Monday, October 8, 2012

The Special Etiquette at Exit Row

I will not conclude myself as a person who travels a lot, but I have done a decent share.

I have to admit – I am cheap. So unlike others, I will not concern about the class of service that much. In that case, Economy is my friend.

One of the great benefits of my elite status is having the choice of exit row seating. These seats are usually considered the best seats in the Economy Class due to its non-restrictive space for the emergency exits purpose. So not only me, but others, elite or not, would like to get a piece of it. These seats, to a lot of airlines, are in fact an auxiliary source of revenue.

Here is the responsibility part – for those people who are seating in the exit rows, they are required under federal regulations (or similar statutes) to assist the crews in case of emergency. So the passengers sitting in the exit row, in theory, should have understood the safety features of the aircrafts more than typical passengers.

Here is the funny part – being traveled in the exit rows, I discovered that exit row passengers (except me of course) are usually the passengers in the aircraft who always disregard the rules on an airplane:

1. I have never seen an exit row passenger reading the information on the safety card;

2. Some passengers intentionally left their electronic appliance on, like playing games, reading book. Some even let the devices’ transmission on;

3. Some even think exit rows are music chair – pick as you want.

I won’t blame the airlines for it – really, will an airline kick people off the plane because of that? Unlikely.

But do you see the irony? The passengers who supposed to understand the safety feature of the aircraft disregard the rules (like a traffic cop has a traffic violation). This makes me wonder – is breaking the rule the etiquette for the exit row?

P.S. These are my personal observations. Your experience may vary.




No comments:

Post a Comment