Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@mickeyyyt
Topics: Travel, TikTok, Social Media, Viral
Emily Brown
A TikToker sparked a huge debate when she shared a clip of herself questioning 'plane etiquette' as her fellow passengers flooded the aisle in a bid to escape the aircraft.
It should probably go without saying: everyone who's just spent time locked in a big metal tube, limited only to your designated seat or maybe a trip or two to the toilet, is keen to get off that vessel as quickly as possible.
Everyone has their own reasons - some people have connecting flights, others are keen to see loved ones, and some might simply be tired from the journey, but the point is, we're all in the same boat. Or rather, plane.
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So, does anyone really have a 'right' to get off the plane faster than anyone else? That's a question TikToker Mikayla raised when she shared a video of herself taken from her plane seat in 2023.
In the now-viral clip, the creator can be seen waiting in her seat while the aisle around her fills with passengers.
Alongside the video, she wrote: "Since when did airplane etiquette of getting off the plane row by row end?”
Her travel buddy clearly agrees with the sentiment as they can be seen shaking their head in the clip, though not everyone is on the same page about the 'correct' way to exit a plane.
One person commented: “I have never seen it go row by row. It doesn’t board row by row either. So idk why people expect this."
Another responded: “I’ve been traveling 20+ years and I’ve never seen people do row by row.”
Mikayla isn't going mad, though, as other people responded to argue it was impolite to not exit the plane row by row.
“I experienced the same thing recently and I wasn't in the aisle so there was nothing I could do but wait for the aisle seat person to go,” recalled one TikTok user, while someone else noted: “I just had this happen Monday. I understand if they need to catch a connecting flight. If that’s unspoken though, it’s considered rude.”
Author and etiquette expert Jules Hirst has shared her own thoughts on the situation, telling Newsweek that 'even though there is not an official rule regarding exiting an airplane, it comes down to the honor system'.
She expressed belief that exiting row by row is the ideal thing to do, though noted: "Passengers with connecting flights should be allowed to exit first."