24 Things About Flights That Passengers Are Unaware Of, As Shared By Flight Attendants On Reddit—Plus The Things That Annoy Them The Most While On Board

"Don't. F*****g. Clap."

Sophia

• Published in Interesting
• August 22, 2023

Commercial flight is an extraordinary experience, almost like a modern marvel. You're experiencing the miracle of soaring through the skies, but within a confined space that's akin to a multipurpose sardine can equipped with wings.

This situation creates an environment where the risk of becoming obnoxious isn't exactly negligible. Such behavior might stem from your discomfort or the discomfort of others around you, even if some are completely unaware of their irritation.

But what else goes on in the skies that passengers may be oblivious to? Well, some internet users, specifically on Reddit, have been shedding light on insider information that regular travelers aren't typically privy to but flight attendants are all too familiar with.

This popular thread has become a treasure trove of secrets as flight attendants share both fascinating tidbits and some of the more challenging aspects of their daily routines. This just proves that you never really know what a person feels while doing their job!

Are you interested in this behind-the-scenes look? You're in luck because the list of these little-known facts is readily available for you to read on!

You may find the insights amusing, enlightening, or perhaps even frustrating, reflecting the varied experiences of those who ensure our journeys are smooth. Just take a look...

1. "Pretty much what happens at a lot of jobs."

If you ask for something nicely I'll usually give it to you, but if you demand it or if you're a jerk... good luck getting anything free.

2. "I always liked the little known fact that the reason for turning the cabin lights off at night..."

...Just before landing, is to allow enough time for the eyes to adjust to night vision, so in case of a crash you're already adjusted for the darkness to make it easier to see in the dark and find your way out of the aircraft and away from it in the darkness outside. You'll be thinking about this on your next night flight guaranteed!

3. "If it’s a red eye and we are close to landing I might be hallucinating from lack of sleep."

Not enough to be dangerous, just enough to see weird things.

Oh and when you ask us to change the temperature we pretend to do it. Planes are generally colder because if we hit turbulence warm temps will make the chances of someone puking much higher. No idea why.

If you curse in general it’s normally not a thing but the second you curse at me I can kick you off.

We have flex-restraints and are trained how to use them should you get disorderly.

4. "Don't. F*****g. Clap."

That simple.

5. "The worst part for me is not being able to have a schedule."

I can't reliably eat, work out, or sleep ~~work~~ with any consistency. It's also pretty tough being away from home so often if you have anyone at home you want to see. Leaving my husband and dog alone all the time is tough for both me and him.

6. "Leave the bathroom the way you found it..."

1. Leave the bathroom the way you found it. I kid you not when I say that a passenger left his giant turd on the floor of the lavatory. Not sure how. Not sure why. But it was definitely my first code brown.

2. We can tell when your emotional support animal is real and when you just manipulated the system to avoid paying the cabin pet fee.

3. Don't make small talk with us. We hear the same questions every day, "Whats your route?" "Is this your first flight." Shhhhhhhh. Im here to give you food, drinks, and clear instructions on how to get out if the plane is on fire. I am not here to provide you with small talk- get a book.

4. Perhaps this is the most important one: Most airports right now are landing too many planes an hour. So if we have to wait for a gate or if there is a traffic jam on the tarmac DO NOT- i repeat DO NOT ask us to call the flight deck and tell them to HOLD YOUR CONNECTING FLIGHT. That's not how it works in America. You are not special and your flight will never be held for you unless you have George Clooney status. During the holiday season make sure your connection time is at least 90 minutes minimum. Weather, maintenance, Air traffic control delays are all factors that will stop you from having a seamless experience. Plan ahead.

Edit: For God's sake I'm not asking you to never to chat. We're always happy to help but when I'm in the middle of organizing my galley for a meal service don't hover over me and ask where I'm from.

7. "Unless you're extremely lucky and your aircraft just rolled out of the hangar after major maintenance, there will absolutely be something broken in it."

An aircraft can have a whole host of parts be broken and still be allowed to fly, the broken parts just get labeled, recorded, and put on the to-do list for the next time it goes to maintenance.

8. "I was a flight attendant for 10 years, only left after the birth of my 2nd child."

I can go on and on about so much from my flying days. But I am glad now that I left and don’t miss it anymore. I was always away and was always so jet lagged or tired when at home.

As you’re boarding the aircraft we are judging you, we need to be able to establish what kind of flight we are gonna have. If you’re nice we will try anything we can do to help you, but if you’re a jerk we will just ignore you and talk behind your back in the galley.

If we are asking you to follow rules, it’s nothing personal that’s literally our job and please PLEASE don’t ask where are we flying at the moment.

I don’t know or don’t care either. Nowadays we have lots of Gluten Free, vegan and vegetarian passengers on board, you need to make sure that you specify your meal when making the booking to avoid disappointment.

Once I had a family of 6 people from LA who were all gluten free and were very surprised that we do not carry GF meal. I was able to get some fruits and salads without dressing from business class to keep them happy as they were very nice about it.

9. "When people ask for the reason for a delay, we usually give a b******t response because the REAL answer would spook passengers."

"We have a minor technical problem and engineers are on their way" And in reality: The cabin pressure isn't working.

Also here is another thing: It means A LOT to us if a passenger actually says hello back to us and smiles. We'll remember your face. Believe me, because we got 150+ people who usually ignore us. One guy said "Hey good morning!" to me, and all flight I gave him alcohol on priority right away, while I made others wait 5-10 minutes because I was busy.

Also, say 'thank you'. It really makes my day. I took count of how many "thanks" I got. 200 passengers at 18 said "Thanks". Sometimes I load my pockets with cookies, nuts, crackers, mini whiskey bottles, and whenever I pass by, I offer them.

10. "Oh, my job shows up on reddit, lets do this!"

-Long range aircrafts have a room with many beds where the crew sleeps for some time. For some of us is pretty ovbious but I found many people that didnt know about that.

-Toilets are unlocked from outside by lifting the metal lid and moving the locker.

-Most of the times, on big airlines, crew dont know at all between each other. 90% of cases they just met an hour before the flight.

-We dont spend weeks flying around jumping from a city to another. Usually there is a base where you jump from an to it, with some layovers each month. This varies a lot from one airline to another since they have different targets to cover.

-There is an axe in the cockpit.

-Our main job is to ensure safety and security during the flight, serving food/drinks is a complimentary thing.

- Turbulence can be some serious s**t and, if unlucky, they can ruin your life, putting the seatbelt take 3 secs and is not even tight.

-We cant donate blood or organs due to be an aircrew. Apparently blood cells grow abnormally due to different air pressure and is not safe for donation. I think this is not worldwide but in the EU, over several years flying, you are restricted to do so.

-Despite being surrounded by people all day, is many times a very lonely job.

11. "where are we flying over right now?"

We never know.

Also, to open a bi-fold lavatory door, simply push in the middle. Where it says PUSH. One of the negative aspects of the job is when people yank off the ashtray thinking it's a door handle and then ask WHY DO YOU EVEN HAVE THOSE STILL. It's an FAA requirement, ashtrays need to be on every plane in case someone decides to f**k the rules and light up.

12. "Don't stand up while we taxi, imagine you are in a 50 tonne car with jets strapped to the doors, wear a damn seatbelt until the seatbelt signs are off."

Fun fact: a plane can still crash on the ground, please wear a seatbelt!

13. "Flight attendant for 4.5 years here."

1. We have no control over delays. It's not our fault no matter how much you take it out on us.

2. During delays at the gate...we are not getting paid. We are as pissed off as you are if not more.

3. The amount of times someone has poked me in the waist, back of the head, and yes my a*s in order to ask me to take their trash or some other stupid s**t is TOO DAMN HIGH! It is always interesting to me when people get offended because I will turn around and put my finger in their face saying "dont touch me. Ever."

4. The plane is disgusting. Don't walk around barefoot. Definitely don't eat your mint after it fell on the floor like Mr. 3A did the other day.

5. Our layovers are short and often times we are expected to work a 15 hour days without actual time to stop for food. If we seem cranky it's probably food or sleep related.

I could go on but at the end of the day, I wouldn't change this career for anything else.

14. "The lack of stability in my schedule is a huge thing that people don’t really know about, I find out where I’m going for the month on the 21st of the month before."

Unless I have my booked leave there I have no idea what my days off will be.

In January I turned up to work for a Nairobi trip and got reassigned to a Chicago 20 minutes before I was due for my briefing. Arrived in ORD dressed for the African summer.

As for things you don’t know, almost always we pick our BFF or Boyfriend for the Flight who is simply the most attractive guy on the flight just for a bit of fun. We also discuss amongst us how nice out ‘side’ is. On wide-body aircraft there’s 2 aisles and we work each side. Once we’ve done the initial drinks round we often have a casual chat over what they’re like; “My side is pretty nice, they’re drinking a lot of alcohol though. 34D is a d**k but there’s a family of four at the front who are lovely.”

If you drink too much and we cut you off when you ask for your 4th double vodka tonic in an hour, don’t try and pull the wool over our eyes and ask someone else. We know about you, the onboard manager will know about you and the Captain will know about you. As soon as I cut someone off I let the crew working with me know that I’ve stopped giving 28B alcohol.

When the manager calls us (every half an hour at my airline) we let them know that 28B has been cut off, and in turn they’ll let the Captain know. It’s nothing major but I don’t think a lot of people realise how much we keep the flight deck in the loop on everything that’s going on.

People in business and first class don’t realise they’re cracking off their warm smelling bed farts all the time when they’re trying to sleep and it’s disgusting.

And yes we know when you’re getting handsy with eachother.

15. "If you bring carry on luggage you should be able to lift it."

Don't ask your flight attendant to but it in the bin for you.

If you press the call light button to order something, make sure you order everything you want at once. We don't wanna be pacing back and forth through an entire aircraft 20 times.

We talk about you. On each flight, we'll spot the hot ones and be like "Check out 20B"

Or if you're an a*****e, we warn each other about you. So don't be a d**k or you'll get s****y service the entire flight.

If we tell you we don't have something, we don't have it. Yes it's on the menu, but it's not available. We're in the sky, no I cannot just make you a sandwich.

16. "To add to this, most airlines I've worked with have a monthly minimum, meaning I get paid for 75 hours a month regardless of if I'm actually flying that amount."

17. "USA flight attendant here."

- We are not paid our hourly rate during boarding or deplaning an aircraft. Even when we sign into work. Usually an airline will pay both their pilots and flight attendants their hourly when the brake releases from the gate until the aircraft reaches the next gate. This is due to the 1926 Railway Labor Act, that overlooks both railways and airlines to this day. It was last amended in 1936. They circumvent this by paying their employees a per diem, which is usually $1.50-$3 per hour you are away from your starting airport/home (which we call “base”).

- Asking us to put up your bag is kind of a customer service taboo due to policies and procedures. Many customers with injuries, older customers, or some women will assume flight attendants (usually males) can put bags in the bin for them but we are not allowed to do it by ourselves and ourselves alone. If we were hurt our shoulder or back due to the weight of the bag by putting it in the overhead bin, many airlines would not compensate their flight attendants for an OJI (on the job injury). So if you need to put up your bag but cannot do it yourself...as much as it may suck, unfortunately you need to check it or you just look inconsiderate.

- Bathroom doors are usually accessible by PUSHing them where it reads PUSH lol. I know the airplane looks very foreign from everyday places, but do take heed of the signs to help you along your way.

- Speaking of using the bathroom...if the seatbelt sign is on and you need to go, the flight attendant cannot legally tell you “yes”, “no”, or a variant of “just be careful”. If the seatbelt sign is on, all we can say is, “The seatbelt sign is on.” It may seem confusing or unhelpful...but this is due to legal reasons at the end of the day.

- When a flight attendant is standing at the boarding door and greeting people, we aren’t just greeting people but looking and monitoring people for potential threatening behavior to other passengers or able bodied people in case of an emergency situation.

- All flight attendants are trained in self-defense. They relearn techniques each year, too.

Negative aspects about the job...?

- We are constantly away from our home life for a living. Usually 3-9 days at time, in some cases. So the job can be lonely, especially if the crew you are flying with doesn’t mesh well together. And because I am away from home, I cannot own a doggo. :(

- Radiation from flying is real for both flight attendants and pilots. The potential to develop skin cancer is very real for us so I hope to not fly as much when I become more senior to reduce the possibility of radiation exposure.

But besides all the weird taboos and negatives? We love our job so much! In my 20s I have seen some of the world on my airline’s dime, have a very flexible schedule, make a decent paycheck to live alone in a big US city. I do not think I wanna solely fly for the rest of my life however I do want to always keep the job for the benefits and do something on the side to help support a great home life :)

18. "My wife was a flight attendant."

The worst part was always being on call so she could never truly relax when she was home. Sometimes she would get a call at 4am to be at the airport in two hours. We live an hour away so she would have to get ready ASAP. She would get sick all the time from being around traveling homebodies, have to deal with people who thought they deserved special treatment and angry people that had a delayed/missed flight when they have no control over those things. No, they can’t help you find a connecting flight, delay the plane because YOUR’RE late and are not responsible for cleaning/maintaining the lavatory. At the end of the day, they’re not maids and shouldn’t be treated as such. They’re there to keep you safe and maintain order on the plane. All of that for $18 per flight hour. And most of her flights were only 1 1/2 hours. So for not flying, she was only getting paid $1.65 an hour until the planes door closed. And if she was at home, they wouldn’t pay her as it wasn’t considered travel.

19. "We generally don't know each other before briefing."

You'll hear a ton of us calling eachother... "hey hun," "hey darling," "hey dude" -- all of that is cause we don't remember their name lol.

Your flight today could be my 5th, and I've been on the clock for 12 hours and I want nothing else than to get home/to my layover. Please don't take out your traveling frustrations on me or my coworkers. It's not my fault that TSA sucks, there is weather in the north east, or that there's a broken part of the plane. We're just along for the ride, too.

Being yelled at because a grown adult didn't get the lobster mac (which is amazing, to be fair) can get old pretty fast.

But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

edit: Lobster mac is on United. Though I swear AA had something of the sort a while back, too.

20. "We don’t get paid during the boarding process, delays or sit time in between flights."

this is generally all airlines. We also don’t get paid for training except for maybe a few airlines.

If you’re flying and you see a crew member sitting in a passenger seat they’re most likely commuting into work or going home, please don’t bother them, as a commuter myself it’s like having a second job and is very exhausting.

Speaking of exhausted, we’re all most likely over worked and completely drained working on fumes. It can be a very tiring job and hard on your body.

Flight attendants generally just meet when we start a trip and we usually have new pilots every leg.

We are a very seniority based career. Seniority is everything.

On a more serious note if someone starts acting up or is suspicious we all know and we will watch over you the entire flight to make sure things don’t escalate. We usually see everything going on.

The negative sides of this job is that it can be a very lonely job. Most of my friends are flight attendants who are either based elsewhere or we just always end up on different trips. Or my 9-5 friends who I hardly see because I work weekends a lot of times. It’s not uncommon to go months, even a year without seeing some of my friends. Plus being away from home so much doesn’t help the loneliness.

It’s very hard on your body. Sometimes after finishing a trip I’ll still be dehydrated or bloated a day or two after. It also causes a lot of skin problems because the air is so dry on the plane.

Being on reserve is the hardest part of the job, it’s basically on call, sitting around not knowing where you’re going to go or when. Being a commuter I’m sitting in a hotel waiting for crew scheduling to call me with something but there’s a chance I’ll wasted my time and money by staying at a base and getting a hotel and end up not flying at all.

There’s A LOT of gossip and drama that comes with this job. I’ve worked some trips where the FA working up front can’t stand the FA working in the back.

Days are long and can turn longer and that messes with your sleep and eating habits. For example day 3 of my 3 day. Woke up at 10am, worked a 2.5 hr flight scheduled at 1pm, had a 3 hour sit time in connecting airport, got delayed 2 hours because of weather delays, boarding the plane takes 30 mins, pushed back and the ramp closed, sat on the tarmac for an hour, finally get to our destination 2.5 hours after take off but 3 hours behind of schedule. I was too tired to drive home 2 hours away so I got a hotel and now I just woke up at 1:30pm.

Depending on domestic or international our duty days can be legally pushed to 16.5 hours. That’s 16.5 hours on a plane and in airports, it can drive you to your breaking point and it’s not uncommon to have 10-15 hour duty days every day of a trip. Actually my total duty time for my last 3 day trip was 35 hours, we got paid for 16hrs.

21. "That tape you see on a plane?"

Its not duct tape, it's speed tape. Its not used for critical repairs. Its usually a cosmetic or minor aerodynamic fix. Example, the windshield of a plane is sandwiched between the air frame and the outer plates, but the step between the outer plate to the windshield has a seal placed for cosmetic and aerodynamic purposes. Eventually it needs replaced, so they put speed tape over it until its time for the plane to go to scheduled maintenance. Hooking a plane up to a push back, and moving it to the maintenance hangar is a long process. They're not going to do that for every minor repair.

TL:DR Tape on a plane is nothing to worry about.

22. "My wife is a former flight attendant, so I'll offer a few things she's told me: "

- When everyone stands near the gate, waiting for their boarding group to call, you prevent other passengers from getting on board. Gate agents and flight attendants affectionately refer to this cloud as "gate lice".

- Flight attendants have a level of authority on the flight that's below the captain, but they can (and do) make the call about whether you will fly or not. If you're too drunk, if you're belligerent, and if you give them the impression you will NOT follow their instructions on a flight, the FA's can kick you off. If you refuse to go, they can have you arrested. Likewise, in flight, they can have you detained and arrested at the destination.

- Flight attendants primary purpose is safety, NOT serving you food and drinks. That's just something extra to help justify their presence on board and add some comfort to the flight. So please don't mistake them as mall security, like they have zero authority and are just a sky waiter/waitress.

- If you knew how little money they made, you'd rethink how you treated FA's and if you'd like to do that as a career. The hourly wage MAY SEEM nice, but they only get paid when the boarding door is closed. Otherwise, sitting at the airport waiting for a delayed flight, riding a shuttle to the hotel or riding back for the next flight doesn't pay the hourly rate. When you add up all the time you're essentially away from home or not in a hotel room, the hourly wage drops to below minimum wage. Some airlines give better pay based on seniority, but most airlines do not. The only real "perks" are flight benefits: FA + spouse/sig other gets flight benefits meaning they can fly anywhere for just the government fee as glorified standby.

23. "Hairspray can set off the lavatory smoke alarms..."

1) Hairspray can set off the lavatory smoke alarms. Also, yes, your vape.

2) Whenever I take a flight as a passenger out of uniform, I always greet the flight attendants in the front and usually the pilots, and let them know I’m a flight attendant. It’s not industry standard, but the idea is to let them know where my seat is incase there’s an emergency and I’m an extra set of helpful hands.

3) Junior flight attendants are exhausted. Zombies walking around, facing minor hypoxia, sleep deprivation, negative bank accounts, and general anxiety. That was me during our airlines required ‘reserve’ period. It’s comparable to new RN’s and doctors who are on call. You can be on call for 24 hours, which means at any point you have two hours to be at the airport, in uniform, ready to fly any flight they assign you. Once you finish that assignment, which can be anywhere from 2 hours to 4 days, you have 9 hours of ‘rest’ before you go back on call.

4) Every flight attendant has a ‘base’, but not every airport is a base. Many flight attendants are therefore ‘commuters’. For example, you can live in Ohio but you’re a new hire who was assigned SFO as your base. You can move to the most expensive city in the country, or commute before your assignments from the Midwest to SFO every time. Many flight attendants (and pilots!) mitigate this logistic by staying in ‘Crashpads’ a few nights a month, apartments under one name on the lease but with bunk beds and shared spaces and divided rent.

5) Salary and union representation are interesting topics as well, some great comments already in this thread about that.

6) Most of us love our jobs!

24. "Top things I get asked: "

1: What’s your route?

It’s rare that a flight attendant does the same thing over and over again. In some cases, very senior flight attendants will bc they can hold the best trips, like NYC-LAX turns giving them 12 hours pay for one day. Most of us fly a variety of things, and we all like different stuff. I prefer turns that get me home every night by 3pm. Some people like 3 days that have fun layovers. So many options

2: How long do you get to stay on the layover?

Anywhere from 9 hours to 50. There’s are times where we land at a place at 10pm and have to be up for he first flight in the morning. On the flip side sometimes we get to be in a place for an entire day or even longer for some overseas. And everything in between. (My sweet spot is 13 hours bc it’s long enough to get decent rest but not too long that I’m away from home unnecessarily)

3: Do I fly for free?

Domestically yes, internationally you pay taxes in the flight home. This is all standby and you never know if there will be a seat or not. I’ve been stuck places many times (looking at you Athens)

Flight attendants are one of the most underrated jobs there is, even though we do appreciate their help and presence while we're on air. We can't blame them for being annoyed with certain things, though—dealing with people in a confined space can be quite stressful, but they do it with such beauty and grace!

Comment down your thoughts, or share this article for all your family and friends to see!

Sophia