DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a healthy, strong, 62-year-old woman. I fly frequently on business. Because of the frequency, I get upgraded to first class about half the time. Most other people in first class are men; it’s usually upwards of 80 percent.
There is an expectation when deplaning that people exit by row. This nearly always happens gracefully and amicably when I’m in coach. But in first class, when it is time to exit, I have experienced over and over again that I have to be somewhat pushy to enter the aisle when it’s my turn, as it were. If I’m not very quick and pushy, I get pushed past by men in rows behind me. Frequently! If I’m on the aisle, I engage in the apparently expected pushiness so that I don’t hold back the person next to me in the window seat.
Is there a way to handle this, other than just quietly enduring it? I admit that I wonder if I’m the one being rude, by perhaps being too meek.
GENTLE READER: Really? First-class men are pushier than economic ones? Is that how they got to where they can afford ridiculous airfares?
Rather than offering a sociological report, Miss Manners suggests that you learn to say “excuse me” in the polite but commanding way of a strong, healthy (or any other) passenger.
You could also plop your carry-on bag in the aisle the second you hear that ping of permission.