The online social media Australian-Filipina Blackman family shared their travels with kids in coach – booking the bulkhead row and letting the kids sleep on the floor for their flight. While they’re mostly known among their millions of followers for cute family content, this has caused some consternation in aviation circles.
As a kid I used to love flights with empty rows where I could spread out and sleep on a long haul. I never flew in a premium cabin until I graduated college, went to work, and became a frequent flyer. My early experiences to Australia were in the back of the aircraft. But a full middle row on an American Airlines DC-10 did the trick!
Sleeping on the floor, though, just isn’t something I would have ever considered – even leaving aside cleanliness issues. This wouldn’t be great in the event of turbulence, either. There’s no way to stay buckled.
Aftermath of major turbulence on AC19 today
byu/HefetzHashud inaircanada
It wouldn’t be the first passenger to choose the floor of the aircraft, though – even the first one recently.
And of course in 2017, Pakistan International Airways gave 7 passengers on a Boeing 777 handwritten boarding passes to stand in the aisle of a 1,700 mile flight from Karachi to Medina. They didn’t have much choice about the floor!
Meanwhile in 2019, a British family had to sit on the floor of a TUI flight from Mahon, Spain to Birmingham when the carrier swapped planes for an aircraft that didn’t have their row.