One thing that never ceases to amaze me about flying is how people still cannot grasp the concept of an assigned seat. How many times have you been on a plane only to hear the inquiry, “Excuse me, do you have 8C?” Passenger 1 is clearly confused. He has 8C. How can passenger 2 have 8C. Something is wrong. Someone is on the wrong plane? Is it me!?! (This actually happened to me once. I boarded and arrived at my seat only to find someone else sitting there. When we compared boarding passes it turns out he was headed to Calgary while I was headed to St. John’s. It’s a long way from Toronto to Calgary headed east. He bolted from the plane and I took my seat.)
But back to today’s flight. Passenger 2 is in the wrong seat. Perhaps she boarded early and, when faced with a sea of empty seats, was simply too overwhelmed to figure out which one belonged to her. I’ll just take this one…it looks comfy. So now we have a line stretching up the aisle as people wait to move past row 8 and on to their seats while passenger 2 fumbles to find the boarding pass that she has managed to lose in the past 2 minutes and 10 seconds since she sat down.
The flight attendant announces, “Please move into the row while you stow your baggage so other people can pass.” But poor Passenger 1 has no row to move into. I feel bad for the guy, I do. He could just take 8D, it is empty, but then we’d start a ripple effect. Thank God some people have morals.
Eventually Passenger 2 locates her boarding pass and triumphantly holds it high, “I’m in 7C!” The guy just stares at her…yes, we realize you are ignorant of the ways of an aircraft, but please tell me you can read simple numbers.
“This is 8C,” he points out, gesturing to the number right above her head.
“Oh…well where is 7C?”
…
She stands and everyone does the backwards shuffle to make room for her to move forward one row to 7C. It takes 3 trips for her to collect her carry-on bag, purse, coffee, iPod and headphones that she has already plugged into the TV jack. Finally she flops into her seat and the guy tries to shove his carry-on into an already crowded overhead bin and drops into 8C.
Finally order is restored to the aircraft and the passengers waiting in the aisle begin the forward shuffle to find their seats. Disaster averted, we can proceed to Toronto.
I’m in 6A, so I glance behind me to see passenger 2 checking her boarding pass again and then silently counting the rows ahead of her. It’s alright, I want to say, the people that made the aircraft can’t count either. This side of the plane starts at row 2. It’s a wonder anyone found their seat at all.
Sherry Myles is a Travel Consultant with MagicalTrips.ca ~ TPI (www.MagicalTrips.ca). She enjoys flying, and rules, and wishes the two could coexist happily. She lives with her family in YYT.
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