Originally Posted by
D404
At some level of cold, it is actually dangerous, and not just for the elderly. Let them wear their coats and deal with the mild inconvenience.
On most of the routes I typically fly, wearing a fairly bulky coat onto the plane is more or less obligatory for much of the year. Only the inexperienced try to stuff their coats into the overhead bin, because if everybody did that there would be no room for any bags up there at all. Likewise, nobody is going to pack his or her coat into a suitcase, carry-on or otherwise, because (a) you'll be needing that coat on the apron and probably until at least 15 minutes after the doors are closed; (b) have you ever tried packing a down parka into a 22-inch rollaboard; (c) on your typical flight to Inuqanngitturaalujjuaq or wherever, everybody's bags are already full to capacity with groceries/shopping/booze/contraband tuktuminiq. If there's no closet (
), one either wears one's coat during the flight or uses it as a seat liner/pillow. I don't know why this practice isn't more common further south.