Rizna Mutmainah
Travel Tips

Passenger sparks debate over travellers sleeping in aisle seats

A heated debate has erupted online after a passenger suggested those sitting in an aisle seat should remain alert and awake for the entire flight, with the only exception being if it's a long-flight of seven hours or more. 

“A person sitting in an aisle seat on a plane should not be allowed to sleep," they wrote on Reddit. 

The reason behind it, according to the passenger, is to ensure that middle and window seat passengers can access the toilet, get served by flight attendants, and evacuate quickly in an emergency. 

“There are some exceptions and those would probably be on any flight longer than seven hours.

“But anything shorter than that, you should not be sleeping. What if the middle or window passenger needs the bathroom, or if the flight attendant needs to hand them something – You’ll be in the way.”

They added that a snoozing aisle seat passenger could potentially slow down evacuation during an emergency and put everyone at risk. 

“Now you would be risking people’s lives because you fell asleep,” they wrote.

Social media users flocked to the Reddit thread to share their thoughts. 

 “Nah, just poke me and wake me up if you need me to get up or do something," one wrote. 

“I’m well aware that I’m in the way, believe me. I’m certainly not there because I wanted to be in the aisle seat.”

“If you sleep in an aisle seat, you deal with people getting up. That’s the unwritten rule," another added. 

A few others supported the idea, but shared their own take on plane etiquette. 

 “My take on this: if you sleep in the aisle seat, you must be okay with being woken up multiple times to let the folks in your row get up.

“Other flight rules: middle seat gets the armrest, and window seat must raise the window shade during taxi, takeoff, and landing so the rest of us in the row can watch.”

Image: Shutterstock

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Travel Tips, Flights, Plane Etiquette, Travel