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Post by Owen on Oct 19, 2020 18:01:32 GMT
1 ~~~ What to Do If Your Airplane Seatmate Won't Wear a Mask ~~~ In our Ethical Traveler advice column, we tackle the tricky moral dilemmas and questions that arise when traveling during a pandemic.
Before the pandemic, I often befriended my plane seatmates. There was the fellow Filipino flying to Manila; we had drinks together during our layover in Hong Kong. There was the family on a flight from Barcelona; as I spoke, one of them said, “Are you May’s son?” She knew my late mother from high school, and had recognized me by the cadence of my speech and its similarity to May’s.
And one summer, leaving Paris, during boarding: “Do you think anyone will sit here?” I asked him, pointing at our empty middle seat. In his French lilt, he replied, smoothly, “Do you want to?” As in all things, it begins with a smile.
There’s something special about the relationship between plane seatmates. My theory: Should we ever crash in the ocean, in the mountains, or on a remote island that’s actually three white men’s vision of purgatory, we want an ally. We sign a contract when we board a plane. We trust, in a crisis, we will care for each other. www.cntraveler.com/story/what-to-do-if-your-airplane-seatmate-wont-wear-a-mask ~ 15 October 2020 ~
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