The Friendly Skies

I always listen to a really funny morning radio show as I’m driving to my 6am swim workout.  This morning, they were listing the biggest complaints of flight attendants as outlined in a recent survey.

Its pretty funny, so I thought I’d share.

Flight Attendants become very annoyed when passengers……

• Ask for a pen.  They simply cannot accommodate 200+ pens on every flight and wonder why travelers do not carry at least one pen with them in a bag or purse.

• Tell on their neighbors.  For example, asking the attendant to tell the person in front of them to bring their seat up or request that they ask the person behind them to stop their baby from crying.

• Get up to use the restroom when they are wheeling a two hundred pound lunch cart down the aisle.

• Cut their nails in the airplane – Yuck!  People really do this?

• Forget to bring fresh diapers for their baby.  Again, yuck, and really??

• Think they are above it all.  Apparently the passengers flying to Vail and West Palm Beach are particularly difficult to deal with according to the flight attendants in this survey.

• Hang their arms or legs in the aisle when the beverage cart is trying to pass through.

• Bring smelly food onboard.

• Bring bags too heavy to lift into the overhead bins.  They probably knew this ahead of time.

• Walk around the plane without shoes.

• Do not think the “turn off all electronic devices” request applies to them.

I have to say, I completely understand how each and every one of the above situations could be extremely annoying after the third flight of the day.  Even after the first!

My Takeaways from this survey

In order to make sure the skies remain friendly, I think we all need to remember the following when flying on a commercial airline:

• The airplane is not a sky high Office Max.  Bring your own pens.  Bring at least one for yourself and about four more for the passengers around you who forgot their pens.

• Learn to fight your own battles rather than running to the hall monitor for help.  Ask your neighbors nicely to bring their seat back up if its encroaching on your space.  Politely suggest to the person behind you that the screaming baby they’re holding might enjoy listening to some classical music that places an emphasis on sleep inducing harmonies.  🙂

• Remember that a meal or snack cart will most likely appear within the first 15 minutes after takeoff, so check to the restroom if you must before the cart starts making its way down the aisle.

• The airplane is not a nail salon!  Seriously, please try to remember to trim your nails before or after the flight, not during.

• Make sure Baby has a fresh didy on before boarding the plane and that there are at least 5 fresh diapers in your carry on for the flight.

• The plane is not a yoga and fitness center, so try to remember to not stretch into the aisle or walk around barefoot.  :0

• Try to restrain from bringing a delicious smelling hot pastrami sandwich on board that will fill the plane with smells of yummy food that only you will be able to enjoy eating.  Also, do not bring brussel sprouts onboard.

• When the attendants ask that you refrain from using electronic devices for the takeoff, they are not sublimily trying to tell you that your work is not important.  They are simply trying to ensure the safety of the 200 passengers onboard.  So, do not take this request personally, just unplug for about 10 minutes.  You will survive, I promise.  I understand the addiction of electronics.  If I don’t check my email about every 7 minutes, I feel a bit out of sorts.  🙂

Conclusion

Flight attendants do have to put up with quite a bit, but at least they get as many miles as they want to fly wherever they want.

They probably maintain their cool around us passengers by daydreaming about lounging on the white sandy beaches of Hawaii on their next vacation (with free airline tickets).

I think I’d go to Costa Rica first if I was granted with endless amounts of miles.

Where would you go?