It isn’t easy being a flight attendant.
From making sure everyone gets seated in time for take-off, figuring out the puzzle of the overhead bins, meal-service and making sure that we’re safe, there’s definitely a lot of responsibility involved.
While the job of a FA sounds way too stressful to me in some ways, there are some things that we could all do to help make their jobs a bit easier.
The Huffington Post took a look at a list from the Facebook page of Flight Attendant Career Connection to tell us that The One Thing Flight Attendants Wish You’d Stop Doing.
Here are the things that FAs wish passengers wouldn’t do while onboard:
- Taking too long to know what drink you want.
- Leaving trash in the seatback pocket.
- Keeping your headphones on while ordering a drink.
- Walking around the plane barefoot.
- Poking or tugging their dress.
- Deciding to use the bathroom right before landing.
- Handing them tissues, toothpicks or diapers
- Commenting “how small the plane is”.
- Hanging out in the galley.
- Going to the bathroom while meals are being served.
- Complaining about a tight connection while the current flight is on time.
- Asking to borrow a pen for customs forms.
While looking over the list, I was curious to see if I was guilty of any of these things. I could think of a couple of them that I’ve done on rare occasion.
I do try to give all of my trash to the FA’s when they come by to collect it. However, from time to time I might leave a small wrapper or something along those lines in the seatback. I usually try to toss it out at some point, but there are times we forget. Sorry FA’s!
When Lucas was newer to flying, from time to time we would go for a walk on the plane and hang out in the galley. The thing is, most FA’s loved the company (or at least acted like they did.) Some of them would hold him, open those little closets, offer us another drink etc… I’d also ask if it was OK or if they minded that we were hanging around…
Are you guilty of any of these flight attendant flying no- no’s?
Find out more from the Huffington Post here.
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DaninMCI- I’m sure that not all holds true for every FA but this does seem to be a pretty solid list + I hear there is a lot more…
Anon- Thanks for adding the seat belts. That’s a good one.
FA Crew- Good points.
Christian- My guess- It’s probably just annoying to hear and nothing they could do about it?
Good list overall, although I don’t understand why a flight attendant would care about your opinion on the size of the plane.
As crew, yes all of these things I wish passengers wouldn’t do.
Thoughts on trash:
Although I would prefer you leave your trash in the seat back instead of handing it to me right before landing. Working for major carriers we don’t have to clean the plane. But if you are on a regional airline, FA crew clean the planes. Get that trash in the bag when they come through the cabin to pick up.
Thoughts on hanging out in galley:
If we are in the middle of service please stay out of the galley, it is our work space and we don’t have much room. If service is complete and we aren’t busy, then I’d love to chat with you.
Good to know. So it seems the regional make the FA’s work to clean more than the major carriers. Something to keep in mind with the seat back trash question.
Being that this is from the HuffP I wouldn’t hold all of it as gospel. I wonder how may FA’s have to clean the seat backs? I usually see other cleaning crews that do this for them so why would they care all that much other than just a nice thing to do.
I am a flight attendant, and we have to clean the seat backs after every flight. It’s incredibly frustrating, especially after we’ve already come through the cabin 2-3 times to collect trash.
I’d agree with everything on the list – and add:
Passengers unclicking their seat belts as soon as we land. Just wait the extra few minutes until the sign is off. People have gotten hurt because of this.