bluefive5

Earlier this month my wife and I boarded the Copa flight LAS - PTY. We reserved exit row seats six months earlier using UA miles. During the preflight briefing the FA said our Spanish was not good enough to sit in the exit row. We were immediatly split and relocated to seats at the back on the 737.

I have flown multiple international carriers in the past and never have I seen this type of enforcemet. I always thought that English was the official language for flight crews and all pilots and FAs must speak some english for emergencies.

On our retun flight we took the same seats and when we were asked in Spanish if we spoke Spanish we just smiled and said "si". Afterall how can one determine the minimal level of language skills needed to open an emergency door of a Boeing 737-800?

Kacee

Bienvenido al club!

Copa flight attendants can be quite bossy.

DarrenChannel

Why wouldn't exit row passengers on board a Latin American airline, flying to a Latin American city, be required to understand Spanish?

Makes sense to me. In case of emergency, you can't afford any misunderstandings.

JW76

Ayuda! Ayuda! El avión está en fuego

See, it's easy.

Often1

You thought wrong. This isn't about English as a standard language for air traffic control, it is about communication with passengers in an emergency. That is the only time who sits in an exit row matters.

Makes sense. Safety first.

patmcpsu

If it's an international flight to/from the USA, there's probably a sizable number of English speaking passengers. I suggest that having an English speaking passenger in the exit row would be safer than having exit rows that consist solely of Spanish speakers.

Open Jaw

I speak fluent Spanish and I have seen people removed from their exit row seats on some AV flights last year for not knowing how to speak Spanish. When the three Americans protested their removal, the head flight attendant came over to explain in Spanish that in an emergency the FAs will be giving orders only in Spanish because no one on the crew spoke fluent English.

US airlines require all paxs who are seated in exit rows to speak English, so I would expect foreign airlines to have similar rules about the use of their native language while seated in those rows.

English is the official language for pilots who fly internationally. Mexican pilots must use English when flying to Europe or the US, but they can and do speak Spanish while in South America, for example.

Sometimes I listen to flight control centers in Mexico (to improve my Spanish listening skills) on line and every flight from Latin American carriers prefers to use Spanish once they are out of US airspace. All other flights are done in English, no matter the country of origin of the airline.

DrMaturin

This. From time to time I fly between Mexican cities on Mexican airlines and always book the exit row. I'm always asked to demonstrate Spanish proficiency (which I have). This is perfectly sensible.

coolcoil

Based on your username, I would assume you speak the French, Catalan, Irish, Portuguese and a bit of Malay as well.

Pryde987

Yup. Happened to us too. The rest of the airlines in South America did not care about our language skills-- a simple nod and smile kept our exit row seats. I eventually shrugged it off and figured I'd never fly Copa again since they're leaving Star Alliance/Mileage Plus this summer.

DarrenChannel

Copa's leaving MileagePlus, but not the Star Alliance.

JohnnyColombia

AV are currently recruiting and they state that applicants must be able to speak 80% English, I suspect that means that applicants need to roughly know what 8 English words out of a sample of 10 mean in Spanish because the proficiency is not sufficient to order a coffee off them.

Makes sense to me that Latin American airlines would require Spanish speakers in exit row seats and it even says so on the safety cards. I would not rely on the FAs to be able to communicate in English in an emergency.

Not just Latin American airlines that have such a rule, I have flown Spirit from FLL to BOG where I was the only person that could speak English in the exit row. The flight was full and there was talk of cancelling the flight if they could not find English speakers to swap with the 5 Spanish speakers in my row. I cannot remember how it was resolved, whether some pax were offloaded or not, but the flight took off with just me in the row.

Steve M

That's right. US regulations require that for US-licensed carriers, all passengers seated in an exit row must have the "ability to understand the specified language in which crew commands will be given in an emergency." It doesn't have to be English, but I would imagine that in practical terms, all US-licensed carriers would use English in an emergency.

I would imagine that most other countries would have a similar regulation, and that the language used in emergencies would likely be the primary language used in that country. There would be some exceptions, as I'd expect carriers like EK and CX to use English, even though it's not the most common language spoken in the host countries.

In addition to being the law, it's also common sense. I'm surprised that the OP would have an issue with it, or would think that the length of time before the flight that the seats were reserved, or the fact that UA miles were redeemed, would have any bearing on it. Would they think it's okay for a family from Egypt that spoke no English on an UA LAS-EWR flight to be able to sit in the exit row, just because they used MS miles to book the exit row 6 months in advance?

NellieVA

My wife, daughter and I are flying to UIO from IAD via PTY this Friday. I've had the exit row booked for more than 9 months. Now I'm worried, as only my wife has any real knowledge of Spanish. I'm United MP Gold and have been hoping for an upgrade, but COPA tells me it is fully booked, even though it shows seats available up front. Our first flight to PTY only has one remaining row of three seats together -- everything else is a middle. I'm wondering if I should err on the side of caution and lock in those seats, giving up the exit row, to avoid the chance of being split up after boarding. Any recommendations?

doug68

this sounds cool, where do you listen to it online? whats the website?