So, I was on vacation for a long time, all of October.
This was my very first international long flight. The flight itself there and back were fine and great.
On the way home, though, it was an awkward moment, and I had no idea what to do.
As soon as we got in the air, the three ladies in front of me reclined their seats and fell asleep. That's fine; I have no problem with reclining seats.
Shortly after, the 2 ladies next to me did the same. I was in the window seat because I had never flown during the day so I wanted the views coming back to London.
The "aisle" lady had noise-cancelling headphones and an eye mask, and the woman in the middle seat next to me didn't but she did put the blanket on immediately.
I desperately needed to go to the toilet, and I could not try to get up and squeeze past them because the reclined seats in front made it so there was NO space for me to put my feet, plus it'd be a bit weird anyway with the women next to me both being strangers.
I didn't want to wake them up either, as I felt it was a bit rude.
I just waited and waited as much as I could and eventually, the woman next to me did wake up, but the other one did not. So I took my chance to ask her.
Luckily me and her kind of laughed about it and at how awkward it was. She couldn't get out either because of the other sleeping woman, so she leaned back and also opened her legs as much as possible so I could step between her, but then I had the awkward moment of trying to completely do a big step over the other woman, or awkwardly waking her up to ask her to move. I chose the former option and luckily I didn't fall on her.
But yeah, what would you all do in this situation? What is the etiquette here? You have 3, or maybe 4 options I guess.
1) Wait and wait and hope they don't sleep all the flight or you don't pee yourself.
2) Awkwardly try to step over them and risk falling on them.
3) Try to gently wake them up and ask nicely for them to move.
4) Call a steward and ask them to wake them up for you (I feel this would have been the most weird, rude and awkward to be honest, so I didn't even think about it for more than a split second)
When I did get to the queue an American woman had seen me squeezing past them both and she had a laugh with me about it too, so that was nice haha
This was my very first international long flight. The flight itself there and back were fine and great.
On the way home, though, it was an awkward moment, and I had no idea what to do.
As soon as we got in the air, the three ladies in front of me reclined their seats and fell asleep. That's fine; I have no problem with reclining seats.
Shortly after, the 2 ladies next to me did the same. I was in the window seat because I had never flown during the day so I wanted the views coming back to London.
The "aisle" lady had noise-cancelling headphones and an eye mask, and the woman in the middle seat next to me didn't but she did put the blanket on immediately.
I desperately needed to go to the toilet, and I could not try to get up and squeeze past them because the reclined seats in front made it so there was NO space for me to put my feet, plus it'd be a bit weird anyway with the women next to me both being strangers.
I didn't want to wake them up either, as I felt it was a bit rude.
I just waited and waited as much as I could and eventually, the woman next to me did wake up, but the other one did not. So I took my chance to ask her.
Luckily me and her kind of laughed about it and at how awkward it was. She couldn't get out either because of the other sleeping woman, so she leaned back and also opened her legs as much as possible so I could step between her, but then I had the awkward moment of trying to completely do a big step over the other woman, or awkwardly waking her up to ask her to move. I chose the former option and luckily I didn't fall on her.
But yeah, what would you all do in this situation? What is the etiquette here? You have 3, or maybe 4 options I guess.
1) Wait and wait and hope they don't sleep all the flight or you don't pee yourself.
2) Awkwardly try to step over them and risk falling on them.
3) Try to gently wake them up and ask nicely for them to move.
4) Call a steward and ask them to wake them up for you (I feel this would have been the most weird, rude and awkward to be honest, so I didn't even think about it for more than a split second)
When I did get to the queue an American woman had seen me squeezing past them both and she had a laugh with me about it too, so that was nice haha
