Exit Row - exclusions
 

A group of us are doing a short haul BA holiday - as lead booker I get to choose seats for everyone. One our party is registered disabled. He walks with a stick and will require assistance to the gate from the lounge. He is perfectly capable of walking short distances. If he is wheelchair transferred to the gate would it be considered unreasonable of me to book him an exit row seat?

I would consider it unreasonable. Especially if I were a passenger on the flight.

Hello!

I've seen this a couple of times coming out of Italy - the cabin crew don't really like to take any chances and any question of impaired mobility is usually enough to exclude someone from an exit row seat.

I really don't believe that the cabin crew will let him occupy an exit row seat, particularly if he is taken by wheelchair to the gate.

If he is registered disabled that would disqualify him from sitting in an exit row.

https://www.britishairways.com/trave...s/public/en_gb

Safety requirements for sitting in an exit row seat
You must meet certain Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) safety requirements to sit in an exit row seat.

You must be a non-disabled adult in full fitness and able to understand printed and verbal instructions given in English.

You must be willing and able to assist in the unlikely event of an emergency evacuation.

You will be asked to confirm you meet the CAA safety requirements before you can reserve an exit row seat.

Good April Fool's post, but you are several days too late.

My understanding (I could be way off here) is that if you have anyone on your booking that requires assistance or is a 'child' precludes all persons on that booking from occupying an exit row.

Customers who require wheelchairs are not permitted in emergency exit seats, he could swap with someone else in your group after takeoff and return to his original seat for landing.

This policy seems to make little sense to me. In the event of an emergency like loss of engines in flight, you'd not want people scrambling around getting back to appropriate seats.

Emergency rows are just not the place for someone with limited mobility who could impede everyone's exit in the case of emergency.

The wording on the seat selection was wishy washy to say the least. FWIW before asking I'd put him and his wife in the row in front of the exit row so they could still chat with us. I just found the wording ambiguous in the extreme and was worried that I was discriminating. Funnily I've got an Emirates Purser as a guest at home at the moment and he was adamant it's a "no" for them so I am not surprised by these responses. As I say he doesn't "require" a wheel chair - he simply finds it convenient. At work he turns up in a car and walks to his office apparently - albeit with the use of a cane from a disabled parking spot. So he'd have no issues operating the exit and leaving the aircraft - it's just any sustained walking.

Astonishing that you have to ask this question.

Thanks OP for asking, hopefully this has saved some embarrassment upon boarding; I think many a person would struggle in reality to operate the over-wing exits; there not exactly light and an ability to walk from one's car to the office with a Cain is not a realistic occupational health test in these circumstances, obviously happy to be proved wrong and I obviously haven't seen the weight lifting ability and agility of your friend.

At the end of the day BA has to enforce the requirements that passengers in an emergency exit row are physically able to move quickly and open the exit if required to do so. Every second counts in an emergency. Also, the overwing exits are not the lightest of things to manhandle.

Everything you have said indicates that this passenger has a disability (he needs a stick to walk, can only walk short distances, parks in a disabled bay, etc). Also, bear in mind that in an emergency he will probably not have access to his stick (it should be in the overhead locker and there will not be time to retrieve it in an emergency), so would likely then be reliant on the assistance of others.

BA cabin crew are not going to try to assess his physical capabilities, but if he arrives in a wheelchair or walks with a stick they will simply (and rightly) not permit him to sit in an exit row. End of story.

I'm not sure this is correct. Before my children were old enough to sit in the exit row I would sit there and put them in the row ahead or behind. We were all on one booking.

Would you have ignored your children, and left them to whatever fate befell them, in order to operate the emergency exit and help with an evacuation? I think that is why people travelling with children, etc, are not seated in emergency exit rows.