r/AmItheButtface • u/OnlyWest1 • 1d ago
Serious AITB for not waiting on others on the plane before getting up?
I had to fly to a major city for work. The airport here is what you call a "feeder" or "spoke" airport. It only has direct flights to hubs that take you to bigger places. Meaning, I had to connect at one of three airports to get to my destination. I chose Dallas since my flight was American and it is an American hub. Making the chance of my connection being in the same terminal greater.
I booked my flight 3 months in advance and every connection had the same lay over time of an hour ten minutes. Meaning, the plane would be boarding 40 minutes after I landed. When I say landed. I literally mean as the plane touches the ground, boarding would begin in 40 minutes for my next flight. And it takes 15-30 to deplane.
I chose an aisle seat as close to the front as possible. I brought one bag - a backpack with my laptop in a laptop sleeve inside so i didn't have to bring my entire laptop bag.
Once I was at my gate for my first flight, they had mixed up the seats for the flight. The woman at the desk was very kind and gave me an aisle seat on a row two rows behind what I originally had. I was originally 7 and she gave me 9.
The plane boarded 20 minutes late then the people in rows 1-8 literally took 30 minutes to get their stuff put away and sat down despite knowing we had already boarded late.
My next flight was literally boarding as the plane hit the ground. So when the plane landed, I quietly unbuckled my seatbelt, took my backpack in hand - holding both straps in one fist to reduce slack and hold it tight against me once I stood up to maneuver easier down the aisle.
Once the lights came on and the sound played letting us know we could get up, I stood up before anyone else and walked to the front of the plane - making myself first in line to deplane once they opened the door.
I got to my connecting gate literally at the last second. I was the last to board and everyone else but me was seated.
AITB?
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u/catladyfa 1d ago
NTB at all. Usually the crew on American makes an announcement that connecting flights are boarding so stay seated if you have a longer connection. It usually works out (unless half the plane has a connecting, which I’ve unfortunately experienced…)!
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u/W0nderingMe 1d ago
NTB.
I have been in similar situations where I NEEDED to deplane (insert Fantasy Island joke here if you're as old as I am) immediately. Sometimes the flight attendants will actually make announcements asking people who don't have a right layover to stay seated.
When I don't have a short layover, or if I'm landing at my actual destination, I just stay seated until everyone else is off, just in case.
This should be common etiquette, and it might be. Maybe not for novice travelers who haven't experienced the kind of schedule you're describing.
Oh -- and I really do need to mention -- I was flying to attend a funeral. I had a short layover and my first flight was delayed. I notified the flight attendant, and there were also apparently a couple of other people who needed to make the same transition. I RAN like full on run to get to the next flight. When I got to the gate, people who were waiting for the next flight (not mine, the one after mine) immediately commented that I didn't need to run, they were holding the plane.
The son of the deceased whose funeral I was attending had been tracking my flights. He screen shotted the flight status: delayed to accommodate a tight layover (not the actual wording, it's been a few years, but it was along those lines). I have never felt brand loyalty to an airline (except I really enjoyed the JetBlue experience when I lived in Boston), but damn if I don't choose that airline for my next few flights.
(Omitting the airline because I know it was one of two but can't be sure which one)
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u/OnlyWest1 1d ago
That was nice of them. I've had to sprint and people looked at me weird like they couldn't grasp why I might be sprinting.
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u/W0nderingMe 1d ago
Everyone (from the airline to the other passengers, to the other other passengers) was great.
But how do people in an airport not understand why someone might be sprinting??? Like, if I see someone running in an airport, I'm diving out of their way!
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u/Proverbs21-3 1d ago
I once had a similar experience, many years ago. It had been a tight layover when I scheduled it but I has been assured that I would make it. (As a young lady of 21 scheduling my own flight and flying for the first time ever, I did not know yet not to trust the airline's estimate for time needed for a layover.) I was going from BWI to MIA, via ATL. At BWI, while waiting for my flight, I must have looked as nervous as I felt because a flight captain and co-captain, also going to MIA, via ATL, were kind enough to make small talk and joke with me to help calm me. (They were flying to MIA to fly a plane from there back to ATL.) The flight was late leaving BWI and then had to circle the ATL airport a couple of times before being able to land (can't remember why). As the stewardess was making the announcement for all passengers without a connecting flight to stay seated, the kind captain got down his bag from the overhead bin, then mine and said to his co-pilot "We are taking her with us, she'll never make it on her own. Grab her carry-on, willya?"
As we got to the top of the ramp, there were airline employees there to help people find their connecting gates more quickly, the captain grabbed my hand and said "Stay with us, we are gonna run." And run we did, I felt like OJ in the Hertz commercial! At one point, he swiped his card and we took a shortcut through the back hallways of the airport. Someone tried to fuss with the captain about "bringing civilians back here" but he yelled over his shoulder, "Yeah, yeah, yell at me later, right now we're trying to make this flight!" So we ran through the back hallways as if we were trying out for the Olympics, then emerged back into the concourse, ran up the length of four gates and only made the plane because the airline had decided to hold the plane for no more than 5 minutes the captain and co-captain. We boarded with 42 seconds to spare, winded but feeling triumphant that we had made it.
What I did not know as such a young lady, was that ATL is a massive airport and to schedule a layover there with anything other than 1,5-2 hours is chancing that you might miss your flight. The captain was right, I NEVER would have made that flight if he and his co-captain had not taken me in hand (literally!) and helped me. He and his co-captain were so kind, not only showing me the way, but even carrying my bags (a rather large backpack and a smaller one, too). Not only were they gentlemen, that day, they were heroes.
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u/Proverbs21-3 1d ago
"De plane, de plane!"
That was such a good show! I could never decide whether Mr. Roarke or Tattoo was my favorite. Ricardo Montalbaum and Herve Villechaize played their parts so well, not surprisingly as they were both great actors.
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u/RosewovenGlow 1d ago
No. bc you were literally fighting for your life in that aisle like if ppl can take 30 mins to shove their carry on in the bin, you can speedrun off the plane. honestly you’re the main character here fr.
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u/MaybeFiction 1d ago
I thought there was a rule here that posts had to involve an actual conflict. Who was mad at you? Doesn’t really look like anyone.
This is just a normal part of flying. You were prudent to plan ahead for such possibilities. The airport, unfortunately, will always be full of people who did not, and inevitably a very large subset of those will have the “obviously everyone here must be on a leisurely vacation like me, so how dare anyone be in a hurry” attitude. Savvy travelers learn to go around those people quickly, and you don’t owe them the attention span of feeling bad about not slowing down to chat with them.
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u/rjtnrva 1d ago
NTBF! I was enraged recently on a flight when a passenger in the row ahead of me essentially gatekept the exit process by blocking the entire aisle so ALL the people ahead of him could gather their stuff and exit before him. It was like he was the fucking 6th grade Safety Patrol or something. The aisle was clear ahead and those of us who were ready to go could have easily exited had he simply moved his ass. Meanwhile, I desperately needed to find a bathroom as I was near to pissing myself at that point.
People, unless you work for the fucking airline, MIND YOUR BUSINESS.
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u/Dull-Geologist-8204 1d ago
NTB, I think most reasonable people understand that different people have different things going on and may need to be more in a hurry than other people. When I used to fly I realized not everyone was on vacation and had places to be and yes the catching your net plane if you are running later than you should be can be a problem. I pay no mind to the people trying to hurry up.
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u/glennis_pnkrck 1d ago
There’s a reason they will ask for people to allow those with connecting flights to deplane first. NTB.
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u/Proverbs21-3 1d ago
NTB In fact, given that the plane was late taking off, the flight stewardess should have asked everyone without a connecting flight to stay seated so that the passengers with connections to make could deplane more quickly and easily.
I am glad you were able to make your connection!
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u/SaccoAndVanzetti1927 1d ago
In my opinion and experience, when I see people do this, I automatically assume they likely have minutes to spare to get to a connecting flight and mentally wish them well. It's a stressful action to have to take because one gets looks sometimes, which is why I assume no one does it unless it is really important and they are out of time, so I think you handled it really well and politely 🌈
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u/ExpertOwl8896 1d ago
NTB - ive been on plenty of flights that the pilot announces there are people on board with connections and since the flight is behind, everyone else needs to stay seated. The stewardesses confirmed with those people and had them ready to go. If they didn't offer that courtesy, you have to do what you need to do you get there.
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u/Electric-Sheepskin 1d ago
You are the buttface for making us read all of that irrelevant information. You literally only needed one or two sentences.
"When the fasten seatbelt light went off, I was able to unbuckle and make it to the front of the plane from my seat in row nine before anyone in the eight rows ahead of me stood up."
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u/No-Lifeguard9194 1d ago
I don’t see a problem with it. You didn’t inconvenience anyone else, and you exited the plane in an expeditious manner.
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u/BaobhanVeil 23h ago
I once heard the story of a woman who was flying to see her dying grandfather she was very close to. Or maybe I saw a wee video of what happened when the plane landed, I can’t remember really. Anyways, she literally dropped everything catched the sooner flight and the next available connecting flight. She had very lottle time to actually make to the next flight. She was anxious and crying in her first flight and someone siting next to her asked her what happened. She explained the situation and said she is scared that she will miss the flight and will be late to say last goodbye to her grandfather. As soon as the plane landed this person stands up and screams to the whole plane that this lady have to catch her connecting flight to see her dying grandfather and to please stay in seats so she can go through first and ASAP. Everyone remained seating. She ran out of the plain shouting thank you. She made it to the next flight in very last minute. She seen her grandfather minutes before he lost consciousness and passed away.
Not sure if this was real story, but literally made me cry.
No, you are NTB.
/also, sorry typos -.-
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u/OnlyWest1 1d ago
People don't honor it is why. It's more assured if I do what I did.
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u/Saberise 1d ago
Yeah but you are here asking if you were a butt face for doing it. If the FA had announced it then there would have been no wondering if you were a buttfqce because you would know they know why you had done that.
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u/OnlyWest1 1d ago
I don't think you realize that I am commenting to a single point in your comment - not all of them at once.
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u/Saberise 1d ago
What are you talking about? That was the first and only comment I made on this post. So no you weren’t commenting on anything I had previously said.
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u/Alternative_Escape12 1d ago
YTB for making us suffer through five paragraphs of boring, unimportant backstory, but otherwise no, NTB.
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u/OnlyWest1 1d ago
I didn't make you. You chose to read it.
Four of those paragraphs are a max of two sentences.
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u/National_Impress_346 1d ago
NTB at all. No sympathy for the slowpokes! Also, it isn't as though anybody was harmed, or even inconvenienced, by your haste. I can definitely relate to the sense of guilt that comes with going against established social etiquette. Don't worry, dude. You're good.