Two Bee

The main reason that they're sitting next to you in an exit row is because these seats are normally given out last, and since they are deadheading they get them.

Btw, as far as I'm concerned it's ALL ABOUT STATUS, and who PAYS MANY TIMES OVER & OVER to fly on this airline. I can open that door just as fast as a petite or overweight f/a, if I need to!

wolf72

Yes, yes...but the question will be can you do so under duress, pressure and stress in the event of a dramatic and catastrophic incident in which lives are at risk. Everyone say's I can do this/do that but when they are in the middle of an emergency, people PANIC and reactions slow down.

That is the reality.

I also do not agree with underaged passengers being seated in the emergency row. It should be 18 and over. Airlines are asking children and teenagers to take a massive amount of responsibility by sitting in emergency seat rows which they should not be put under. An adult should be seated there.

mike.macrone

Unfortunately not. I believe now you must be 18 years or older to sit in the exit row

sbm12

This is not correct for any flights operating under US authority, which includes all UA departures.

wolf72

The FAA in their "infinite wisdom" have lowered it to a crazy 15 years old.

sbm12

It has been 15 for more than a decade.

Also, the FAA has lowered, not have lowered. The FAA is a singular object.

WineCountryUA

It has been 15 for decades in the USA. Elsewhere is lower or some countries and higher in others.


Note this discussion has been ongoing on FT for decades
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...t-row-new.html (2003)

Phil Level

+1

Our 12 year old daughter is almost the exact same height and weight as her 54 year old mother.

We often travel with another family, and their 12 year old son is 5' 11" and 175 lbs. Both parents are very tall.

sbm12

"Small" doesn't only refer to physical height/weight in this context.

wolf72

So, same height/same weight as her mother means she is mature and capable of responding to an emergency and to react as would be expected in opening the emergency doors in the event of a crash or the need for an emergency evacuation?

Crazy.

joe_miami

I don't read that section as United having violated any hard-and-fast FAA rule. The way I read it, carriers have the discretion to put kids under 15 in an exit row:

The "or" I bolded reads, to me, like the FAA is giving airlines the ability to discriminate, in a sense, against kids under 15 but isn't requiring that no one under 15 ever sit in an exit row.

jsloan

Even if your interpretation is correct -- I see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure I agree -- it's moot, as section (n) then requires that each certificate holder submit a plan to the FAA to indicate how they will comply with these rules, which then become binding. Between the phrase "identified by the words 'no children in this row'" in the safety briefing to the seating FAQs on United's website ("The government requires any passengers seated in an exit row to be 15 years of age or older..."), it's clear that United's policy includes the age restriction, even if the FAA doesn't explicitly mandate it.

Thus, UA's failure to live up to its own rules becomes an FAA violation even if the FAA would have allowed a policy that allowed sufficiently independent and physically capable 13-year-olds to sit in the exit rows.

joe_miami

Perhaps, but United falsely claiming that the FAA requires something that it actually doesn't require isn't likely to trigger FAA enforcement of the bogus FAA "rule."

The reality is, exit rows often go out empty. There's no real difference between a 13-year-old sitting with a parent in an exit row or a 13-year-old sitting one row ahead or behind an empty exit row and then being the first into the exit row in the case of an emergency. If having adults in the exit row was so important from a safety standpoint, the airlines would be required to have at least one adult in each exit row before takeoff.

jsloan

The FAA requires that UA follow its own exit-row procedures. If the OP's story is accurate, this is a cut-and-dried violation knowingly entered into by a UA employee. You can argue technicalities all you want, but this violates both the spirit and the letter of the regulation.

"Exit rows often go out empty?" Not on a US carrier – maybe on foreign carriers where you're required to put your bag into the overhead. Regardless, not only is "no child may be in the nearest occupied seat to the exit row" a difficult rule to enforce, there's a meaningful difference. In your hypothetical, the passenger isn't blocking access to the exit while taking care of the child. Someone can come from one row further away and open the exit if necessary.

findark

An empty exit row also means that a crew member can access the exit without obstruction.