The 9 seemingly ‘polite’ things passengers do that flight attendants secretly hate
Don’t be an airhead.
As many inflight kerfuffles have shown, airplane etiquette can be quite up in the air. Fortunately, flight attendants are helping air barbarians behave better by listing 9 passenger behaviors that might seem polite but actually make them despise you.
These sky no-nos surfaced on a variety of platforms, including dedicated Reddit threads where crew members were asked: “What passenger questions or requests annoy flight attendants most?”
Bedraggled stewards and stewards were eager to air their passenger pet peeves.
Trash-y flyers
A surefire way to get on the flight attendant no-fly list is to hand them trash between designated pickup times, per the thread. While this might seem helpful — crew members even complain about flyers who keep their area messy — it’s actually a huge hassle and even a health hazard in some instances.
“We have a lot more duties than just picking up your trash,” said one flight attendant on Quora. “If we are still serving beverages we will not take your trash and cross-contaminate your fellow passengers’ drinks.”
They added, “Sometimes we run out of gloves or the plane isn’t properly stocked with them and we don’t want to touch everyone’s trash.
Dirty diapers
By a similar token, don’t treat flight attendants as diaper depositories. “Don’t try to put it in my trash bag either, I have to walk past 100 more people who don’t want to smell that,” griped one crew member on Reddit. “Get up and throw it in the Lav trash. Don’t try to flush it…”
Another recounted an instance where a passenger surreptitiously snuck a nappie into their cart, bringing the food and beverage service to a screeching halt.
Fortunately, they had no compunction about publicly shaming the perpetrator, explaining that they “asked them why they put that there and they said ‘so I could throw it away.'”
“So I just canceled service and when I made the announcement, I had zero problem explaining why,” the air host recalled.
Poking the air bear
Don’t poke the bear or the flight attendant when you want attention. “This is my number one pet peeve and I’ve had to call people out for it,” said one flight attendant on Reddit, describing getting physically flagged. “Why do you think it’s ok to touch me?”
In other words, a simple “excuse me” will suffice.
Nicknames
Also violating is referring to a flight attendant as “doll,” “sweetie,” “puddin,'” etc. As Explore.com put it, “This isn’t ‘Mad Men.’ In fact, these mile-high monikers might even earn the culprit a nickname of their own: Philip. This secret flight attendant code word is given to problem passengers, designating them as undesirables who should be given poor service for the remainder of the flight.
Flirting
Then there are the lecherous passengers who seem like they want the flight attendants to induct them into the mile-high club. Not only is flirting creepy — especially given that flight attendants are trapped in the sky with passengers — but, contrary to popular belief, it won’t get passengers into first class.
“Our airline considers it as stealing,” flight attendant Destanie Armstrong, 25, explained in a trending TikTok in November. “We never allow that.”
The air hostess, who refused to specify her airline, added, “If someone wants to switch cabins or even get an upgrade, that’s to be dealt with [by] the gate agent.”
Special delivery
You wouldn’t order food outside of normal service hours on the ground, so you shouldn’t do it at 30,000 feet, flight attendants advise.
In other words, only request meals and beverages when it’s actually time to do so.
As one flight attendant snarked on Reddit, her biggest pet peeve is “asking me for another drink while I’m in the middle of picking up trash because how am I going to remember that 6B wants a coke, 10A wants coffee with 3 creams, 12F wants a vodka soda, 13F needs headphones and 20D wants a beer by the time I’ve finished doing trash for 30 rows?”
Suitcase samaritans
Reorganizing the overhead bins might seem like a samaritan gesture, however, this suitcase Tetris can actually make life more difficult for the professionals.
“I’m on the smaller side, so I often have passengers offer to help me lift bags or arrange the overhead compartments,” Erica L., a flight attendant for a major US airline, shared with Reader’s Digest. “This is fine if you’re handling your own luggage, but I really can’t allow you to move around other people’s stuff.”
Airplane vigilantes
With the recent uptick in sky shenanigans, it can be tempting to call out other passengers for their behavior. However, people should refrain from confronting unruly passengers as this often exacerbates the situation, claim flight attendants on Reddit, who advise alerting a flight attendant instead.
Not saying ‘please’ or ‘thank you’
Lastly, in the words of the the late and great Patrick Swayze from “Roadhouse,” “be nice.” Being a flight attendant is a grueling job so thanking them for their service both during and after the flight goes a long way.
One flight attendant claimed on Reddit that they’re not big fans of flyers who “don’t say hello, goodbye, thank you during boarding and deplaning.”
On the other hand, “when they take the time to look at us when we are doing the beverage service and say please and thank you, we really appreciate it,” flight attendant Natalie Magee, 42, described in a video.
