Planes, Emergency Exits and Teenagers

Today we journeyed from Syracuse to Fort Lauderdale.  On the first leg of the journey Lily asked why we sit next to the emergency exit so frequently.  I explain it is a premium aisle.  I paid more for those seats so we could have extra leg room.  Did she not like the seats?  She said her body is small.  She does not need extra leg room.  I told her next time I will buy an extra leg room seat for me, and she can sit in a regular seat somewhere else.  Ok, she agreed. 

The man across the aisle, a lawyer from the US Trustee’s office, laughed.  I asked if he ever had a teenage daughter.  He said he had.  She was 33 now, but he remembered the attitude. 

I told Lily on the next leg of our journey we were in the second row.  We had a 2 hour layover in NYC, which meant we got to eat a lunch in a sit down restaurant.  There were 9 wheelchairs on the next flight.  I told Lily I feared we would not get overhead space for our computer case.  I was correct.  We squished it under the seat in front of us.

It was a full flight.  After the doors closed the flight attendant asked a question of people in the first row.  Then she asked the other side of the second row.  Then she asked me how old Lily was.  16.  She said they needed someone to change seats with the Emergency Exit row because there was an underage child there, would we change?  I asked if we could both go.  Yes.  We agreed, grabbed our stuff and headed down the aisle. 

There was a commotion in the emergency exit aisle.  It was a mother and son.  The son was too young to sit in the emergency exit aisle.  The mother was angry she was being moved.  She said her father died.  She had just purchased those seats for $1,500, which was significantly more than I paid.  She said the seats were the only ones available when she purchased her tickets.  I wanted to tell her Row 2 is better, but she was too agitated. 

She got up to move.  She and her son they had 3 carry-ons.  The flight attendant told the woman there was no room at the front of the plane for all her carry-ons.  They would put one in the back or leave it there for her to retrieve afterwards.  The woman became even more agitated.  She did not back up so Lily and I could take her seat, she started moving forward into us, so we moved forward to the front of the plane where the flight attendant’s station is.  The woman was carrying on about the unfairness of the situation.  Her son was telling the flight attendant he could manage the emergency exit as well as an older person.  The flight attendant assured him that he probably could, but they had rules.

At the front of the plane the woman continued raging, telling the flight attendant the airline was going to hear it from her.  I tried to intervene.  I told her the second row is very nice, couldn’t we figure out some way she could be comfortable there?  She seemed not to hear me.  Then she told the flight attendant she wanted off the plane.  The flight attendant told the pilot.  The pilot said to let her off.  The jet way was put in place.  The door was opened, off she went. 

We got back to our seats.  The other passengers broke out in applause.  I was seated next to a tax lawyer from a big firm.  We shook our heads at what happened.  I said I had tried to talk to her.  “You couldn’t help her.”  He told me.  “You tried.”

The airline gave us all free movies for our trouble.  We had a choice of three Lily said we need to watch “The Fault of the Stars” a tragidrama about teenagers with cancer with an it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all theme.   What a day.