Passengers do so, so many things that flight attendants wish they just wouldn’t.
Granted, most passengers are also probably completely unaware of the things they’re doing to drive us absolutely bananas. So, here is a list of all the things flight attendants wish you would stop doing on flights.
Hopefully, you aren’t guilty of the things in this list. 😇
Invading the Galley
Passengers do tons of annoying things in the galley, where they happen to be invading our working space and crowding us out of the only place we have to ourselves. I’ve broken down the most annoying types of galley-invaders for you here.
➡️ The Hoverer
Most of the time, flight attendants don’t have a chance to eat between flights, so we tend to scarf down food between services while sitting in the galley.
That brings me to the first type of annoying galley invader. The “hoverer.” The hoverers come into the galley, see that we are eating, and choose to just stand over us while we’re sitting on the jumpseat and stare at us.
They don’t ask for anything, and most of the time they don’t speak. They just stand inches away from us and look down at us while we try to eat or do our crossword puzzle.
It’s creepy! Don’t do it!
➡️ The In-Flight Yogi
The second annoying type of galley invader is the in-flight yogis, who come into the galley and start using our work space as their own personal stretching area.
They start by taking up as much space as possible, then they put their feet all over our working surfaces, from our jumpseat to the counter tops. Yes, where we prepare the food. Yuck!
I promise you don’t need to do galley gymnastics to avoid getting a blood clot or something, so please stop!
➡️ The Interviewer
Similar to the Hoverer, the “interviewer” always strikes while we are trying to chew, and they pester us with questions like, “so does the airline pay for your hotel?” or “what’s the grossest thing you’ve seen on a plane?”
(I have wanted to answer, “your face” to the latter several times, but I liked my job too much).
If you see a flight attendant eating, don’t try to start a conversation, that’s just rude!
Giving us trash at inappropriate times
Flight attendants come through the cabin pretty often with trash bags, and when we do, we are wearing gloves. If you are trying to give us trash any other time, it’s probably an inappropriate time to do so.
Here are some examples of inappropriate time to give flight attendants trash:
- While we are eating
- When we are not wearing gloves
- When we do not have a trash bag
- While we are attending to a medical emergency
- During the final cabin check
- During an emergency evacuation (I wouldn’t be surprised by this in the least).
Bonus: It is never a good time to hand flight attendants soiled diapers, bags of vomit, or other disposable items that have come into contact with your bodily fluids…
Keeping your headphones on when we’re talking to you
I hated it when passengers would leave their noise-cancelling headphones on while I was trying to ask them what they wanted to drink.
Sometimes they wouldn’t even notice I was talking to them until I had given up and moved onto the row behind them, only to have them ring the call bell and angrily insist I had “skipped” them. Or they’d repeatedly shout “what?” because they obviously couldn’t hear me over whatever was playing in their ears. Big eye roll.
Asking if you will make your connection
The second a flight gets delayed, passengers will inevitably start asking us if they’re going to make their connection and most of the time, we have no way of answering that question.
We have no way of knowing how long the delay will last or what will happen once we’ve taken off. Because, who knows, we might end up having to divert to an entirely different city!
The point is, your flight attendants don’t know, and we can’t change the situation anyway, so you might as well just relax and deal with whatever happens when it actually happens.
Making a scene about stowing your designer bag
The number of times a woman dressed in some kind of matching tracksuit has whined, “but it’s a Louis Vuitton” in response to me asking her to stow her bag is triggering.
I’m sorry, but if you can’t handle putting your fancy purse into the overhead bin, or under the seat in front of you, do bring it on a plane! It’s really that simple.
Throwing a tantrum because “your” overhead bin is full
You are not always going to be able to stow your bag directly over your own seat. That is a fact of flying. But for some reason, grown adults feel the need to throw tantrums about this regularly.
Your bag will still be on the plane, even if it is a row or two away. And no, I am not going to move other people’s bags to make sure yours can fit into the bin above you, so don’t bother asking.
Threatening to get us fired because we ran out of your favorite meal choice
I once had a woman threaten to get me fired because she couldn’t have the same meal as her neighbor, who had pre-ordered a special vegan meal in advance.
Look, as a vegetarian myself, I know it’s really annoying if the pasta is gone by the time the crew gets to your row, or if a smarter vegetarian happens to pre-order the Asian vegetarian option. (Pro-tip: these are always delicious). But yelling at us and threatening to get us fired for not being “accommodating”, is not going to change the situation.
Also, it’s an entirely avoidable problem because she could also have just pre-ordered the meal she wanted.
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of other things that flight attendants which passengers wouldn’t do, but I hope this list sheds a little light on our pet peeves. And if you happen to be guilty of these, don’t despair! There is still time to change and become the perfect passenger.
