20+ Ways to Win Over Your Flight Attendant – Dos and Don’ts

Flight Attendants, like anyone, enjoy feeling like they are appreciated. While flight attendants are there predominantly for your safety, we do love the customer service aspects that we are able to provide. However, sometimes we are treated as inferiors, and doing that can adversely affect your flight experience. So, if you’re interested in possibly getting some perks during your next flight or increasing the chances of receiving that oh-so-sought-after, special flight attendant treatment,  grab a pen and paper and start reading.

PLEASE DO

• Acknowledge the flight attendant when boarding/deplaning – who likes being ignored? + it helps us see that you’re not a creeper or someone up to no good on our flight.
• Bring treats or other hot commodities! Snacks, chocolates and gift cards are an easy way to say happy holidays or thank you. Also, if there’s a business/first class seat available, although I can’t promise anything, I can say that this kind gesture can only help your chances of getting that mid-flight “upgrade”.
  

  Flight attendant goodie bags, courtesy of my friend Sarrah

  Side Note: A friend of mine even goes all out with little bags of goodies… I don’t remember the last time she paid for a drink on a flight – just saying. BUT DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING. Sometimes it’s just nice to be nice right?

• Use the restrooms in the terminal before boarding the plane. Why would you rather use the tiny little lavatory when you can handle your biz in a nice big one?
• Close the door to the lavatories when you’re finished.
• Give us your trash when we come by multiple times to collect.
• Strike up a conversation. Many of us are great conversationalists and enjoy hearing about your journey as well. However, please refrain from this while we are eating mid-flight. Chances are we are standing up gobbling our lunch over a trashcan and that 5 minutes of privacy is all we have.
• Try to keep body limbs out of the aisle. That is our working space and a resting foot could easily result in an injured crew member, a diverted flight, delayed flights and missed connections for you. It could even result in the flight attendant losing their livelihoods from not being able to work and much more. It sounds drastic but it happens. *FYI the aisles are more narrow towards the back of the plane, so if you look like The Rock, first of all 😍!!! Secondly, try to book a seat towards the middle or front of the air craft to avoid flight attendants bumping into you constantly*
• Let us know how we can make your flight better. If there’s a chance to sing happy birthday to your fiancé, you better believe we will try to make it special, IF we are able.

 

PLEASE DON’T

(Click here to learn how NOT to be made fun of in the “Flight Attendant Revenge” comic strip!)

• Ignore the flight attendant. If you’re so lucky to have me as your attendant, I’ll just keep saying hello louder and louder until you respond 😉
• Leave the lavatory door open after you’re done. Mmmm – There’s nothing we love more than eating our lunch and catching whiffs of the inflight bathroom, yummy – NOT!
• Board the plane and go straight to the bathroom – unless it is a must. There are circumstances when you can’t go in the terminal. We get it. No worries.
• Wake up during mid-flight thinking that we “skipped” you. If you’re sleeping when we come through the cabin to take orders, we try not disturb you. I promise you, we did not serve everyone else on the plane except for you. Just let us know what you’d like and we’d be happy to grab it for you.
• Ask us if we usually fly a specific route – we don’t
• Ask us if we know your friends ex-boyfriend’s cousin’s mom who is a flight attendant. Chances are about 95% that we don’t. Still holding out for that 5%??? LOL OKAY just ask us, but don’t be disappointed when the answer is still NO.
• Do yoga in the galley while flight attendants are working. Its actually pretty cramped in those areas and you’re probably delaying service for everyone on the plane. Instead try to do some of these airplane stretches at least until service is done and the galley is clear.
• Ring the call button to collect your trash. We were probably already on our way or you just missed us and we probably won’t have a trash bag or gloves on us anyway so you’d still have to wait for us to come back. Plus ringing the button could indicate that there’s an emergency.
• Leave trash in the seat back pockets – especially if you liked your flight attendants. Additionally, please do not discard your trash in the air sick bags in the seat back pocket. We know that you mean well, however the next person that sits there may need that bag. If it’s gone, well you can probably guess what will spray everywhere 🤢 Definitely try to give trash to us as we walk through the cabin and if you reach the end of the flight and still have trash, do us a huge favor hand it to us upfront or just leave it on the seat.
• Touch us. This is a tricky one because good flight attendants make passengers feel like friends and family – a setting in which touching is okay. However, more times than not, we don’t want to be poked and prodded so that you can hand us trash or ask for extra snacks. A simple, “excuse me” or any verbal, non-derogatory attention-getter would be better than being tapped on the hip.
  

  Photo by Gerrie van der Walt on Unsplash

• Consume your own alcohol unless stated that it’s allowed. Some Federal Aviation Regulations have a direct result on individual flight attendants if rules are broken. So basically, we can get individually fined from our own pockets if we don’t follow certain rules. This is why we appreciate your compliance in multiple facets of the onboard experience.
• Tell us that someone on the last flight let you do something that we aren’t letting you do on this flight. If someone let you break policy on the last flight then hurray you got away with it! That is great for you – and not so great for the last flight attendant. Again, those regulations can fall back on the individual flight attendant, and whether he/she knew the correct policy or not, that person could get into some serious trouble. If it’s a new flight/new flight attendant, just comply and make everyone’s flight easy peasy.
• Lash out at us for not having information. Sometimes the only information flight attendants get is the information that the pilots give them. The pilots usually update passengers on flight status etc. so if there’s no updates from them, then chances are flight attendants do not have any updates either.
• Be afraid to ask us for help! We are there for you and your best allies. I have seen flight attendants give passengers clothes from their own personal bags. I have personally given my food away to starving passengers with gluten allergies. WE WANT TO HELP, and if its something that is embarrassing, we will undoubtedly do our best to accommodate you in the most subtle way possible.

Hopefully these tips aid you in the making your next flight as smooth as possible. Remember, in the end kindness on the part of crew members AND passengers will always win.

 

 

Works Cited