Well, I thought we had this battle won, but something always comes along once 
in a while to remind me that we don't.
On Jan. 2 a friend of mine and I were flying from New Orleans to Oakland 
California.  After being delayed due to weather at L.A.X. for over 2 hours we 
boarded the plane for oakland.  We were moved from our original seats because 
we were seated on an exit row.  When I asked my friend if she knew anything 
about this, she who is also a federationist said that a law was passed a few 
years ago allowing the airlines to remove us from exit rows without fear of 
reprisal and that there wasn't anything we could do about it.  Since I was 
not sure if this was the case I gave them the benefit of the doubt and moved.
We were also told that because she had a dog guide it was an F.A.A. 
regulation that she sit on the bulkhead.  Even the head flight attendant 
conceided later that this was not true but nothing was done to change our 
seating assignments as the flight was full to overflowing and we couldn't do 
anything about it.  And frankly, it was also due in part to the fact that the 
person I was traveling with chose to wimp out.  
I would like to know what is the current status as to our allowability to sit 
in exit rows?  I already know that bulkhead seating is not required for dog 
guide users or for any other blind persons to my knowledge.
A question I would like to pose to everyone is:  In my travels, I haven't 
ever heard the airlines say that because a person or persons is seated in an 
exit row they may not be served any alcoholic beverages due to safety 
reasons.  Has anyone else heard this?  I think the reason may be that there 
are millions of business travelers who would howl in protest if such a rule 
were inplimented while there are only thousands of blind persons who travel.  
And yet they claim it is for safety reasons that we can't sit in exit rows.
Harvey 
--- msged 2.07
---------------