People who fly rarely are generally oblivious to the unwritten rules of flying. There are various aspects of on board behaviour that you only learn through experience. For example, is it okay to press the call bell during flight? When isn’t a good time to get up to go to the toilet? The infrequent flyer is usually quite obvious as they do things that make frequent flyers wince.
Here are some hints and tips that I’ve learned over one thousand hours spent in the air.
Boarding Bug Bears
Boarding is a stressful time for everyone. The rules here are simple – get on, stow your carry on and sit down. Always stand in from the aisle to let other passengers pass while you’re stowing your cabin bag. There is room for this in most cases. Holding up everyone behind you makes a frustrating part of flying even worse.
Carry On Carry On
You brought everything you owned on board and stowed it above your head. Do you really need to get your laptop out on a 55 minute flight? Do you need to get up three times to retrieve items? No, you don’t. Plan ahead, especially if you’re in a window seat or middle seat. Take the things you need out as soon as you’re on board.
Even better, have a smaller bag with things you need that you can put under the seat in front. This will save you getting up and down like a jack in the box and bothering everyone.
Seating Rules – Window, Middle and Aisle
When flying economy class, the worst seat is generally considered to be a middle seat. These are the B and E seats on a standard short haul aircraft such as the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320. The hapless person seated here in between two strangers is generally afforded both arm rests during flight. This means window and aisle passengers should use the arm rest on the side opposite the middle seat.
Aisle and middle seat passengers should be aware that they will be required to get up to let the person in the window seat out. There is no point in grumbling about it so be gracious.
To Recline Or Not To Recline, That Is The Question
This causes all sorts of anger for some people. The general rule here is don’t recline your seat until the meal service is completed. Save it until the trays have been collected by your cabin crew. Seating is squashed enough without having to contort to eat your meal.
People are not expected to recline their seats at all on short flights. I never recline my seat unless I am flying long haul and rarely see it on short haul. Keep this rule in mind as it makes for a happier flight for everyone.
Call Bell Concerns
There are various schools of thought on the use of the call bell. Some people believe you should use it all the time and have the crew come to you. Others never use it at all. I’m a firm believer of not using the call bell as I prefer to get up out of my seat and go to the galley when I need something.
Either way, use it sparingly and never press it multiple times in a row unless you need the crew immediately for a medical emergency.
Toilet Time
If you are desperate to go to the toilet, get up and go as soon as the seat belt sign is off. Once you see the crew with their trolley in the aisle starting to serve meals, the rule of thumb is that you should ideally wait for the trolley to pass. Countless times I have seen the hardworking crew have to back up to the galley to let someone go back to their seat. It delays everyone.
Clean up after yourself when you’re in the toilet. There is no excuse to leave it a mess. If you find it a little messy, feel free to clean up a bit. Obviously if someone has destroyed the insides with the contents of their bowels, please tell the crew so they can tackle it or take the toilet out of service.
Movie Madness
Long-haul flights are generally a pleasure as the seats have personal televisions that you can watch. However, don’t be that person who jabs the screen really hard over and over again. The person sitting in the seat in front will feel like someone is trying to give them a hard massage.
It should go without saying but if you have your own device, use headphones. No-one wants to hear what is on your iPad throughout the cabin.
Bubbly Brats
Cabin Crew are not babysitters and nor are other passengers. Keep your children occupied and ensure you bring things to keep them amused. Nothing is more frustrating than children who decide to use the whole aircraft as their personal playpen.
Overall Thoughts
Aspects of flying can be made so much easier if everyone knew the rules. I wish airlines would provide a piece on their web sites listing things like this so that everyone knows the rules before they travel.
What do you think of this list? Are there some rules I’ve missed? What are your experiences? Please let me know in the comments below. Thank you for reading!
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TO RECLINE OR NOT TO RECLINE, THAT IS THE QUESTION: I don’t know who you think you are, BUT I ALWAYS recline my seat as soon as the wheels are retracted in the flight after take off. Long or short flight, it is MY SPACE, not the person behind me.
Well, while you certainly have the right to do what you wish on board a flight – because, really, all the seats can recline – it is definitely a faux pas to do that before the meal service is over and done with as I said. Rather than solely thinking of your own comfort, you must remember there is someone behind you who may wish to eat or more. Thanks for the comment though, it’s always good to see someone from the other side of the argument!
GREAT JOB, AS USUAL
Thanks very much! Happy New Year to you 🙂
Great article! Very polite of you to refer to them as infrequent flyers Trent. Whilst I do see this sort of behavior from obvious infrequent flyers domesticly (AU) I also find people who should know better behaving this way. Also I have observed that (generalizing here) different nationalities can have different standards as to acceptable behavior on aircraft, much of which breaches standard acceptable aircraft behavior. This includes undoing seat belts early, standing up before aircraft has stopped moving, removing overhead bags to make room for their own, much to the frustration of the flight crew! Perhaps an online training course on aircraft etiquette should be developed for all flyers!
Haha! I could have used many other names, but I think infrequent flyers covers the whole range. It is interesting that you say how it varies by nationality. Cabin Crew would tell you the same thing with passenger behaviour changing a lot on flights from the Indian sub-continent, versus the African routes, versus Europe, versus the Caribbean and so on. I agree about a little online training course for all flyers – there’s no reason not to do it and if it saves one or two instances of bad behaviour then it would be considered well worth it. Happy New Year to you and thanks again for taking the time to comment!!
Use your indoor voices – not your playground voices – when talking to your neighbor. This goes for many other places too. We were totally annoyed on a cruise recently when the guy at the next table spent the entire mealtime talking at the top of his voice. He dominated the conversation so no one at his table could talk and we couldn’t hear each other either.
+ phone calls as soon as plane had landed, speaking loudly, surely you can wait another 10 minutes to make that call from inside the terminal! I’m not looking forward to internet on flights. Imagine everyone using VOIP to make calls mid flight. Hideous!
That’s true, I don’t like the business call that starts as soon as the wheels are on the runway. It’s not exactly the most private place to take a call either. I think most airlines are planning to block VoIP in flight due to bandwidth issues and the fact that no-one wants to have to listen to everyone else on the phone. To be fair, the availability of text messaging should keep the majority happy. Thanks for the comment!
That’s a great point! No-one needs to hear your conversation. It’s particularly bad when the people are sitting beside each other and yelling at the top of their lungs – just no need for it really – unless one of the party is hard of hearing, I guess. Great point! Thanks for the comment!
You forgot the rule of letting the people in the row in front of you get off the plane first and not trying to run up the isle to cut in line at the gate.
Also not using the first class lavs (usually) if your in another class of service.
That is a very good point – people should always leave front to back or front of the back for the rear doors. It’s never good seeing people get slammed by the bag of someone running for the door on landing. The crew usually move people to the front if a connection is in jeopardy. Agree wholeheartedly on the First Class/Business Class toilets not being used by Economy passengers! That happens far too often. Thanks for the comment! 🙂