Last week I flew Denver to San Fransisco on Frontier airlines. I seldom talk to the person next to me on flights. I was traveling on ‘Classic Plus’ section, which gives you free TV – a good way to spend time when you are flying.
After the takeoff, it took like 5 minutes for the TV programs to start. I wanted to change the channel. The remote was very intuitive with only 6 buttons (see image). I pressed channel up, but nothing happened. So I pressed it like 5 more times. My neighbor looked at me and she looked pissed. I took my headphones off and she told me that I was changing the channels on her screen. I was so embarrassed.
But why did I make this error? If you see the image carefully you can see that there is another button next to the remote which pushes the seat back. For every passenger, the remote was on their left arm rest and the seat push button on their right. I used the seat push button first and soon made a connection in my mind that all my controls are to my right (since objects close to each other tend to form a group). So in my defense, it was not entirely my mistake that I used my neighbors remote.
i agree – its always hard to figure out which armrest the button for reclining my seat is on. the worst part though is that the location is not consistent across every airline, so i can’t even carry over my learned behavior from one to another