A video of two passengers who found themselves in an “awkward” position after getting an upgrade on a flight has gone viral on TikTok.
The clip was posted by @hudhefner and has amassed 539,000 views since it was posted on April 17.
Text overlaid on the video, which shows two passengers laughing to themselves, explains: “Flight attendant asked if we wanted to be upgraded for free to the emergency exit seat 1A 1B.”
The text continues “Yes. Always,” before noting “no idea it faced the whole cabin.” The video shows the pair seated at the front of the aircraft, with the rest of the passengers facing them in the opposite direction.
@hudhefner Philippines 🇵🇭 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💖💞❣️❣️💓😻🧡💘💝🧑❤️💋🧑👩❤️💋👩👨❤️💋👨🤎🤎🤍🩷🩶🫶🏼🫶🏼🩵❤️🔥🏩🫰#asia #swag
While exit row seats on a plane offer extra leg room, they also come with important safety responsibilities.
Airlines communicate information about exit seating to passengers in various forms, starting from the point of ticket purchase through the boarding process “to ensure that passengers understand the restrictions and responsibilities associated with exit seating,” notes the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
These responsibilities can include “assessing conditions outside the exit, opening or securing an exit, locating and operating an inflation slide lanyard, or performing other duties described on the safety information card [on board the plane],” the FAA explains.
But often passengers will be willing to accept the upgrade—a lack of seat space is not just an inconvenience but can also pose health risks, noted a January 2019 study published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics.
The study, done among Spanish adult plane passengers, said that “the increase of economy class airline seats is necessary because immobility on airplane flights can develop different pathologies, such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism known as economy class syndrome.”
The study advised that “the increase in size (body mass and stature) and changing proportions of the human body over the past few decades should be considered in the ergonomic design of economy class airline seats.”
“An international law should regulate a minimum SP [seat pitch—the distance between two rows of seats], LR [leg room] and SW [seat width] for commercial airplanes,” the study said.
‘Mortifying’
Viewers on TikTok could sympathize with the passengers’ predicament in the viral video, while some said they wouldn’t mind this type of seating.
TedsAunt asked: “Why has this made me chuckle so much? How mortifying.”
User @babyxlakes said, “Omg that’s so awkward ahahaha” and Kezza wrote “Omg hilarious.”
Gemsie x noted: “That’d make me feel travel sick.”
Arni said “so much leg room tho,” and @angiebeedlebum agreed, saying “Am I the only person who’d be ok with this? I’d love the legroom & I’ve made ignoring strangers my specialist subject.”
R3SC4N wrote: “I’d love it, free show and you can judge people what they gonna do? Move seat??…”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok and email. This video has not been independently verified.
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