Originally Posted by
satchelys
So I just had a flight from Montreal to Athens a few days ago. About a 10 hour flight. I’ve been dealing with pretty bad sciatic pain so I was hoping there would be some open rows so that I could lay down. I can’t sit for more than 15 minutes without very bad pain in my left leg. Once I got on the plane I could see it was completely full. Although once the plane took off I noticed that the very last row in the middle which is made up of 4 seats was open but had a bunch of random things sitting on them to close them off. I asked a flight attendant if I could take maybe 2 or 3 of them so that I could lay down because if not I’d have to basically stand the entire 10 hours due to my sciatic pain. She told me that row was being saved for the flight attendants. I was confused because there were plenty of attendant pull out seats in the back of the plane as well as further up in the attendant alcoves. I even noticed a door in the very back of the plane that led to stairs up to what looked like a rest area for attendants. I didn’t rebuttle and decided to just stand in the back area. As the flight continued on for a couple hours I noticed no attendants had sat in that last row at all and I was becoming frustrated as I was now in pain from standing for so long (I had a flight before this from LA that I had to stand for 5 hours on). I talked to another flight attendant saying I’d really like to be able to lay down in this last row that no one was sitting in because I couldn’t sit up due to extreme sciatic pain and standing was becoming painful as well and we still had 7 hours left on the flight. I even said if a flight attendant at some point needed to take a seat I’d stand up but in the meantime I’d really like to be able to lay down since no one was taking them. I was told that they are needed in case of an emergency for attendants to be able to sit down in them and have the emergency oxygen masks to come down for them. They said this in pretty annoyed tone to me even after I explained to them I was only bringing this up because I was in a lot of pain both sitting and standing and didn’t think I could handle either for the rest of the 7 hours. She didn’t care and restated they were needed for emergency use. So, I stood for basically the rest of the flight in extreme pain. There were maybe 2-3 hours where 1 or 2 flight attendants used one of the seats to relax on and watch tv and open up a laptop of theirs. Can anyone tell me if they were ........ting this emergency excuse? I’m pretty annoyed that my clear pain seemed to be overlooked so that 1 or 2 attendants could have a more comfortable rest instead of sitting in their pullout chairs in the rest areas. Also on top of all of this my checked bag didn’t even make it to Athens and haven’t heard anything about my claim of it yet. ... Air Canada
Welcome to Flyer Talk
There are a lot of experienced and helpful folks on here. One thing about flying you cannot make assumptions. For example and this is just off the top of my head while I am multi-tasking while I write this, here are people ( a group) who buy cheap tickets, nothing wrong with that at all, do not want to pay for seats, hope at check-in time they can all sit together and when they can't, then assume that the airlines should be obligated to place that party altogether. Well, that is great but others paid to ensure they are together. As a frequent flyer I know folks who have the gift of being tall. They pay to sit in certain seats because of their height and they do not assume that the airline will accommodate them.
when I book long-haul flights I choose to sit in Business as I do want to lay down and sleep. I have been in the economy paid seat section and when the doors close, some fellow passengers who are in the more affordable section try and sit in my space and I refuse them, and then the flight attendant tells them to get back to there area. What if I had a medical issue or am hurt, and I wanted to sit in two seats or three. Point being I paid for that right and I did not assume it would be provided to me.
Flight attendants on long haul flights are working and they have the right to a seat where they can rest, eat and be comfortable. This is a right of theirs and if they choose not to use their assigned seat, its their choice and no assumption should be made about that. With Covid there are some including flights crews that are still flying scared or with anxiety so I am sure they do not want their assigned rest seat to be potentially contaminated by a stranger.
Do not take this feedback as criticism, its your first post and we are always learning