Christmas time; (noun). The time of year when people book expensive flights to see their families and eat ham.
And if you’re one of them, you’ll know how full and frustrating the flights are. Full of people who slam their seats back into your lunch. People who slow down the boarding process. People who fart and don’t own up.
Unless you are one of them. In which case, please kick yourself in the shin for me.
If you are screwing up any of these eight things, stop it. Stop it now.
How to: Be a better passenger (and give a flying f**k).
1. Get your stuff out of your bag BEFORE you board.
Don’t wait until you get to your seat to unpack something from your overhead luggage, get it out beforehand. In my experience, it’s the businessmen that are the worst. They fly so often, they forget the etiquette, and wait until there is one hundred people behind them on the tarmac before they take off their suit jacket, take their laptop from their bag, fold their jacket into the bag, put the bag overhead, stand in the way for ten minutes to think about the mating habits of stick insects, and then eventually sit down.
2. If the seatbelt sign is on, put your damn seatbelt on.
I know it makes me seem anal retentive, but just do it. Sit down, get over yourself, and obey the light, AIGHT?
3. Put your seat back gently, people.
If you must put your seat back for a nap, and you can’t see the passenger behind you, recline with a gentle slowness, so you don’t accidentally cause their tray table to slam into their boobs. Just me? Grrr.
4. If your child is annoying, pretend to look guilty.
One time, a kid kept burping and blowing it in my face while his mother smiled and ignored it. If she had at least pretended to feel bad, I would have given her a polite “it’s okay!” wink, instead of pushing her kid out of the Emergency Exit. (Just kidding… ahem…)
Top Comments
Please don't take your shoes off during the flight as we don't want to smell your strong foot odour! If you have a cold, please be mindful of others and don't cough and wheeze loudly for the entire flight!! Please also make sure to cough and sneeze in to a tissue! After the plane has landed and you have retrieved your overstuffed backpack from the overhead locker and put it on your back, please be careful not to swing it around in to our faces if we are still sitting down!
I travel frequently with my child (I keep her occupied at all times during the flight so she's not kicking your seat). When she was about 9 months old, she was sleeping on my lap and the gentleman in front of me reclined his seat all the way back (it was a 3.5 hour flight, middle of the day). I tapped him on the shoulder and politely asked him to move his chair forward and he refused. I called for the flight attendant who asked him to move forward. He did and then when she left, he reclined it back again. I called her again and the same thing happened. He said he had the right to recline it. After some dirty looks and comments from other passengers, He then finally agreed to keep his seat upright.
He did have a right to recline. If you wanted more comfort then you should have booked a bassinet seat. 3.5 hours bolt upright is not comfortable and you have no idea of his circumstances - he could have needed the rest.
I would have given dirty looks and comments, too. To you. If he had no right to recline, why do the seats recline? He might have been on the second leg of a long journey and needed the rest. You should have booked a business class seat if you needed the room.