For what it’s worth, I’d totally moved…it would make that person feel more comfortable…and it doesn’t bother me if a person has different religious beliefs than i do.
I don’t believe that.
People have been greeted by police at the gate for such disruptive behaviors…not that I’m advocating such an over-reaction, but if I were running an airline I’d be tempted to put every one of them on my own no-fly list. THey are in fact endangering the plane and all of the other passengers.
Then there was the time when I was in the middle seat between a 6 and 8-year old while their mother was across the aisle. I offered to switch seats with her, but she declined. I then had to deal with the kids whining and passing stuff back and forth and the mother standing in the aisle reaching over me to attend to the kids. Not cool.
Bet she’d try parking in those convenient blue parking spots that are always so close to the building.
@notelling, wow, that was definitely uncool on her part! Incredibly inconsiderate!
162- I guess she was just at the end of her rope, but I think I'd have had to involve one of the flight attendants. Or else I'd have just insisted the kid trade me the window seat. Obviously she wanted a buffer between the two of them. Wow Wow Wow
Okay - once when I was at the end of my rope, I made reservations with my husband and kids all seated together in a row and me in a different part of the plane. But I didn’t leave empty seats between the kids or husband. And on that flight one kid got sick all over my husband. He was so very calm about it all and that kept the kid calm. Kid thought his breakfast just hadn’t agreed with him. Seemingly didn’t really notice all the turbulence.
“Yes, he should probably be the one who changes his seat. But if the plane is full, him moving is going to require SOMEONE to move. Is it okay for him to ask another man to move into his old seat, more so than for him to ask the woman to move?”
Of course. There’s a complete difference between those two things. These men stand there and expect the woman to move and they retain their assigned seat.
Well, in (some) fairness, maybe what they do is simply tell the flight attendant that they can’t sit there, since there is a woman sitting there, and then expect the flight attendant to solve the problem. It seems to me that what the flight attendant might do is immediately lead the man to the middle seat in the back row by the bathroom that doesn’t recline. Believe me, whoever is in that seat will happily jump up to go elsewhere.
Right. The obnoxious part is that these men are expecting to keep THEIR seat.
And there’s more - elbow jabbing a seat poaching…
I traded my aisle seat for the window seat for a Miami Dolphin. His wife had middle seat. I need to get up often, but this man was so big, he needed the aisle more than I. They were a nice couple.
I pay extra for aisle seats on Spirit, and will upgrade to Preferred seat on AA if necessary. If this is such an issue, why can’t the ultra-religious man call the airline and request to be seated next to a man? Surely the airlines have records of people who have already reserved seats.
Because the airline should not be releasing info about passengers to others. Because i shouldn’t be tagged for seating purposes as male, female, black, white, Jewish, Catholic, straight, gay, right-handed, left-handed … Only those characteristics which are pertinent to flying (I am a frequent flyer with x status, I requested a certain meal, I requested a window seat, I sm traveling with a child and cannot occupy an exit row).
*There are four handicapped seats on a bus. She takes over two of them. It has only happened once in my 30 years of commuting that there were more genuinely handicapped people on the bus than seats, *
It can be hard to tell.
Some people are old/overweight/just look ill, and they sit in the handicapped seats. I wouldn’t expect them to move.
However, I had several instances after my knee replacement surgery, when I was accompanied by my cane/crutches, that there were ZERO seats on the bus, and I was expected to stand.
when that happened, if I was going to be riding for more than 20 minutes, I picked out someone who I judged could stand more easily than I, and shamed them into getting up.
I did have to raise my voice and wave my cane around.
The worst offenders are men my age, 50-60, they act entitled.
The quickest to give up their seats are older women 70-80, who perhaps felt young giving their seat to me?
Also young people about 24-28yr old.
But those middle aged guys, they are so used to ignoring women my age, that they are very good at it.
I still don’t get why this bus woman gets to decide who she " allows " to sit next to her. It isn’t for her to decide.
She sounds incredibly inconsiderate to me , even if she says it politely. Once is too often.
I once flew in the middle seat next to my husband and a man who was lacking in personal hygiene for a red-eye. Wished he had asked to change his seat
What does she do if those four seats are already occupied (preferably by those who are legally supposed to have priority for those seats)?
I’m guessing that the bus woman reserves the seat next to the window so people can’t plop next to her, they would have to climb over her.
You can’t see the distinction between a pax who is physically unable to move and a pax who is able-bodied and is CHOOSING to make a fuss?
If the pax is that rigid in his religious views, then he should just buy an empty seat nxt to him. Or he could travel on low passenger load flights (generally unpopular travel times) and ask the agent to block the seat next to him. If the flight isn’t full, the agent can do it. I’ve had success in asking agents to do this.
These guys are just going out of their way to be jerks, bcs they’ve discovered that when they ask they usually get their way. On the few occasions when people don’t roll over for them, they have hissy fit, public piety display and pull the religion card.
For what its worth, while I’m no fan of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, the prohibition in this case would apply equally to men and women - theoretically, we should be just as likely to hear about an Orthodox woman refusing to sit next to a male passenger. I can think of a few possible explanations for the fact that this is not the case:
- It happens, but because it isn't interpreted as demeaning, the request to switch seats is generally met fairly quickly, and is unlikely to seem newsworthy.
- ultra-Orthodox women, as the primary caretakers of their many children, travel less than their spouses, and when they do travel, are less likely to be flying alone. Therefore, they are normally seated with family members, or have enough family members on the plane that they can switch seats with them if necessary.
- The women are just as uncomfortable with the situation as the men, but have been socialized to be more deferential and don't feel entitled to cause a stink.
As a Jew, I’m much more disturbed about ultra-O attempts to remove women from the public sphere than I am by sex segregation; I think it is nuts not to sit next to a member of the opposite sex on a plane, but that is less conceptually offensive to me than those practices which have the effect of restricting women’s opportunities or visibility. For this reason, I’d probably agree to a request to change to a comparable or superior seat on a plane, if asked in a respectful fashion. I wouldn’t blame anyone else for declining, though, and I think if passengers are holding up a flight demanding that their request be met, they should be escorted off by security.
For those of you who are Jewish and/or know the orthodox rules: What would happen if an ultra orthodox man has a heart attack and the only doctor on board is a woman? Are they allowed to accept the professional services of a woman? I’m just curious.