Southwest Airlines is known for its flight crew’s laid-back style. They crack jokes over the PA and sing their way through announcements. I’ve always found them cringey but cute. Like a good dad joke, it’s all about the delivery. I once had a flight attendant try to rap his way through the announcement that we’d landed, and I do mean “try.” This flight attendant did it much better.
Southwest’s social media team tried bringing that same energy to Threads, but ended up reigniting an age-old airplane etiquette debate. They recently made a snarky post that called out passengers who stand up the second the seatbelt sign turns off. It included a gratuitous use of the hand clapping emoji. The joke didn’t quite land, and the comments got a little spicy. From People:
Southwest Airlines has sparked a heated reaction from social media users regarding an age-old travel etiquette debate.
The Dallas-based carrier took to Threads to share a lighthearted post in which Southwest called out passengers who tend to stand up the moment after the plane lands and the seatbelt sign turns off.
“You 👏 won’t 👏 get 👏 off 👏 the 👏 plane 👏 faster 👏 by 👏 standing 👏 up 👏 .001 👏 seconds 👏 after 👏 the 👏 seatbelt 👏 sign 👏 turns 👏 off 👏 ,” they wrote last week.
The playful message appeared to strike a nerve for some users, as many were quick to defend why they do it in a way that matched the airline’s energy.
Sharing their rationale as to why they stand up immediately, one user wrote, “I 👏have👏 a 👏connecting 👏flight 👏that 👏I 👏am 👏going👏to👏be👏late 👏to👏.”
Others explained that sitting for too long is uncomfortable, which makes them want to stand as soon as possible so they can stretch their legs.
“I’m 👏 standing 👏 up 👏 because 👏 I’ve 👏 been 👏 sitting 👏 for 👏 5 👏 hours 👏 and 👏 I 👏 need 👏 to 👏 stretch 👏 my 👏 legs! 👏,” another added.
While making a connecting flight and needing to stretch seem to be a common response from users, others said the impatience they experience from their fellow travelers is what makes them rush to get out of their seats.
“Gotta get my bag out and things ready to roll or everyone is waiting behind me angrily,” one noted. Another joked of the post, “I feel attacked.”
Southwest is correct that standing up isn’t going to save you any deboarding time, but I’m with the people clapping back on this one. As long as people are being polite and not invading other passengers’ personal space, who cares if they stand up or not? Some people want to stretch after being seated for hours while others may be anxious about catching a connecting flight. I’ve stood up for both of those reasons. My older son always jumps up right away because he’s impatient to get off the plane. Usually, if I’m at my final destination and toward the back of the plane, I’ll stay seated. As long as they’re waiting until it’s safe, I say let the people stand.
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photos credit: Jeffry Surianto and Kelly on Pexels
People standing up annoy me, lol. It usually ends up crowding the aisle and makes it harder for me to get my luggage and get off when its my turn, because there are people in the aisle. and the long flight thing makes no sense unless there’s turbulence and you weren’t allowed to stand the whole time. There’s not room for every single passenger to stand in the aisle so half are crouched in the row, half are leaning out, etc.
A connecting flight is different and I like when flight crews announce that passengers with tight connecting flights should deplane first. But besides passengers should still exit front to back and so does standing really help you get off faster?
I know people will say “but my back!! my legs!!!” and that is going to be true for some but not the 90% of people who stand up immediately.
WHO KNEW i felt so strongly about this lol.
Standing up isn’t as bad as the people seated in the back who rush to the front and grab their bag from the front’s overhead storage and stand there glaring, daring anyone to say anything.
I HATE THOSE PEOPLE!!! DONT USE THE STORAGE BINS AT THE FRONT IF YOU’RE SITTING AT THE BACK!!!
(and for the record carry on luggage stresses me out and I do worry about not having enough space. But so far its never happened.)
Hard disagree. People who stand up block the aisle for people who actually DO have connecting flights and need to get out. MORE THAN ONCE I’ve seen flight attendants ask people to clear the aisle for someone who needs to get off and they get about 6 rows down and get stuck because people are ignorant. We’re all sitting there the same amount of time. You’re not special. Sit down and wait.
Standing up doesn’t bother me, but when people are clearly trying to rush the flight attendants or start unloading their shizz immediately, I get flustered in case they snap at me or touch my stuff.
Or they hand my suitcase down to me. Like, sure, let it sit here on my lap while I wait another 10 minutes.
I travel extensively in the USA for work and see this weekly. The main issue people have isn’t the ones standing up right away, it’s the people in the back that stand up and immediately rush up the aisle to get off the plane faster. It’s the people not waiting their turn that are annoying, not necessarily the ones just standing up.
Even just standing in the aisle is rude. There is one aisle space for 6 passengers, so those who think they are entitled to it when they could just sit for an extra 5 minutes and deplane at the exact same time give me the ick.
My spinal injury beats snarky judgement. 🙄 You’d think that a profession tasked with passenger safety would be aware that many disabilities are invisible. If passengers stand immediately, stay in their seat’s area, and are not being problematic whatsoever, then what’s the issue??
This is one of the things that stresses me out about flights! I will stay seated and not even try to go get my bag out as other people are rushing out, but that might mean I’m unintentionally blocking in my seatmate or someone behind me is fuming because they’re waiting for me to move.
I find it amazing that airlines spend so much time and effort carefully calling each passenger in sections and having everyone file into the plane, and then at the end of the flight it’s just a free for all! It’s a terrible experience for everyone involved – but shaming people is hardly the answer. Without an acceptable structure and no incentives for people to wait, of course it’s going to be chaos. It’s like 50 way intersection without signage or signals inside an enclosed metal tube.
When we had an assembly in school, in order to prevent exactly this kind of shambles, the principal dismissed us in rows. It was expected – nobody tried to make a run for the exits, lest they exasperate the other kids – and predictable, because you could see when your row’s turn was coming. You had every incentive to wait your turn so the process was efficient. (Well, as efficient as primary students can ever be, ha).
I’ve noticed the same phenomenon at concerts, too – the show ends and everyone rushed the exits and ends up with a huge bottleneck.
There must be a better way!
My favorite is when I’m in the aisle seat (always!) and the person next to me in the middle seat immediately stands and makes me feel like *I’m* the asshole for waiting my turn to stand and exit like a civilized member of society.