But when they arrived at Bristol International Airport check-in staff said they were ''too old'' to have exit seats and would be unable to operate the door in an emergency. The couple, from Stockwood, Bristol, said they felt ''hurt, humiliated and angry'' by the way they were treated.
Photo from here.
Civil Aviation Authority rules say passengers must be fit and able to operate emergency exit doors but do not set an age limit on the seats. But the Webbs say they are perfectly fit enough to operate the doors and that they were discriminated against due to their age and left embarrassed by airport staff. Staff eventually relented and allowed the couple to sit in their previously booked seats on the March 15 flight to Sharm El Sheik.
But on the return flight the airline allocated the couple seats which were not together and not in the emergency exit as they expected, despite a Thomson representative assuring them they would not have the same problem again. Mrs Webb said: ''Thomson must adopt a clear and cohesive policy about selling extra leg room seats. Being elderly does not automatically make one frail. People can be frail at any age. I do not want this to happen to us or to any one else in future.''
8 comments:
Frankly, they DO look frail. I dont' think they are being honest with themselves, I don't think there is any way they could open the emergency doors in an accident, chances are they'd be like "ooh, ahh, whats going on, wheres me teef" not "out out out everybody out".
Since when have we been paying extra for "leg room"?
If I'd known I could do that, i've have added it to several flights! Then again, I haven't flown in years.
When I asked for extra leg room (ie: the emergency seats) I was told I couldn't sit there. I'm in my forties, fit but I wear a prosthetic leg. It seems you can't be qualified as 'handicapped' and sit there.
On the topic of in-flight legroom, I was seated facing a wall on a last minute Aer Lingus flight (same flight I requested the extra leg room) and found it very uncomfortable as my leg was bent back so far the prosthetic leg cut into my leg and caused it to hinder blood flow. I asked the stewardess to reassign me and told them why. She tried but no one would trade seats with me. She came back and apologized and said I had to stay where I was. Before she left she gave me 4-5 little airline bottles of whiskey and said 'maybe this will help...'
(I had no choice but to remove my prosthetic leg for the flight)
...And you were so flabbergasterd that you completely forgot to bargain for the rest of the crate of whiskey?
Man you could have gotten rich!
=-X O:-) :-$
They may have felt 'humiliated' but they have no right to endanger other passengers. They should be thinking of others instead of themselves....
That's really strange. If tthe airlines is paid extra for the exit seats, then they should have allowed the couple to sit there. If not then why did they charge extra. No wonder the couple felt let down. And if they don't allow aged people to sit near the emergency exit area,thet must mention age limits in their rules and regulations so in the future, these kind of incidence do not occur.
Sharm El Sheikh Airport
I suspect it's not so much their age, but their apparent frailty which is the problem. Those emergency exits doors weigh about 35 - 40kg and I imagine are quite awkward to manhandle. You've got to be able to lift it up and inwards before throwing it out through the hole.
Others here are right though, things like this should've been taken into account and mentioned to the couple before selling them those specific seats.
Yeah, I think that if the airlines are going to sell those seats to people, there should be -- as Mark says -- a detailed explanation of what they need to be able to do should the emergency doors need to be opened (i.e., stay calm; lift and throw 70lb). There should also be a disclaimer saying something like the airline retains the right to refuse to seat anyone in the emergency row if personnel at the airport think they can't handle the responsibilities, and to reimburse them the surcharge.
I remember sitting in the exit row once when I was younger (and fitter). I'm sure that even then I'd have had difficulty lifting and throwing a 70ob door. The guy beside me, however -- a very corpuent man, clearly suffering from a respiratory ailment which caused him to mouth-breathe noisily and rapidly through the entire flight (I really wanted to break open the ceiling panel and get out his oxygen mask) -- certainly could not have done so. Yet it was to him that the flight attended directed all of the emergency-door instructions (I eavesdropped, figuring I might be needed as an understudy, "in the event"). So I'm glad the attendant in this story applied a bit of judgement; if it had been standard procedure (as it should be but clearly isn't), it wouldn't have come as such an unpleasant surprise to the elderly couple.
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