(Source: TikTok video)
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When I travel solo, it’s with one shoulder bag I usually just shove under my seat, don’t even need the overhead. I’m instantly ready, but everyone is in my waaaay.
I’ve noticed more and more people taking sooo much stuff with them on board too. Like they think they are pioneers and need a covered wagons worth of provisions to weather the trip from ATL to LAX.
I suppose some of that can be blamed on the airlines for steep baggage fees but holy crap do people try and take way too much junk with them everywhere they go. So they all take 10 min to unpack.
Today you are, wait till you are a little older or sustain a life changing injury. Should there be a class on flying etiquette-absolutely. But capitalism has changed the entire experience of what flying is making it a literal hellhole except for a few people in the front of the plane… Damn I couldn’t get a better description of the USA today now if they only let everyone have firearms after say 4 hours into a flight 😂
it’s with one shoulder bag I usually just shove under my seat,
That isn’t an option for those afflicted with long legs.
As long as you aren’t packing that bag to the seams, consider just sliding your feet under the bag.
I tend to be a “1.5 bagger” in that I have a small duffel/backpack in the overhead and my backpack/messenger bag for inflight stuff. And the latter gives me easy access to my steam deck or my kobo but is also more than small enough I can just slide my legs under and get a significant amount of legroom. ALSO has the benefit of making me lean back in my seat which means I don’t care if the person in front of me “reclines”
A buddy of mine is 6’5" and he is just in hell no matter what. Like, anything short of one of the enhanced legroom rows is gonna suck whether he has a bag under the seat or not.
You have the long stride advantage so it evens out
taps head
I would simply have a comically short torso
Same. But usually I opt to sit at the back. Sometimes I get a seat to myself and if not, one of the rows is reserved for medical and always free, so they let me have that. Then on landing, it’s just a matter of laying back and catching up on my phone as the cattle crams itself into awful positions and just stands there staring at their comfy seats. But if the rear door is open, I’m straight off.
If you can’t be first, you want to be last. This is the golden rule of embarking/disemmbarking an aircraft.
To all the people telling OP they’re wrong, you don’t fly enough. The issue isn’t evenly distributed. It’s not like cars in traffic or whatever.
Airlines put the expensive seats in the front. The people who can afford them are usually much older, either traveling retirees or very late career white collar workers who have significant status. They’re the first ones holding up everyone because they take forever to find all the assorted shit (personal item, oversized roller bag, neck pillow, laptop, ipad, lost earbud, etc) they’ve stuck all over the place, which the gate agent/FAs wouldn’t admonish them for because of their aforementioned status. But they’re first class, so the peasants behind them can wait in the bread line.
After they get off (on watching you glare), depending on airline, it’s the fraction of people who are old and not rich, or don’t fly often and aren’t used to all the ritual. They’ll have placed their bag in an overhead that’s 12 rows behind them and demand everyone stop and crowd surf it up or else they’ll just sit there blocking the line.
After them come the young vacation families, you know, the ones who had the screaming baby for the last 6 hours. They couldn’t be bothered to pay for seat selection to save money so one parent is with one kid three rows ahead but needs to coral the kids behind them because the other parent was playing on a Nintendo switch for the whole flight and didn’t try to organize all the kids toys, now lost to entropy, and so the marital spat and bawling (louder now) children begin.
Then there’s you. You fly a lot so you have nothing more than two pairs of underwear and a toothbrush, all safely hidden from the TSA in your prison wallet and ready to go without so much as a nanosecond of notice, along with your phone and airpods to combat the screaming child in front of you. You got 31B, way in the back, after trying to game united’s seat assignment system by checking in only after all but the exit row seats were taken, but someone missed their flight and here you are.
Generally the legacy airlines will have the most old people, but the vast majority of people on them are very used to flying, because they know better than to book a budget airline. It’ll be slow yet ordered.
The budget airlines like united and frontier will be the opposite, lots of young spry 20 somethings, but lots of vacation families that couldn’t afford Delta… I won’t sugar coat it, it’s gonna be a shit storm. The FAs have been contractually required to keep everyone at the very edge of their sanity through the enforcement of a variety of draconian company policies (like turning on all the lights half way through a redeye to scream about some credit card offer), so things are primed for chaos. Lots of shoving and yelling. Everyone’s reviewing the Wikipedia “list of crimes of passion” to see if this qualifies.
Then there’s spirit. Half the people on the flight will be coming down off of something they got on the dark web by the time you arrive at the gate. You’ve already seen at least a liter of blood spilled from various fist fights. Everyone was already up and crushing each other in the aisle long before the captain even briefed the approach. The FAs have locked themselves in the lavs by now and the captain (an FFDO) has barricaded the flight deck with charts and duct tape and is aiming his questionably modded P320 at he door. Welcome to the new season of Hunger Games - Spam Can. You’re on your own, good luck and good hunting.
that was beautiful
you should write a book
Where’s Chapter 2? 🤓
One other thing is that the people should allow other people who are already ready to walk out pass them before standing and taking out their carry-on. Most times I’ve seen all passanger wait for each row taking out their carry-ons sequentially instead of 10 taking them out at the same time. If everyone would be me with a carry-on it’d take around 5-10m since I only take the aisle when I’m ready to leave and/or there is another person taking out their carry-on in front or behind me.
So the correct way to do it is for people like you to skip the line? People who get up and move forward make me want to go postal. They exude “fuck everyone” energy and they think the fact that I stayed seated a few extra seconds is their invitation to skip line. Fuck that.
It’s not skipping the line, it’s waiting longer until there’s a time where you don’t hold it up and allow others to pass.
I am so confused by this thread and this comment might take the cake. It just feels like we’re all speaking different languages and none of them have anything to do with the original post. People are slow was the point. But the whole thread is people changing the subject in ways that make me say “… what ?”. Did I accidentally ingest hard drugs this morning or what?
What fucking line? What are you queueing for? Is there a Bruno Mars concert at the other end of the jetway or something?
If I’m ready to get off the plane and there’s room for me to leave me seat, I’m getting off the plane. I’m not waiting to consult with you to make sure it’s “my turn” to enter the fucking airport.
So you’re one of the selfish dickheads. Cool.
The selfish dickheads are the ones who get their panties in a wad when people get off the plane before them
You undoubtedly also skip lines at counters because you’re special
Waiting in line to purchase something is entirely different from exiting a plane and I’m disappointed that I have to point that out to you.
I just don’t (entirely) agree about vacation families. Just like the airlines made their bad with paid checked luggage causing more cabin luggage, they did the same with paid seating. Most families wouldn’t care where they sit - so long as they’re together.
I male sure we always sit together, but for some, additional 200-500 USD/EUR for the whole trip is significant and may account for a good portion of the holiday budget.
Now one may say that then they shouldn’t fly, but why? Again - airlines made this problem.
this is accurate except for the bit about United - who the fuck flies United? don’t people know that they break guitars?
Seeing the crowd of people squeeze off the Airplane like a tube of toothpaste only to all congregate around baggage claim is the same energy as passing aggressively on the street only for you to pull up next to them at the redlight.
Honestly i just want to stand after a long flight. I do not fit well in the seats, my shoulders are significantly wider than the seats. If I end up in a middle seat I have to roll my shoulders in. If I’m in an aisle or window seat I have to lean away from the other person. Not comfy
This only includes the people with a carry-on though.
Don’t do that. Don’t be the dickhead who stands and blocks everyone. You’re not going to move faster, but you will inconvenience everyone around you. This is stupid. Just be a normal human and wait your turn patiently so others can get their things. The door out is people-sized, and you’ll not extrude others by a few seconds, so sit the fuck down. It’s not about you. It looks like OP is one of these dickheads, standing in the aisle and blaming others for the congestion.
It’s not about moving off faster than everyone else, because that’s not how this works. Just fucking sit and wait like an adult. It’s not ‘get off the plane’, because you can’t. It’s ‘sit the fuck down’ and stop making it about you.
e: look at all those people seated in the forward rows, and OP standing in the aisle bunched against the first man in frame. All those seated people will have to wait to access their overheads until OP barges by, but it’s the others standing ahead of OP in the aisle who are the problem. 🙄
Don’t do that. Don’t be the dickhead who stands and blocks everyone.
Sir/ma’am, this is the internet. We can write long comments but no one is going to listen to us irl.
For what it’s worth, I agree with the sentiment of your post.
I am insanely confused by this comment. So it slows down deboarding for some people to be already standing with their things ready to move forward, and speeds things up for literally everyone to first have to stand and then get their things? Seems like a fraction of the plane being ready when the doors open would inevitably speed things up a little. Sidenote: the real dickheads imo are the ones who get up and then move up to the front of the plane. They are effectively skipping line to get off and it’s such a dick move. I want to strangle people who do that.
But back to the post, what OP and I seem to notice is just how damned slow people are. If I have a window seat and a bag overhead, it still probably takes me under 15 seconds to go from seated to having my bag and moving. I watch people toward the front take FOREVER to do the same thing. Then they have a bunch of kids and that magnifies the issue even more.
The moment the seatbelt sign goes off, a bunch of people always stand in the aisle, even though the exit door won’t open for several minutes and even though several of them are a dozen rows from their belongings.
They can’t deboard yet, and are only making themselves an impediment, so those in forward rows can’t even try to access the bins. In this photo, like on most flights, the majority of people in the forward seats can’t stand, because the aisle is filled with people who can’t deboard yet, likely because the door hasn’t opened yet.
This saves the bargers at best 30 seconds at the expense of everyone else forward in the plane, and it’s very rude.
The problem is obviously that the people moved forward, not that they’re standing… Standing/stretching makes total sense from every angle. It confuses me greatly how many people in the thread are mad that people stand up.
At the risk of sounding boomer despite not being boomer, have others noted a decline in basic decency with deplaning? In the past maybe two years or so even I’ve never seen so many people from the back of the plane rush ahead into the aisle blocking people in front of them from getting out and disrupting the hell out of the standard row by row front to back organized way to get off a plane. Last. Flight I took when I got into the tunnel some lunatic behind me tried to trample me, stepped on the heel of my shoe and ripped my shoe off. Not even a “sorry” Modern air travel is the epitome of enshitification.
It shouldn’t at all be a surprise, since Covid, reports of “air rage incidents” spiked about 1000% and then remained elevated ever since.
People are no longer able to be in enclosed spaces with each other because everyone is paranoid of everyone else, mental problems don’t get treatment, they get communities of supporters, and every American has a custom algorithm that feeds them specific, atomizing perspectives of a world we once all shared. Even basic decency is out the window because we are abandoning any sense of community with our fellow citizens.
I mean, imo we should all collectively decide to deboard from in to out, not row by row. Makes way more sense, since two columns can stand up and grab their bags from the overhead, then two whole columns just walk off the plane. As it is, literally the whole plane is blocked from exiting by every single row as they stand there struggling to get their bags free.
If you have a kid with you, or some other circumstance like that, sure, take them with you. But for everyone else deplaning by column makes a ton more sense.
Sounds great. They could just turn the lights on one column at at time as a signaling strategy. Of course it doesn’t solve the God forsaken cursed chaos that is baggage in an overhead further back than one’s seat. That is like a three body level type of conundrum.
If that happens, you just wait in your row until the plane is empty.
Ah yes, collective decision making, so easy, especially with strangers.
I know, I know, it’s a pipe dream. Doesn’t stop me from fantisizing each time I’m on a plane.
I just assume that deplaning is not happening until people 2 rows ahead stand up to grab their carryons. Everything before that is part of the flight experience.
Zero stress.
Yes it’s insane. I was on a flight recently, we got in 15 minutes early and the flight attendant came over the PA asking to let people with tight connections off first. I was bewildered, we’re 15 minutes early, just deplane like normal. I didn’t have a connection, but I do have things in my life I need to attend to.
just say you have a connection?
From my experience, rushing the front of a plane during deplaning is common in Asia. I noticed it the most in Thailand, China, and India, but I’ve admittedly only had a few travels there. I’ve asked a few Asian natives about this trend, and the general consensus so far seems to be that, especially for China and India, there is a sense of “everyone for themselves” due to the sheer population density in many areas. If you don’t push forward, you won’t make it onto a crowded train.
I have seen much less of this in Europe and North America, except for the occasional eager individuals or small group. In those cases, I haven’t noticed any perceivable pattern in ethnicity. If I had to pick out a trait that comes to mind, I most often notice it in younger men. It could be confirmation bias, though.
I can’t remember a time in the last 30 years where things were different. People have always sucked.
I fly several times a year and haven’t really noticed that? I usually sit towards the back anyways though.
But over all it’s good if people hate flying since we are not supposed to fly anyway. Yay!
I saw someone itt say that it speeds up deplaning for them to rush to the front like you’re saying.
It likely does. The chaotic bumrush wouldn’t be permitted by the airlines if it didn’t work. The sense of panic in promotes is probably good for deplaning averages. Like so many things that are good for corporations, it’s very damn unpleasant for customers.
No, it doesn’t speed up deplaning for some asshole to block me from getting my bag down and make me have to wait until later because they think they’re special. It’s a line and they’re skipping it.
Are you making assumptions or do you have stats on this?
If you did you would’ve shared them.
I’m betting on the money. If you think the airlines haven’t looked at whether it would be more expedient and therefore profitable to organize deplaning or leave things to animal instincts you are underestimating their greed.
Dude why do you think the airlines are in a hurry? Lol
Everything they do is slow and behind schedule. They do not care, they already have your money. It doesn’t save them anything to deboard a couple minutes faster.
Edit: I could probably list several things they could do to for sure save time but they don’t do because again, they already have your money
You aren’t in traffic. You are traffic.
Just stop flying altogether, we’re in the middle of a worsening climate crisis. We can’t afford ourselves to fly anymore.
I love that video (and enjoyed the paper) but even the modified Steffen is bullshit. People will inevitably sit in the wrong row (sometimes on purpose, sometimes because they didn’t pay attention what number started that block of seats and can’t tell if “13” in between two rows is the first or second, they looked at the wrong ticket, etc) and it still falls apart for the reason people want to get on a plane sooner than later: Overhead bins are too small for the amount of luggage on a plane and people are monsters who put ALL their bags up there before sitting down.
My understanding is that, in practice, the best model tends to be what Southwest used to do (before everyone figured out how to abuse it). You board by number/group and just sit wherever the fuck you want to. Families group up and as long as you are in teh first half or so you are all but guaranteed your preferred seat type (window/aisle).
Combine that with no large bags (under seat or checked. nothing in between) and you would have a REALLY effective model that all passengers hate.
There’s an effect I see in situations like this where the people in a big hurried rush end up being slow asses because apparently they don’t care about this working efficiently, they just care about when they can stop waiting.
On a plane these are the people who leap out of their seat and block your row, only to start searching for their bag once it’s their turn to get off the plane.
I see the same from drivers at red lights. If there are multiple lanes waiting to go, and one car has to inch forward every 5 seconds even though they are already way past the line, then in my very limited anecdotal experience there’s like a 90% chance when the light turns green they just sit there for a few seconds after I start going.
When I’m dictator, impatience will be abolished and punishable by fine or imprisonment.
You have my vote but only if you promise extra special treatment for the people who stand shoulder to shoulder right up against the baggage claim conveyor at the airport. And the ones who rush into full elevators trying to unload.
The amount of overlap in those two groups will probably save your Patience Police a bunch of time and resources.
Swift execution for those mentioned!!
Take it from somebody who flies a lot:
Theorycrafting about the best way to load/unload a plane is pointless.
Bring a bottle of water on your plane. Bring some headphones and make sure they are charged. Make sure if halfway through the flight you even feel a little like you need to pee, do it in flight.
When the plane lands keep your headphones popped in, and chill out until you’re off the plane.
The main reason I like a window seat is because it means I don’t have anyone freaking out beside me that I haven’t stood up as soon as the plane stops rolling. I’m just gonna sit here and read thanks.
I want the safety announcement at the start of the flight to say:
“You are in a flying metal coffin. Now imagine this coffin filling with smoke and fire. This plane only passes safety regulations because we simulated unboarding it with everyone behaving perfectly, leaving all of their crap behind. In an emergency, you MUST leave your stuff behind. Your life depends on it. The lives of everyone around you depend on it. If you see someone trying to take stuff with them, you MUST use whatever level of force is necessary to stop them. Even lethal force is justified. You must be prepared to tear someone to pieces if they don’t leave their stuff behind. The lives of you and your family depend on the asshole in front of you letting their laptop burn.”
That’s the kind of boarding announcement I want to hear!
I honestly think most people are twice as slow as me, and it adds up so fast. I am always so ready to get off the plane but it seems like most people aren’t for some reason? They must enjoy the cramped farttube experience much more than I do. I’ve often just spent hours with some asshole rubbing up against my elbow and I’m ready to gtfo.
I have kids now so some of this applies less but!
I totally agree with you. I don’t usually have a checked bag when it’s just me, so there’s no waiting around the baggage claim to look forward to. I DO NOT stop to pull my overhead bag. I’ve either got it under my seat, already pulled it from the overhead, or I fuckin eyeball that thing like there’s about to be a missile intercept (because there is) and I grab and pull while I walk. Once I leave my seat there is no pause. In the same way, if I’m inside on the window, I’m watching for space and when middle seat moves I follow. None of this “oh shit I forgot the light turned green”.
Even now with kids we are only slightly slower than that. I have to let the gremlins (who you probably didn’t know were on the plane because they’ve been hyper entertained out of their fuckin minds) be line leader to walk off the plane and I need enough time to stand up and get the bags off the seat behind me onto my body to urban pack mule that shit out of here.
What I’m NOT doing is texting my boyfriend oblivious to the cues being presented to me, smashing through the line because I’m an inconsiderate fuckwit, or standing up when it’s my turn and gazing into the overheads like I’m lost in the Arby’s menu. Stage your shit and get the fuck off the plane without stopping, then walk like you got some place to be or move to the side. No big deal.
More importantly than any of that though, I’ve got this really weird superpower where I can listen to what the fuck the FAs say. If someone needs to get off the plane first, I can stay seated and wait for them to haul ass off the plane. Or at least I would, except it’s always like a herd of cattle with no awareness instantly reacting to the sound of the seatbelt light turning off no matter what.
If they managed where luggage was stored in the overhead, they could reduce it 10 fold. The whole wait is because people need to go back x rows past people standing to get their luggage. Even if they made everyone sit and deboard in zones it could be way faster.
The luggage problem has only got worse and worse over the past decade, and by the airlines’ own making. Carriers all started trying to make extra cash by charging for checked luggage, which incentivises people to take carry-on only, up to the maximum size and quantity of carry-on they are permitted.
If bags could be checked for free and people took only an under-seat carry-on for the things they need in flight it wouldn’t be a problem, but we know that’s never going to happen.
Agreed it’s a combo of higher seat density and way more checked bags.
I swear in the 90s getting off a plane felt way quicker.
The problem is underallocated overhead space. You give us maximum dimensions, and you know the number of seats. Fucking have sufficient overhead space.
The amount of space is the amount of space. You can’t create more, because it’s literally constrained by the roof of the plane. It’s already maxed out.
The only thing they could do to make sure there was “enough space” is to have less tightly packrd seats and carry less people, which again they aren’t going to do for the obvious reason - profit.
Or - reduce the max carry on baggage dimensions, which I’m sure people would equally complain about. And would make them look worse against other airlines which “allow” bigger bags, despite there not being enough space to put them!
If bags could be checked for free
I’m skeptical. I fly quite often and it is normal for gate agents to openly beg people to gate check their bags (for free) and be faced by a crowd of dead eyed travelers unwilling to part with their max size carry on roller luggage.
I wouldn’t discount passengers irrationally hanging onto their luggage for some sense of control.
It’s this. Stay the fuck down until your row is clearing.
There is a faster method of deplaning. Inside-out is faster. All the aisle seats get their stuff and get off. Then middle, then window
Unfortunately it was never implemented because it makes it difficult to charge extra for higher class zones. It’s also very difficult to get people to actually do it
It would also split up people who are travelling together, so there’s no way it’s happening.
I think they should only let you put it in the overhead if it’s over your seat. It’s full? Tough shit. Check it.
That would slow down boarding exponentially. It just takes one or two assholes to need to have flight attendants stationed throughout the entire cabin making sure people use their bins.
Rule of thumb: if you are anything past the first peasant boarding group, look ahead. If things look crowded? Find the first mostly empty bin and just put your bag up there so that you can grab it on your way out. Otherwise you are gambling that there will be an opening closer to where you actually sit which inevitably is five rows behind you.
And that (and lounge access and not needing to manage miles for status) is why I ended up just getting the fancy credit card for my airline group of choice. Priority boarding means it doesn’t matter where I sit: I have “my” bin.
This is my hell.
Humans are the literal worst.
Why stress yourself like that? 😆
Just wait in your seat a few minutes longer, you even have an internet connection now. And the best part is, you then don’t have to walk together with that crowd, and then your baggage is probably also already on the belt when you’re there to pick it up.
