Overwing Exits and Frequent Fliers?
I was positioning (in uniform) recently between ORD / ATL on American and I was interested to see that they put both of us crew at the overwing exit on a little Embraer jet thing. I position 5 - 10 times a month and it made me think that here was an airline that perhaps thought safety AND put it into practice??? It got me to wondering just how many airlines out there have a policy to put deadhead or positioning crew in these safety critical seats?
It appears that there are very few ..... a colleague relates that he was similarly positioning with a large German airline and mentioned at check-in that he was current 747 crew and he was given a seat in the emergency exit row. When he got to the aircraft however he was contacted and moved to a centre aisle seat to be replaced as a Frequent Flyer who was overweight and had requested that seat! Clearly commercial interest TOTALLY over-rode any thought about safety in that particular operation.
Putting a trained cabin or flight deck member on these seats would surely enhance safety enormously in the event of an evacuation or security event so why not prompt your safety department to put their money where their mouth is?
Does anybody know if their airline has any policy regarding these seats (other than putting Frequent Flyers in them?)