The Appropriate Airplane behavior

There are some people I have such a great deal of respect for, even though I don’t personally know any of them. Flight attendants are some of those people. My husband and I – and our two young daughters – fly often on vacations, conferences, and trips. When you spend this much time on board a flight you start to realize that flight attendants work too hard for too little respect and encounter too many rude, disrespectful, obnoxious passengers on their flights. Unfortunately, there is nothing they can do about it at 35,000 feet. If you plan on traveling by air anytime soon, take a few minutes to think about your behavior and don’t make these mistakes.

Don’t Get Up When the Beverage/Snack Cart is in Your Way

Despite what you may think, you can hold it for another two minutes until the beverage cart has made its way past your seat. Those things aren’t made of feathers and it is far easier for you and the rest of the passengers on the plane to wait a few minutes to use the bathroom than it is for your flight attendants to move out of your way. They aren’t rolling those things down the aisle to annoy you, you know.

Don’t Complain About Airline Policies; It’s Not Their Fault

My husband and I took a romantic trip to Napa Valley earlier this year (without our kids!). On a 6 am flight from Tampa we had to listen to the woman in front of us scream at the flight attendant. She was in the first row and she was asked to place her bag in the carry-on bin above her head since she did not have a seat in front of her to place the bag under. Airline and TSA rules state this and while the flight attendant tried to explain this to her, she continued to scream at the poor flight attendant about what a joke this was, that she didn’t pick that seat herself (to which the flight attendant calmly replied that the reason airline’s allow passengers to choose their own seat is so they can avoid seats they don’t want) and that she wanted to be moved immediately. What a you know what.

Keep Your Kids Calm

We have a one-year-old and a four year old and we have taken note how other kids behave on planes in the past four years. We bring our girls’ car seats on board with us so they cannot move during the flight. They think they’re in the car and they behave perfectly well (with a few odd moments here and there). Other people let their kids roam the aisles, get in the way of the flight attendants, and push the call button repeatedly. Keep your kids in check, people.