Getting out from a middle seat
 

You are on a plane. You have an aisle seat. The person next to you needs to get out of his/her seat for any reason at all. You don't know the person. Do you prefer that the person wakes you to get out, climbs over you while trying not to wake you, or sits suffering silently until you wake up?

I prefer to be wakened. It is an excuse for me to make sure I have an opportunity to move my legs a bit. I really would prefer that the person not have to suffer or go through some type of air gymnastics to get out.

What is your preference?

Since I can fall asleep if I'm tired enough, I don't mind being waken. I usually tell my seatmate feel free to wake me when he/she needs to get out.

Depends on how big a rear end they are packing :)

I have had a few go by my face that I wish I had been given fair warning about.

Personally when I am in the middle and have to go, I debate the air gymnastics move first then calculate whether the Russians will give me a "10" or not. Otherwise, I hold it as long as I can and pray my snoring, drooling seat neighbor wakes up soon.

A bump on the elbow from a flight attendant service cart going by usually does the trick ... :)

Regardless of what you do, *please* don't yank the seat in front of you to get up, I'm sitting there and you'll wake *me* up. Use your arm rests instead. It works!

I can't sleep on a plane, so the problem has never come up.

If it's a longer flight where it's likely that I will sleep, I often will tell the person beside me not to be shy about waking me up because I wake up and fall back asleep very easily.

I usually put myself in their shoes. It sucks to have a middle seat. Therefore, I would tell the person in advance that I don't mind if he/she wakes me up to get up. If I get up to go to the restroom, I might sometimes ask if the others in my row want a chance to stretch their legs.

As above, even though I'm not asleep, at the start of the flight, I usually say to my middle-seat neighbor, something about "don't be shy" asking me, if you need to get up. I prefer to stand up into the aisle and let them out, rather than have someone try to climb over me.

I use a sleep med on night time transoceanic flights. I tell the person next to me that he/she shouldn't bother waking me to access the corridor. Just climb right over me, I don't mind a bit. I do find myself hoping that the person seated next to me can actually manage that maneuver---I'm not too big, but if he/she is, or just isn't very limber for some reason then it might present a problem, in which case I'm rousable.

Great point from Matt re pushing yourself up using your arm rests rather than using the seat back in front of you.

I try to get the aisle seat on the center section so I can go to sleep or just zone out with my eyeshades and headphones knowing those in the center have a second route out.

Anytime I am in an aisle seat I do try to remember to tell my neighbors not to be shy about letting me know when they need to get out--otherwise I will lie there for hours at a time, skipping the dinner, movie etc.

Once I couldn't communicate with those in the center and I felt bad when, after getting up to go to the restroom and stretch hours into the flight, the couple from the center center seats were up retrieving items from the overhead and making lots of adjustments. I think they had been waiting a long time. Maybe they had lightly touched my arm or shoulder and I just thought it was plane jostling.

When stuck, I tend to wait as long as I can before I disturb the sleeper.

"Regardless of what you do, *please* don't yank the seat in front of you to get up, I'm sitting there and you'll wake *me* up. Use your arm rests instead."

Exactly, Matt! This is a big pet peeve of mine, asleep or awake...

I don't believe it is possible to get out of a middle seat behind a fully reclined seat without grabbing the seat, unless you can levitate. What they need is grab bars on the overhead.

I do it every time. Grab your own damn seat.

People grab the seat back in front of them because it's there and they can see it and it seems like the logical thing to do. From a mechanical/physical point of view it's actually easier to push yourself up using your hands on the arm rests than it is to pull yourself up by reaching out and grabbing the seat back in front of you. Tuck your feet under your seat (to the extent possible) to make this maneuver work, and you may even find that you don't even need the extra help of pushing against the arm rests if your thigh muscles are strong enough.

I forgot--I never try to climb over someone unless it is a bulkhead, window, or business class seat with extra leg room (or my husband in the next seat). Just too high probability of stepping on feet, bumping the person in the aisle seat, or being jostled and becoming better acquainted than I had intended.

I prefer to be woken up. Chances are I'm not asleep anyway. I don't appreciate strangers crawling over me, nor do I like to crawl over them. I'm always willing to get up to let someone out, it's just common courtesy.

I prefer they just go past/over the person on the other side of them! ;)

The one time I was in an aisle seat (for longer than a 45 minute flight) I simply told the person next to me to let me know if they wanted out and I'd be happy to move. This is why I always try to reserve a window seat, then it's simply not an issue.

As for yanking on the seat in front of you when you get up, why do people do that?? How do you stand up from any other kind of chair? You either just stand up or you push up from the arm rests. Even if the seat is laid back it shouldn't be an issue. Granted, if you're older or have visible mobility/strength issues then you get a pass and can use whatever you need.

so if you have invisible mobility/strength issues you don't get a pass?
maybe instead of being judgemental know it alls you could assume that people are doing the best they can and are not living their lives in order to irritate you.

<How do you stand up from any other kind of chair?>

Well normally there is not another chair with it's back about a millionth of an inch in front of you.

It might be helpful if the person in the window seat or the middle seat check with the people they might have to crawl over before the plane even leaves the ground to see what their preference would be. (I am usually in the window seat because I seldom need to get up and I don't like being crawled over, being bumped by carts or people walking the aisle or, in rare occasions, having something fall out of the overhead bin on me.)

Jubilada,

I simply meant that there are different expectations for a 17 year old and a 70 year old, someone who appears healthy and someone who appears to have some physicial limitations. Of course there are issues you can't see at a glance (balance issues especially) however for the most part you can tell if someone is yanking on the seat because they actually need the help getting up or because they just really didn't think about it. If someone needs the help they usually give you a look of "hi, excuse me" vs the look from the clueless of "oh hey, there's a person there, whatdayaknow?! Dang it, why is your hair caught in my ring?"

This is also a bit of a pet peeve for me because people doing it tend to yank on my hair. I have very long hair, but it's usually pulled back, but somehow the person behind me manages to not just yank the top half of my seat back but getting a handful of hair in there too and pulling like crazy. That hurts!

I really wasn't assuming that people were doing it simply to irritate me, I generally assume that they're just being clueless. Based on what I see day after day, no, I really don't assume that people are always doing the best that they can. Granted, I often work on a large college campus.

Seat back in front? Well it is usually an inch from my nose --moments after the plane takes off and stays there except for moments during meal service and then as soon as possible back in front of my nose. Firstly can we think about whether or not we really really need the seat to go all the way back for the entire flight? I was recently on an Air Transat plane where, when you reclined the seat, it was your own space you were making smaller -- the seat shifted mostly foward as opposed to only the back going backwards. That seems more fair -- using up your own space.

For me -- I can't get out of the seat without using the seat back in front of me because I can't bend forward far enough to get me upright, the way I do from a chair at home - and because that seat back is an inch from my nose!

Another perspective,
Tansay

I suspect the people who say they can do it are, shall we say, vertically challenged. People have to lean forward to stand up, and I think with the seat in front of you reclined, your leaning space is gone. My impression is that with the seat in front of you fully reclined, there is not even space to stand fully erect, but I could be wrong; I'll have to measure that the next time I'm in such a seat.

At a recent trade show a manufacturer was offering a seat that was something like a saddle with a back, which I think did not recline at all. The selling point was that the pitch was 20 inches, rather than the customary 31 or 32 inches. Airline executives were reported to be salivating at the display.

I also have to grab the seat in front of me. It's not only closer but alleviates the possibility of missing the arm rest and instead putting my hand on my companion's crotch! It's dark and hard to see. The A380 (my last flight ex LAX to SYD) has entertainment controls in the arm rest, which is in many cases left open and touching it would make something happen, be it a film start, light switch go on, call attendant, etc. I can never sleep on planes, even if travelling in business class.

Grabbing the seat in front makes it easier for one to get up - if the person in the aisle chair won't get up. That said, if the aisle person has got up and into the aisle to let me past, then the arm rest is a good option.

It depends if the seat in front of me is in a full reclining position. If it's up straight or even half way, you can stand up without touching it. But when it's in full recline practically in your lap, you really don't have much choice (although I guarantee you I've never grabbed anyone's hair-do in doing so, I'm as careful as possible not to jiggle and pull, just rest my hand on the top).

Iowa_Redhead: My pet peeve is being judges by appearances. I like life better when I assume people are doing the best they can. I know it isn't always true, but it is a way I prefer to think.

I meant judged, not judges. I need to preview more effectively.

I'm looking forward to our flight in Nov. to Israel. I picked our seats, and hope they don't change. We have two of four seats across in middle section, one aisle seat and the one next to it, so husband and I will only have to climb over each other, and no one will need to climb over us. Yea!