A Reddit user has sparked a debate over drop-off etiquette after asking if it was wrong to grab your backpack and queue before others after a recent flight.
“AITA for getting up and queuing to get out of the plane before the people in front of me got up?” asked the Redditor, who did not specify his age, location or gender in the March 15 post on the “Am I the A—–e” (AITA) subreddit.
In the message, the individual explained that his southwest flight – with no assigned seat – had landed and he was sitting “in the very back of the plane”.
The Reddit user said, “People in the front got up to get ready, but no one in the middle section got up.”
The poster continued: “I was in the aisle seat and only had a backpack so I took advantage and walked to the front of the plane to line up behind the people at the very front.”
While waiting to get off the plane, other passengers noticed the actions, the Redditor said.
“The person sitting in the seat next to me asked me, ‘Have the rules changed?’ and I pretended not to hear her because I had headphones on and I didn’t say anything to her,” the original Reddit poster wrote.
The passenger then said, “Why don’t you come back…and wait like everyone else” — to which the Reddit user apparently didn’t respond.
“There was a lady behind me who said she had to catch her connecting flight which was already boarding,” the user wrote.
THE [passenger] then he said, “Well, the rules haven’t changed, but if you want to be a jerk, go ahead.”
The Reddit user acknowledged that “the lady who had the connecting flight certainly had a valid reason to ‘cut’ online, but was confused as to whether there was a ‘rule’ about the order of the passengers getting off an airplane.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong, because everyone I ‘jumped’ could have stood up and waited in the aisle, so IATA here?” the user asked others on the Reddit platform.
In an edit to the post, the Reddit user confirmed that the plane had stopped at the gate, the seat belt panel was off, and the jet bridge had been connected to the plane.
Fox News Digital has reached out to an etiquette expert for comment.
On the AITA subreddit, people on Reddit can reply to posts and mark the poster as “NTA” (“Not the A—–e”), “YTA” (“You’re the A—–e”), ” NAH” (“No A—–e Here”) or “ESH” (“Everyone Sucks Here”).
Users can “upvote” answers they think are useful and “downvote” those that are not.
Unlike many AITA posts, where other Reddit users mostly agree on whether the original poster was right or wrong, there was heated debate in the nearly 2,500 replies. .
The top voted comment said the Reddit user was “YTA” and said the Reddit user should have waited for others to get off before queuing to disembark.
“What the hell are people getting up the minute the plane stops. Either way you’re not going anywhere,” “MaggieMae68” wrote in the top comment.
Another user said that people behaving like the original poster “are either uneducated or don’t fly often” or “just rude”.
Other commenters defended the user, saying there was no set “rule” about descending the plane.
“NTA. If the driveway was clear and you were ready to go, you didn’t stop anyone from getting off,” Reddit user “WinginVegas” said.
This commenter continued: “If they know there are close ties, [pilots or staff] will usually make an announcement asking people to remain seated to allow those passengers to disembark first. However, if not, unless you block other people, [the original poster] was good.”
“I have over a million air miles and it’s not a ‘rule’ anywhere,” WinginVegas said.
Another user said it was fine because the original poster wasn’t getting anything from the top bin and was ready to get off the plane.
“You can absolutely get up and go,” said Glass_Bar_9956.
“‘Rule’ is an unspoken social order of fusion,” this poster writes.
“But it’s really based on efficiency. And if you can get up and walk out without bothering anyone, that’s great.
It would be different, Glass_Bar_9956 said, if the original poster had things in the top bin in front of where they sat.
“Rule breakers are those who have their belongings in the top bin in front of their row of seats, and walk out and prevent people in front of them from being able to exit,” the person wrote.
“That you did [was] not an offence.