An Airplane Etiquette Question I Struggle With — To Stay Seated, Or Not To Stay Seated

I agree that airlines shouldn't even sell itineraries with ridiculously short connection times. I rarely need to connect when I fly but when I do, I try to avoid anything with less than 1.5-2 hours ESPECIALLY if traveling with my child. Flights start boarding like 30-45 min before departure. So even if you have a full hour to connect, with a long walk to your next gate, you could still end up barely making it if they complete the boarding early. And if you have to switch terminals, forget about it.

Frequent fliers have gotten hip to this and will research arriving/departing gates/terminals when deciding to book an itinerary with a tight connection time. However people that only travel occasionally or aren't savvy could easily make this mistake.

I was on a flight once a while back and we were transporting a deceased military member's casket in the body of the plane. The captain and announced very loud and clear that this was happening and please stay seated so the deceased can be the first one off the plane and he (the captain) would announce when that was done.

The handful of oblivious passengers who attempted to stand were quickly pulled back into their seat by surrounding passengers. I've never seen an entire aircraft follow that rule so hard before.

So, yea, announcements do work. Fact. It's just how much we as people want to respect them.

I'm so glad dipshits like JG are the minority in cases like this. Then again there's also people like me that believe in vigilante justice lurking. A simple "huh" while swinging my backpack around is the typically start. Bonus points if they have their phone in their hand and you're able to bump it free. Followed by a confused, innocent being sure to look around obliviously. By this time typically I'm far enough ahead and pushed past the blockers that I can hear their, shock, anger etc or a "hey!" trail off without ever looking back. I'm sure I've broken some screens but have never stuck around to confirm lol.

This also works great on people who stop at the top of escalators and/or block doorways.

It's not that complicated. If you are not in a hurry, and if you actually listen to the announcement, and if you are willing to be helpful to others, stay seated to let other get of the plane before you. It may not help everyone, and many people may *not listen to the announcement/*choose not to be helpful/*decide to take advantage of the situation, but the right thing to do is to allow others to get of the plane before you. Plain and simple. Nobody should struggle with that part. The part about people not listening or not being helpful, that's a problem, but that's a problem that is going to exist whether the "remain seated" approach is used or not.

It astonishes me how so many people here assume everyone's either traveling First/Business, or otherwise has the money to sit up front every single time. Seriously? A reminder to those who might have forgotten this:

1. Not everyone travels on company paid tickets
2. Not everyone has top-tier status with airlines to get "free" upgrades up front
3. For many travel is still a luxury, and might be flying on the cheapest ticket they could afford
4. Many times, travelers just aren't aware how "short" a connection is OK

Obviously I'm not saying to let others take gross advantage, but it doesn't cost anyone anything to avoid assuming shit about others. Many of you have figured flying inside out, but there are many others for whom it's still a big deal.

Thanks for your comment Brooke. Unfortunately, there will always be people that take advantage of others as this woman did on that occasion. It is frustrating to be taken advantage of by another thoughtless individual. I agree with others that airlines could improve many processes such as reducing carry on baggage to help stay on schedule, and verifying connection flight information for those that request priority to deplane. If the flight attendant can announce the specific passengers and seat numbers to deplane first upon arrival (upon verification of imminent connection) that would be even better. The point I was making in my post was that we just don't know the circumstances of the other passenger. Certainly everyone on my wife’s flight already had known arrival was 2 hours late for everyone on board. The person we might prevent from making a connecting flight might just be someone’s final opportunity to see a loved one pass away due to illness or other situation that most people would gladly remain seated to give this individual a better opportunity to make his or her connection.

Ben, I know you fly a lot, and those minutes add up, but in all honesty, what are those 5 minutes really worth to you if you are not on a tight schedule? It's not going to ruin my day letting a few people by me, and whether they have a tight connection or not, I can have a clear conscience knowing I did the right thing trying to help others. (On a side note, you almost always fly first an business, so aren't you at the very front of the plane most of the time anyways? So even if you let a couple people pass, aren't you still going to be one of the first off?)

It is always nice to help someone in need but I had a recent experience with this that left me disgusted. I now feel that flight attendants need to verify tight connections before they make an entire plane wait so that certain passengers can get off first. I also don't feel these requests should be made when a flight is on time.

On Jan. 2 I witnessed a mom and her two teenage daughters board a flight in JFK bound for CLT. I point out the familial relationship because I find it incredibly sad that a parent would be such a poor example to their children. As soon as the mom boarded the plane she made a spectle of herself to the flight attendants, we were seated in the first row so I could hear every word. She was nasty to them and I can't believe they would want to try to help her given her behavior. Her story was that they were connecting on different airlines and only had 1hr 10min to collect their luggage, re-check it and get back through security. She demanded to be let off the plane first as they were seated near the back. FYI- This flight was not late. As she told this story it was clear to me that things were not adding up. She did not provide important details such as where they were headed and what airline they were connecting to. If she indeed booked separate tickets with that tight of a layover and checked luggage then frankly she deserved to miss the next flight. Charlotte is our home airport and we have never had our luggage take less than 30 minutes to arrive at baggage claim when flying AA into CLT. Most of the time, as it was on this occasion, it is 40min. to an hour. Her baggage would need to be re-checked in at least 45 minutes prior to her next flight so frankly if her story was true this was indeed a near impossible feat.

Here's the thing, if she really did have to pick up her luggage then allowing her off the plane first would do absolutely no good. She would still have to wait with everyone else for the luggage to come out. There also weren't many more flights out that late at night so not believing her story I pulled out my phone and attempted to find a flight on a different airline that left around 1hr 10min after our flight arrived that fit the details she provided and I couldn't find one.

The flight attendants gave into this woman and indeed asked the entire plane to stay seated so that her and her daughters could de-board first. People kindly honored this request. To no surprise to me, this woman met her husband down at baggage claim and walked straight out of the airport. All I can say is that I hope this liar never actually finds herself in a situation where she really does need help making her connection. I simply can't believe that someone would make up such a story and be so nasty in order to get off the plane first. This level of entitlement is disgusting.

So while I commend flight attendants for trying to help when they can, I think they need to be very careful to only make this request when they know it can actually help people make their tight connections. In the situation I've just shared, they should have requested flight information from the passenger.

The issue is all the junk people bring into the cabin. Boarding and unboarding takes too long, not to even mention the idiots who will not sit immediately but keep standing and those who open the bin every minute.
Unboarding is an equal madhouse with some people blocking the exits while fiddling with their 6 bags.
So no need to wait as long as people bring all the junk they have into the cabin.

Airlines should force people to check in and only allow one small bag into the cabin.
It would save 10-15 mts in boarding and unboarding time.

@DaveS

Yes, one good thing coming out of AA misery is your connection is likely delayed too, so even with tight connection you should still try.

Delta on the other hand are crazy about on time departure and happen to be good at it too.

After many misconnect from delays I stop trying to run and just wait for the next flight. If they keep selling me 30 connection in ATL and never sending the Porsche anymore, I wouldn't try to make my flight either. Part of the problem is all these unrealistic minimum connection time. To make things worse, because Delta is so crazy about departure time I've seen so many people got offloaded even they made it to the gate before the cutoff time. I often standby for an earlier flight and once got pulled out for the guy who made it. Too bad DL (sad but correctly) didn't see this as IDB but did compromise as VDB and gave me some vouchers.

AA makes this request so often, it’s becoming part of the regular arrival banter for flight attendants as the aircraft taxis to the gate. It’s a clever strategy. When the short connection misses his flight because of D0 he will attribute the fault not only to the fact that his inbound was late, but also to the fact that “nobody would let me off the plane.” It’s a clever way for AA to deflect some passenger anger to something they can’t control, when in fact they did absolutely nothing to help the passenger make his connection other than make the announcement. I can hear the AA gate agent now: “Yes, people are so rude these days. Let me see what we can get you on tomorrow.”

Comments from those like JG “ Nothing is stopping that same person who booked a 45 minute connection from paying the extra money for a main cabin extra or even preferred seat. For that reason, I refuse to stay seated.” exacerbate my issues with our society. Everyone largely assumes its the fault of traveler for lack of foresight and planning. It is narcissistic to presume others lack planning and you are more important than everyone else. My wife recently missed a connection because of a very late departure through no fault of her own. A passenger had a medical emergency on the previous flight for which my wife was awaiting to board at her terminal. The inbound flight had already been delayed leaving before the medical emergency occurred. The combination caused my wife to arrive at her connection over two hours late. There was still enough time to make her connection if an announcement were made and if passengers didn't all disregard the request as JG does. My wife did make a request for this announcement in hopes of catching her flight (the last remaining flight to the destination), but the flight attendant stated they do not accommodate those requests. Unfortunately, being seated near the back of the plane, she missed her connection. FYI, many airlines no longer have counter representatives or concierge so we were scrambling to make an adjustment to her itinerary online using airport terminal wi-fi. Why must some people always think that they are more important than anyone else?

In my experience, I found the Southwest FA's are more forceful by repeating the request (including right before the door opened) and announcing the number of people who have short connection, and because of that, most people who were not in a hurry did sit. AA, on the other hand, only announced the request once or twice before the plane landed without any indication on how many people who had short connection. By the time to deplane, nobody seemed to remember.

I personally would and have followed the request, and I certainly have had short connection and found people ignoring the request to be very selfish, regardless the reason for short connection. However, if I'm not in a hurry, I let people go first, always! Pay it forward!

I'm confused how you end up being the last person off the plane. Do you just sit there thinking "wow, every single other person on this plane has a tight connection"?

Can't you just stay sitting down until the people who seem desperate to get off have gone, then get up? If you completely ignore it then you're no better than everyone else doing that.

In fact, I'd say the attitude of "wait, he's benefitting from this, I must therefore also benefit - screw the others" is one of many reasons why the US is such an unpleasant country.

Reading these comments I can see that it's not the weather or mechanics or distance to the connecting gate.
No. It's the self-loading cargo that's the problem. Jesus, how about doing what your supposed to do and listen to the FA's? ( You're probably the same self-important types that must take your baggage with you down the emergency slide). ( Didn't listen then either).
Let the dishonesty be on the ones who have to be first off for a tight connection but in actuality don't have one.
Let the arrogant slob who won't move because he's a dick live with his behavior.
Give that one honest person who actually does have that close connection the chance get off first.
What's the big deal?

@JG excatly I was’t plan to use the Lounge beacuse I had 20 minute connection but the Star Alliance Connection van (which was suppose to take me to the next plane or the terminal 2/2 Sattelite dependint on time) told me that I have 15 minutes for duty free or Lounge, and I did had 10 minutes for beer at Lufthansa Business Lounge before I had to gate and even waited for few minutes before there was Final Call because I don’t fancy to wait in jetway bridge :). If I would knew that before I would be 5 minutes longer in lounge. And then I took my 1C seat to MAD.

And I still laught to that angry guy who was trying to lecture me on connection times :), it is my discretion if I use extra minutes for lounge anyway.

Living in CLT I hear this on many, if not most flights. Usually this is after we have landed on 36R, taxied for an hour to D12, held short of the gate for twenty minutes while equipment is moved or the delayed flight already at the gate actually departs, and then waited for another ten minutes while the ill-trained gate agent takes five tries to dock the jetway correctly. When I am in first class especially in row one I will not wait because I would not delay anyone who had not managed to bolt up the aisle anyway. I’m tired of the airlines making their poor operations and execution my problem to solve and sometimes 5 minutes can make the difference between kissing my kids goodnight or missing them completely. Not a connection but also important to me. Like others have said, one can always pony up to get in the pointy end of the plane. The guy paying $83 for basic economy doesn’t get much of my sympathy, sorry. And when I’m in row 22 and don’t make the connection I certainly don’t hold it against my fellow passengers.

You should sit when the announcement happens.

The only time I've been in this situation was when I was flying DCA-MIA-BOG. I originally had a schedule with a long layover in Miami, but due to a long mechanical delay from DCA-MIA with the next flight to Miami full, I was forced on to a DC-Tampa-Miami-Bogota routing instead.

The Tampa flight departed on time. However, for a reason that was undisclosed, we sat on the tarmac for nearly an hour after leaving the gate. I realized I would have trouble making my flight from Tampa to Miami, and then the last flight to Bogota of the day.

The flight attendant did not make the "please let passengers with tight connections deplane first" announcement until after I asked her multiple times. After we landed, I loudly shamed and yelled at passengers ignoring the announcement and got them to sit down and let me deplane.

It was Tampa, so most passengers were not connecting on AA, except for a few people on my original DCA-MIA flight who were also re-routed.

I made the flight to Miami by five minutes. Letting the connecting passengers deplane first saved my trip. The other re-routed passengers thanked me for making a fuss.