A few weeks ago, I saw a fairly viral Instagram clip, from a self-described “Top 5 Plane Unboarder”. The clip was titled “(when) you have 0 patience when getting off planes”. It shows the point of view of someone near the back of an airplane getting up out of his seat and rushing up the aisle. He goes past several rows and then also squeezes around (at least) 2 people in the aisle trying to get their luggage out of the overhead bin.
The “Top 5 Plane Unboarder”
Here’s the clip from Instagram – while I’m always a bit skeptical of whether or not these types of videos are real or staged, this one does appear to be real as far as I can tell.
My Take
I’ve seen a few different takes on this. Gary at View from the Wing says that “standing up as soon as the seat belt sign turns off is also the correct thing to do.” Matthew at Live and Let’s Fly says that “jumping up and bounding past other folks is just plain rude”.
I am on the record as someone who stands up as soon as the plane gets to the gate and the seatbelt sign “dings”. Like the guy in the Instagram post, I am fully on #TeamAisle, so I am ready to go when the plane gets to the gate.
(SEE ALSO: I used to be on #TeamWindowSeat… then this happened)
So I don’t have a problem with him busting out into the aisle and moving forward. When I am traveling with just my backpack, that is what I will do. I find that I can usually get at least 5 or so rows “ahead” by doing this, before anyone else has even thought about standing up. Where I have a problem though is when he “pushes through” or “squeezes around” people that are in the aisle (at least twice, as far as I could tell from the video). My take is that it is NOT rude to move forward in the aisle if you’re ready to go and others have not stood up and gotten in the aisle, but once you “meet resistance” by someone else being in the aisle, then stop and wait your turn.
The Bottom Line
A self-described “Top 5 Plane Unboarder” shared a point-of-view clip of him on Instagram rushing out of his seat as soon as the plane arrives at the gate. While I don’t have a problem with getting out and moving forward if you’re ready, I do think that it’s inappropriate to move past people that are in the aisle, even if “technically” you can squeeze past them with some effort. Either sit in your seat until your row’s turn, or move forward as long as the aisle is open and stop once someone else is in the aisle ahead of you.
What do you think? Is rushing off the plane like this rude? What would you do if this happened on your flight? Leave your thoughts in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I agree with the column. Rushing before or as others stand is perfectly ok. Squeezing past people is not ok with limited exceptions, like when someone is delayed and fixing something around their aisle seat, such as re-packing.
It is not okay. You have taken and are standing in the space, of someone else ahead of you who waited politely to disembark and needs that space to retrieve their belongings. Seriously, anyone who does this knows better.
It’s always rude to be fast and be really slow is nice. Stupid reality
It a jerk move. Want off the plane early…buy a better ticket. Planes board by the order of the gate agent and deplane by front row to back row. This guy is an a-hole
Considering current day wheelchair abuse, 100% not rude but necessary because selfish people have already gotten ahead to slow you down when the ding happens. And slow you down, they will! All the way to the gate counter, past the jetway. Lots of experience with that frustration.
Someone may have a close connecting flight which is no fault of his but the airline scheduling where he has to dash to another gate. In that case, with manners as he goes as far as he can without disrupting other passengers, imo is ok. “I’m sorry, do you mind if I go ahead of you here, I have a really short connection to make.” Ok in my book if it’s true.
I purposely wait until all in front of me have left. I am never so anxious or stressed where I feel the need to immediately race up the aisle to leave plane. These are usually the same folks that have to stand up in boarding lane 1 hour before boarding begins. I refer to these folks as “Gate Lice”