Boarded a Southwest flight yesterday and headed straight for the exit row like we usually do. My partner went to put my carry on in the overhead so I could sit down, and a flight attendant stopped him mid move.
She said if I’m sitting in the exit row, I have to lift my own bag to prove I’m capable. Not that I couldn’t. Just that I had to physically do it myself or I couldn’t sit there. It felt awkward and unnecessary, especially since I had zero problem lifting it and we choose exit rows specifically because we’re comfortable helping in an emergency.
What made it more confusing was seeing a few clearly frail older passengers in the exit row ahead of us who didn’t have carry ons at all. So how exactly are they “testing” capability in that case? There didn’t seem to be any consistency.
I’ve flown Southwest a lot and never had an FA stop someone from helping with a bag like that before, let alone make it a public thing. Curious if this is actually written policy or just something certain crews enforce differently.
Has anyone else run into this?
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