It Seems Like We've Forgotten How to Get Off a Plane Like Decent Human Beings

 

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The ancient etiquette texts haven't simply been lost. They've been completely forgotten. While certain parts of the social contract have changed for the better—for example, pants aren't confined to be worn by only one gender these days— other parts have deteriorated completely, perhaps most notably in the travel sphere. Waiting your turn to disembark the airplane? As we recently learned, there is a very cutesy and demure way to behave on airplanes, but clearly, the lesson is lost on the people who treat exiting the plane like they are trying to win the 100-meter sprint. 

This behavior is certainly becoming more common in a post-pandemic manner-free world. The brotherly shove to get off the plane fastest is a behavior that has worsened as flying gets less comfortable and more common. Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus on whether waiting to exit the plane is a necessary form of plane etiquette. Apparently, some people actually find it totally acceptable. In a Reddit thread, one person shared their wife's correct point of view: "She says that if you are in, say, Row 10, you MUST wait for people in Row 9 to leave their seats before you proceed to disembark."

The spouse's opinion? "My POV is that they have the right-of-way, so to speak, only IF they are standing AND ready. She says that even if they are NOT ready, you must wait for them. As a corollary to this, if you're fast enough, it is perfectly acceptable to me to, as soon as the fasten-seat-belts signs turn off, to jump off your seat and proceed as fast as you can down the aisle."

The poster then opened up voting to other Redditors to determine if more people agreed whether: a) etiquette says you should wait for the rows ahead of you to disembark or b) it is OK to move ahead up the aisle if the passengers on those rows are not ready.

Unfortunately for those of us who were raised to wait our turn, 306 people voted that it was OK to move ahead, as opposed to the 132 who said it was better to wait. However, there was more dissension in the comments, with many clarifying scenarios that added acceptable caveats to the "always wait" rule.

"Your wife is right, you are wrong," one user wrote. "However, I would say that if someone isn't ready to deplane in a row ahead of you, and is still sitting or fiddling with their bag, you can go ahead of them. But if they're standing in the aisle getting bags, just wait."

The 100% exception to this rule is if you have a tight connection and need to get off the plane quickly. In that case, though, you should inform the people around you what the situation is, so at least when you bolt toward the front, other passengers will be ready for you to come barreling down the aisle.

But if you're just rushing out of the plane because you don't want to be there any longer? Literally, no one does. Who wants to sit on a hot plane after it has landed? The rest of us smite you, buddy.