The FAA requires exit seat occupants to be able to understand oral instructions given by crewmembers. On AA, these instructions are given in English, hence the English-speaking requirement.
Originally Posted by
Madison Guy
I do recall once on an Eagle flight several years ago, "YES" was the wrong answer. For whatever reason, the FA doing the briefing at the exit row said something like "To be seated in an exit row you are required..." and finished with "Do you wish to be relocated?" I was the first one she looked at and after a short pause while what she said registered I said "No - I can and am willing to comply with seat requirements" at which point she smiled slightly and said something like "Thanks for actually listening."
Though it was odd, and perhaps not totally regulation, but it accomplished the same thing and would have potentially caught the auto "yes" if there was actually a lack of understanding. Never heard it that way since, and don't expect to again. But I did find it interesting.
I once heard an agent ask the screening questions and then follow up with:
“If I have a blue car, what color is my car?”
“Yes.”
The passenger was reseated.
Originally Posted by
ty97
I expect this is a wording issue and I'm just misunderstanding. The way I read this initially was you meant first row of coach, which is a bulkhead, row 5, on pmUS 321s. But that's not an exit and there's no door. So I assume you mean row 10 on the ABC side which is the first area in coach on the pmUS planes to have a door? (I'm not asking for the specific seat designation of the passenger in question, just want to clear up my own confusion about which row we are discussing)
The older LUS A321s do have a physical bulkhead between 8ABC and 10ABC.
Originally Posted by
NYCommuter
To respond to some other posts, the FAA may not expressly require English ability for exit row seat passengers, but AA does, so this was a violation of AA policy.
^ And by extension, FAA policy since AA failed to meet their own standards.
Originally Posted by
cmd320
Definitely sounds like 10ABC to me. Those are all sold as MCE so I'm not really sure why someone would print a group 4 BP and be seated there unless it was randomly assigned on an otherwise completely full flight or they were non-rev. It's possible the AC was just doing the customer a favor and assigning it without them otherwise having a reason to receive that seat free of charge. In that instance they would generally retain their original boarding group rather than getting a group 1 MCE position.
I think they may have reseated themselves because to my knowledge an exit seat will get Group 2 at the minimum, presumably to let the passenger board early enough to receive the exit seat briefing.
Originally Posted by
NYCommuter
Thanks, but is there a way of ensuring that the FAs do not get in trouble? The one who asked everyone if s/he met exit row requirements was told "yes" by the passenger in question. (Passengers didn't say "yes" one by one like they usually have to; most everyone said "yes" at once.")
I don't think so, since technically the FAs failed to stop the violation from happening.