Just print this out and show it to your neighbors…
It’s happened. The debate over armrests has been settled. The battle for arm rest superiority has long plagued travelers, with awkward social etiquette and downright confrontation. If the window seat gets the far armrest, and the aisle gets their own, what’s the story with the middle? Jetstar, in a press release announced that the middle seat is entitled to both armrests – and that’s final.
The Middle Seat Debate
Jetstar surveyed over 1,500 passengers, and apparently – they’ve heard enough. Passengers rate the battle for the armrest as one of their very greatest peeves, and in a move sure to win huge fans the airline has declared the middle seat the victor. Jetstar says it has no plans to settle any battles or enforce policy as if it’s law, but etiquette guidelines, at least for Jetstar flights dictate that the middle seat gets the two middle arm rests. It seems fair.
Passenger Pet Peeves
What else do passengers hate? According to the Jetstar survey, the second most annoying plane fail is loud talking. Passengers despise loud, inconsiderate neighbors. We’d just like to take this opportunity to recommend a selection of noise cancelling headphones to suit all budgets. Aside from delays, cancellations and rowdy neighbors, passengers face a myriad of etiquette issues while confined to metal tubes, and Jetstar isn’t the first to dive into the space. Last year, British Airways polled customers, using the results to form their own official etiquette guide. In the study, it was agreed that stepping over neighbors to use the restroom once was perfectly fine, but two or more was deemed excessive.
Jetstar Plane Bible
If you find yourself on a tenuous flight in the near future, be sure to pull up the Jetstar press release and let your window and aisle compatriots know that their rights to claim either of the armrests in your immediate vision do not exist, and armrest supremacy is forever yours. After all, you got the worst seat on the plane. Everyone knows windows are the best. Right?
HT: Yahoo Singapore.
Good luck enforcing this policy.
Unfortunately your advice about noise cancelling headphones is incorrect.
Noise cancelling is achieved by the headphone detecting a loud repetitive noise and creating an equal and opposite noise in the headphone to counteract it. Regular speech is variable and noise cancelling does little or nothing to cancel it as by the time it detects the noise it is too late and the voice has moved on.
Noise cancelling cancels engine noise but not speech or crying babies unfortunately.
How about the 2 middle seats in 3-4-3 planes?