Emergency Exit Seating-Reserve for Tall Folks?
 

What is your opinion of reserving the emergency exit seats for people over a certain height? My husband is 6'6" and a frequent flier. He usually uses miles for upgrades or pays for business class if it isn't outrageous. The other alternative is getting to the airport as early as possible and requesting emergency exit seating which works about 50% of the time. I feel like it is fair to accomadate someone who is taller than average, after all it isn't the weight issue, you can't help how tall you are! I have been on flights with him and watched as the person ahead of him tried to recline their seat into his knees. Not fair to them or him. What do you think??

Are you willing to pay extra to reserve that seat? Unfortunately, no it isn't his fault that he is tall, but that's part of the pitfalls of traveling. However, and I'm not just being sarcastic, if the airline offered to reserve those spots at a premium, I would agree with it. Just as first class is an option for more room.

Does your husband have elite status with a particular airline since you mention that he is a frequent flier. Typically the exit row seats are easier to obtain if you have some type of elite status.

Most airlines have a first-come first-served policy for exit seating, which is really the only policy that's both fair and practical. The vast majority of tickets are not purchased in person, so airlines have no way of verifying people's heights.

Yes he has preferred status with several airlines. Many of the counter people take one look at him and do their best to get him into an exit row. The "elite" thing seems to mean very little. Personally I would rather have someone of his stature seated there to rip that door open if needed!

That policy would last about 2 hours before the airline were sued for discrimination.

In addition, the ground staff and flight crews have enough to worry about without needing to break out the measuring tape to see if someone was as tall as they claimed.

I heard they want to weigh passengers to make sure the planes aren't overloaded...might as well measure them too!! LOL!

How tall is tall? I'm 5'9" but have very long legs and can;t bear most coach seats - so I go for emergency aisle seating whenever I can. Would I be barred from those seats in favor of your husband? It hardly seems fair since I pay as much as he does for the ticket.

It's not his fault he's tall and he shouldn't be penalized for it - but neither should I.

A lot of airlines allow you to pick your seat when you buy your tickets online. I've always gotten the seats I chose.

Even at the last minute, the exit seats have often still been available.

You can't pick the emergency exit seats online or reserve them by phone. Supposed to be first come first serve, but we have arrived over 2 hours early for domestic flights and been told all of the exit row seats are already taken.

We have the same problem. My husband is 6' 4" and if we can't get an emergency row exit, we usually try to get him a bulkhead or an aisle seat.

But in the aisle seats, he puts his legs out in the aisle and gets run over by people coming and going or the beverage cart if he's asleep.

Of course, I'm 5' 7" with long legs, so I'm not usually comfortable either unless we go first class.

With it being first come, first served, I guess that's the fairest way to do it since it seems to be uncomfortable for just about everyone.

Diana, the same thing with the food cart happens to him all the time! I just feel sorry for him when we walk by the exit row and there is some tiny thing sitting there! Some of the airlines have made things a bit better with more leg room in coach but there have been a few times that I really didn't think he was going to be able to wedge himself into a seat! On one flight the attendant felt so bad he was going to ask someone in the exit row if they would mind swapping but my husband wouldn't let him.

Mary2Go: I don't know about other airlines, but I do know Continental allows you to call them 24 hours before your flight (not before) and reserve or change your seating to a bulkhead seat...if it's available of course. You could of course be moved if someone with disability needs the seat last minute.
We fly Continental quite a bit and we've done it every time we've travelled with our 2-year-old. We love the bulkhead seats because he has the room to sit on the floor and read his books or play with his toys. My husband, who's 6'4", also loves them :-)
Fyi: On a couple of occasions, I've gotten Continental agents on the phone who have told me "we don't do that". No use arguing with them. I just call back and always end up getting an agent who does know his/her company's policies.
:-)

I currently have 9 reservations booked on AA and have bulkhead seats on 6 flights, exit row on 8 and "other" seats on the remaining 4. I reserve exit row seats all the time on AA. I book at least several weeks in advance, which also helps.
Often bulkhead seats are blocked for a/p check in but not 100% of the time.
I am an elite traveler on AA and I know that this opens me up to seats designated as "premium".
But if your platinum, which is doubtful if you are a FF on mulitple carriers ... it takes loads of flights/miles to maintain this level and it is very hard to have it when you don't use one airline almost exclusively.

I read somewhere recently that there are some airlines that charge extra for those exit row seats. That seems fair, and would help them allocate them to those who want and are willing to pay for the extra room. It wasn't a lot, maybe $50-75 or something. They are always looking for ways to get revenue, that seems as good as charging for a sandwich. Virgin Atlantic does that, for one.

I think charging extra for those seats is a lot fairer than giving priority to some because they are one inch taller than someone else, or something. Who would decide the cutoff? As someone else said, some people have longer legs than others, also. Some other people may have some other kind of physical problem that makes it more difficult for them to keep their legs scrunched up as long as others.

I think it would be fine for an airline to give priority to tall people if they are free, like they do when giving bulkhead to those with infants, but also think that if the airlines start giving special priority to tall people, they should never allow a shorter companion to sit next to them if someone else wants that seat who is taller. I think that could get somewhat tricky.

Mary3go -

Sorry - I have reseved exit row seats on several airlines far in advance numerous times - all they do is ask if the seat is for an adult and if you are able and willing to open the exit door if necesary. these are available at the airport usually only if the flight is fairly empty.

I live in Phila. so usually fly USAir. There is NO WAY to book an exit aisle seat in advance with them. My sister booked on line a few months ago and the diagram showed exit aisle was open so she took it. Lo and behold, when she went to print out her boarding pass, USAir had changed her seat to another row!! I have arrived at the airport two and a half hours early only to be told all exit aisles seats were taken. Even some domestic flights originate in other cities and those people get the seats!!

Mary to Go said: "On one flight the attendant felt so bad he was going to ask someone in the exit row if they would mind swapping but my husband wouldn't let him."

Now that's an interesting idea. I know that you can find nice people on flights willing to move from one cramped seat to another to allow a family to sit together or something. But the idea of a person saying, "sure, I'll move from this nice seat with the extra leg room to one that is much smaller and more uncomfortable since your comfort is more important than mine" sounds like a real longshot to me!

I think reserving the exit row seats would be cumbersome for the airlines. Besides being tall, one would have to be fit to sit in an exit row and be willing to assume the duties if needed. I do ask for an aisle seat. I have been given the exit row many times by chance. I didn't realize a lot of people ask for it.

Strange that no other AA Platinum and Exec Plats have not responded.
This conversation seems so strange to me, considering that I reserve these seats all the time. Yestrday I added another exit row to the list... on a 777 to Heathrow.
If no one else has ever been aboe to do it, I can only assume AA allows only Exec and Exec Plat level travelers to book these seats in advance.
The seat map displayed to the traveler is processed with your FF#. I am able to see and book more seat than non-frequent travelers... I know this is a fact as I just tested it.
My daughter is a not a freq traveler and when I reserved her seat, next to mine, it was not displayed as available in her reservation transaction on AA.com. I called AA and they assigned the seat for her manually.
We also get AA flight benefits and fly stand by quite often, maybe 5x a year... it seems we get bulkhead a lot on those flights, if the plane is not packed.