Airline Exit Rows

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mryan75

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mryan75
I’m sitting in the window seat of an exit row on an A319 right now heading for St. Maarten. Across the aisle on the other exit row the woman in the middle seat is in her 70s (at least), needed actual help getting her seatbelt fastened, has a carry-on under the seat in front of her that sticks way out into what would be the way to exit if people had to use it, and started downing little bottles of Dewars the moment the cart came around.

Does anyone else think upselling the exit row is not such a great idea?
 
This whole "Up-Selling" thing is totally out of control. I'll buy one of the super special deals from the airlines and within three days of departure the Up-Sell attack is on...

Pre-buy food, upgrade seating, free baggage, airport lounge, early loading and everything and everything else they can dream up. :eek:
 
Sadly, all you have to say is "yes" when they ask you if you're willing and able to assist. Cabin crew isn't allowed to look at you and determine you'll actually cause a delay during an actual evacuation.
 
Maybe a 30 second strength and agility test is in order. Lift this 50lb weight and broad jump 3'. It'd at least make waiting at the gate more entertaining than the guy wearing 12 shirts and making 8 trips rather than pay the oversized bag fee all cuz he can't read a tape measure. Buddy, I'm 20 yards away and know it ain't even close to fitting.
 
The main objective for the airlines is to make money. I don’t put much faith in being able to use the exits if there is a problem. Putting children and the elderly in exit row seats really doesn’t show common sense.
 
How come no one has come up with a small battery powered sawzall or angle grinder which can be carried aboard by any passenger, so they can quickly hack their way through the fuselage and hop out through the opening?
A person could make a fortune selling those things!
(not saying it's without downsides lol!)
 
Klaus M said:
This whole "Up-Selling" thing is totally out of control. I'll buy one of the super special deals from the airlines and within three days of departure the Up-Sell attack is on...

Pre-buy food, upgrade seating, free baggage, airport lounge, early loading and everything and everything else they can dream up. :eek:
Click to expand...
Do you wish to have the optional door plug bolts installed for just $29.99?
 
Sitting on an SWA flight, and there is an older guy in the exit aisle wearing a Dubeya-Dubeya-Eye-Eye veterans cap... 42nd Rainbow Division. If you know anything about these guys, they were known to the Germans as Roosevelt's SS; there were some badass mofos.. and they slugged it out against some badass mofos on the German side, let alone liberated a few concentration camps while fighting there way across Southern Germany

Anyway, this millennial hipster sitting behind him noted to the flight attendant that he seemed too old to be sitting in an important place where people's lives depended on it and that he would gladly change seats with him. Let's just say R. Lee Emery's charterer, Master Guns Hart, could have picked up a few lines for his role in Full Metal Jacket from the barrage the gentleman laid on the man-buned idiot.

Needless to say, there was applause from those around him. He drank for free, and a few of us gladly and proudly escorted him to meet his granddaughter and great-granddaughter for the first time.

Gotta to luv the Old Guys, yes they do rule.... :p :D :)
 
Even if they can physically do it, there are an awful lot of people out there who go into lizard brain at the mildest stress, and won’t be mentally capable of opening the emergency exit.
 
mryan75 said:
I’d say under b1 maybe half? Or more? Quite possibly meets none of the requirements?
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You really need to be able to get rid of the question marks in order to say that a passenger, who says they can do it, can't do it. The regulation does not provide for extended testing. It says that "the certificate holder determines that it is likely that the person would be unable to perform..."

Prior to the early 1990s, there were no requirements for passengers to sit in exit rows.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
How come no one has come up with a small battery powered sawzall or angle grinder which can be carried aboard by any passenger, so they can quickly hack their way through the fuselage and hop out through the opening?
A person could make a fortune selling those things!
(not saying it's without downsides lol!)
Click to expand...
Wait, does it have lithium batteries? Sorry....

And if you do get to bring one along, be sure they have depressurized before you saw through.
 
Zeldman said:
And just another 10 bucks will get you a qualified pilot.!!
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If they go to single pilot ops, I wonder if I could get a $20 discount as a non-qualified pilot. I can't fly a jet, but I can keep the wings level while the captain goes to get a sandwich and talks to the rest of the crew.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Sadly, all you have to say is "yes" when they ask you if you're willing and able to assist. Cabin crew isn't allowed to look at you and determine you'll actually cause a delay during an actual evacuation.
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That’s interesting. A friend who is a first responder and an amputee (one lower leg is prosthetic) got told by an FA that he had to move from the exit row when she saw his prosthetic. This was despite his “yes” answer, his obvious healthy/athletic physical condition, and him informing her that he is expected to help in life or death situations at work.
 
Ventucky Red said:
Sitting on an SWA flight, and there is an older guy in the exit aisle wearing a Dubeya-Dubeya-Eye-Eye veterans cap... 42nd Rainbow Division. If you know anything about these guys, they were known to the Germans as Roosevelt's SS; there were some badass mofos.. and they slugged it out against some badass mofos on the German side, let alone liberated a few concentration camps while fighting there way across Southern Germany

Anyway, this millennial hipster sitting behind him noted to the flight attendant that he seemed too old to be sitting in an important place where people's lives depended on it and that he would gladly change seats with him. Let's just say R. Lee Emery's charterer, Master Guns Hart, could have picked up a few lines for his role in Full Metal Jacket from the barrage the gentleman laid on the man-buned idiot.

Needless to say, there was applause from those around him. He drank for free, and a few of us gladly and proudly escorted him to meet his granddaughter and great-granddaughter for the first time.

Gotta to luv the Old Guys, yes they do rule.... :p :D :)
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I would have paid good money to see that verbal attitude adjustment on display. Nothing finer than watching an entitled twit getting set straight.
 
As a captain for a major air carrier… I leave it to the flight attendants if the gate agent gets that far.
I’m constantly bombarded with silly stuff from the FA’s.
I give them full authority, and I will back them.
 
The overwing exit doors on newer 737's are much easier to open than the old ones. The old ones you had to take the door out of the frame and put in on a seat or throw it out. The newer ones are spring loaded. You just remove the plastic cover and pull the handle. If you are ever in a situation where you need to open one pull the handle like you're doing a curl with a 5 pound weight. If you do it over handed, it might break your arm.

Most any one over 4 ft tall can open it. The main and entrance doors are different, and does need a little muscle.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
How come no one has come up with a small battery powered sawzall or angle grinder which can be carried aboard by any passenger, so they can quickly hack their way through the fuselage and hop out through the opening?
A person could make a fortune selling those things!
(not saying it's without downsides lol!)
Click to expand...
Added bonus: can be used to cut through the cockpit security door! Oh wait
 
Flight attendants absolutely can deny based on their observation. So can gate agents….

However, that is not their performance metric, and SADLY, unlike @Kritchlow, they usually do not get backed up by the captain.

Can’t count how many times FAs came up saying some jackass pax wouldn’t listen and wanted to talk to me. Which of course I flatly refused to do. If my FA has a problem with someone, or something, they win. They have my proxy vote, period.

I’ve had them abuse that, and they get what’s coming… but it’s an ABSOLUTE unified front to the pax.
 
Tools said:
Can’t count how many times FAs came up saying some jackass pax wouldn’t listen and wanted to talk to me
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Any pax that disagrees with a FA is a jackass in the FA's mindset. That can sometimes get the entire crew in trouble.

Recent case in Europe, plane with inop APU gets pushed from the gate and then made to wait more than 45 minutes in hot south Europe summer weather before engine start. Pax start feeling ill from heat and I hear they told the cabin crew, which proceeded to ignore them. Next the cockpit crew are under arrest for this (forgot the exact charges, but related to injuring passengers and holding them in that dangerous situation against their will).
 
Klaus M said:
This whole "Up-Selling" thing is totally out of control. I'll buy one of the super special deals from the airlines and within three days of departure the Up-Sell attack is on...

Pre-buy food, upgrade seating, free baggage, airport lounge, early loading and everything and everything else they can dream up. :eek:
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As soon as your fellow consumers stop responding positively to the bombardment and remove the profit for the airlines, the attacks will cease (or at least move to a different venue, likely to the detriment of your super special deals).
 
catmandu said:
As soon as your fellow consumers stop responding positively to the bombardment and remove the profit for the airlines, the attacks will cease (or at least move to a different venue, likely to the detriment of your super special deals).
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Yeah, the phone dinging bombardment is not really changing my life. They're is bigger problems in the world then up-selling phone messages. I like the 'Super Special Deals' enough to put up with the noise. :cool:
 
AlleyCat67 said:
I’m with the hipster here. Sounds like he had a good point regardless of the old guy’s ability to spew invective.
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You point is taken, however, this was a situation were the dress down was warranted.
 
AlleyCat67 said:
I’m with the hipster here. Sounds like he had a good point regardless of the old guy’s ability to spew invective.
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Think the hipsters only interest was in getting extra legroom he was too cheap to pay for. Man bun vs bad a$$ WW2 vet, I'll take the vet to stay cool, more important than mobility IMHO.
 
This kind of reminds me of the Douglas Adams bit where they shoot all the "phone sanitizers" off planet to save the species. Today he would have used "men with buns" instead.
 
Ventucky Red said:
Sitting on an SWA flight, and there is an older guy in the exit aisle wearing a Dubeya-Dubeya-Eye-Eye veterans cap... 42nd Rainbow Division. If you know anything about these guys, they were known to the Germans as Roosevelt's SS; there were some badass mofos.. and they slugged it out against some badass mofos on the German side, let alone liberated a few concentration camps while fighting there way across Southern Germany

Anyway, this millennial hipster sitting behind him noted to the flight attendant that he seemed too old to be sitting in an important place where people's lives depended on it and that he would gladly change seats with him. Let's just say R. Lee Emery's charterer, Master Guns Hart, could have picked up a few lines for his role in Full Metal Jacket from the barrage the gentleman laid on the man-buned idiot.

Needless to say, there was applause from those around him. He drank for free, and a few of us gladly and proudly escorted him to meet his granddaughter and great-granddaughter for the first time.

Gotta to luv the Old Guys, yes they do rule.... :p :D :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like an awesome ole guy, and I agree with your sentiments. However, what age range would you place a "millennial" at right now? Asking for a friend
 
AV8R_87 said:
Sadly, all you have to say is "yes" when they ask you if you're willing and able to assist. Cabin crew isn't allowed to look at you and determine you'll actually cause a delay during an actual evacuation.
Click to expand...
What I always found funny was a 78 year old flight attendant assessing if a 72 year old passenger can sit in an exit row!
 
35 AoA said:
Sounds like an awesome ole guy, and I agree with your sentiments. However, what age range would you place a "millennial" at right now? Asking for a friend
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Firetruck if I know.. Could you ask your friend why the question?
 
Larry in TN said:
You really need to be able to get rid of the question marks in order to say that a passenger, who says they can do it, can't do it. The regulation does not provide for extended testing. It says that "the certificate holder determines that it is likely that the person would be unable to perform..."
Click to expand...
Seems like that gives them a lot of leeway to make that determination, but you are saying it doesn't?
 
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