proven that they can’t transmit the virus, we should assume that they can. They would be the responsible thing to do when we are dealing with people’s life’s.
Usually it’s pretty tough to prove a negative, but I got one for you here (I can send you 100 such articles in newspapers and medical journals all saying the same thing) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-19/covid-s-spread-in-schools-is-questioned-in-latest-nordic-study
“ Nordic Study Suggests Open Schools Don’t Spread Virus Much”
Suggests=Inconclusive
“There was no measurable difference in the number of coronavirus cases among children in Sweden, where schools were left open, compared with neighboring Finland, where schools were shut, according to the findings.”
We also have to realize that when keeping the kids home we are dealing with people’s lives as well. We’re increasing mental health issues, suicide and suicide ideation, Child abuse, Single parents who can’t go to work… and the three poor and disadvantaged suffer the most
I believe that even 2 year olds can be told that they must wear a mask, but parents shouldn’t be penalized for the toddlers not obeying. I work with young children, and they often want to do what everyone else does. True, not all kids will listen, but it is certainly worth a try!
They want to do what everyone else does lasts for a couple of minutes. Not for a long flight when they can’t breathe. Do you have little children???
I have young grandchildren, who enjoy doing what everyone else does. If the adults around them complain about masks, they won’t want to wear them at all. If people around them comply without complaint, they will wear them for at least a little while. Like I said, it wouldn’t be fair to penalize the parents for kids being kids, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try and get them used to wearing masks.
While I agree, it’s hard for age of 2 to wear a mask, I will choose American, Southwest, and United over other airlines when going without kids on vacation, as this rule essentially makes them an adult only flight, quiet and relaxing and enjoyable.
I know this is off topic, but would you recommend flying with a Doona?
Why not? I have. I made sure to know where it says underneath that it’s approved for aircraft and I took screenshots of the airlines car seat policy from their website. I didn’t have to resort to these (on Delta), perhaps that’s because I boarded holding it as a car seat so I didn’t have to get into a discussion explaining that it’s not a stroller…
flew delta lax to jfk last week. my 5yr old 3yr old and 2yr old, no masks for them and no problems.
@Dan, thanks for the shout out!
I think it’s cruel and unusual punishment for the parents.
Seems like the other airlines just copy and pasted from united without even reading the full text of the rule.
Most surprising for me is southwest, as they usually fly above this kind of nonsense.
I believe parents should try to make their kids wear masks when flying but if your kid needs a break or can’t keep it on just give them food and drink and their won’t be any problems. I sat next to a teenager when I was flying last month and he had a bag of popcorn and ate it the entire flight and the flight attendants never told him to put his mask on.
i hope that wasn’t a JFK to Australia flight cause that would be one big bag of popcorn…
Lol
The poll is basically whether you’re a parent or not.
Not a parent and voted no.
Does it occur to anyone that requiring masks on airlines are completely worthless since you are permitted to take them off to eat you are already exposing everyone to your germs. Furthermore disposable masks only work for 2-4 hours so for a long flight you are not accomplishing much. If you are concerned about flying these rules should not change anything for you.
Children who don’t have sensory issues or other challenges, usually are able to follow directions by around 7 or 8 years old. Again, this varies widely depending on the child. I think requiring children 8 and older to wear masks on planes is probably doable. Again, with exceptions for children who have sensory issues and/or other behavioral or sensory challenges.
Ban little kids from air travel! And old people!