Those who know me, know I’m not a fan of flying. Flying is stressful enough these days that we want to have the smoothest experience both before and during our flights. No matter where on the plane you are seated, flight attendants need to be respected and listened to because your life is in their hands should an emergency situation occur.
And while these nicely dressed men and women are highly trained to handle stressful situations, we never want to be annoying to them because they have a very important job to do. PopSugar recently spoke to flight attendants that work for one of the top three airlines and they anonymously shared what some of their pet peeves as well as some interesting facts you may not know about.
Flight Attendants Share Their Best Tips for Flying Like a Pro
“Discourteous passengers, touching the flight attendant to get their attention as we walk by, whispering (the airplane can be very loud and I’m not the best at reading lips!), complaining about weather and/or aircraft maintenance delays (we don’t have any control over this, and we are just as inconvenienced as you are),” one flight attendant said about what annoys them. It’s important to realize that certain things like weather or cancellations are not their fault.
You’d think that a lot of their training time consists of learning to deal with customers but it’s not. According to one flight attendant, customer service is what they’re trained for the least.
“Training is on average five and a half weeks, most of which is unpaid,” they explained. “In training we learn and are tested to proficiency on certain items such as aircraft general, first aid, security, and evacuation drills. Only about four days is spent on service!”
You’ll be happy to know that a big bulk of their time is spent training for emergency situations. Which is what you want your flight attendants to be focused on the most while in-flight.
“We have a lot of formal training in safety and emergency situations. Four of our five weeks of intense, six-days-a-week training was spent on safety and emergency situations. Most of our people-related situations are learned on the job. We have been hired/selected by other professional flight attendants for our ability to make good decisions and to be able to read situations and people with good judgment. So many of us are well equipped to handle these situations that come up, but sometimes it does take a second opinion of another crew member.”
If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve had a flight cancelled versus just being delayed, they have the answer! “A lot of reasons can a play a factor with this, mostly crew legality comes into play especially out of our hub cities where we don’t have ready reserve flight attendants who can easily take over the flight. FAA mandates how many hours a crew can work a day in any given duty period — pilots are usually 12 hours and flight attendants are usually 16 hours. A long day’s friend is fatigue and fatigue is usually where mistakes can be made. Planes have been crippled and met demise under fatigue conditions of the crew. Sometimes the delay can be so long that they cancel the flight for the day and run an extra segment the following day.
Although cancellations are becoming more and more rare, with airlines running about 90 percent completion rate of flights. The most common cancellation is weather, where planes are late or never take off to come in or they just simply can’t operate a safe operation under the severe weather conditions and it makes sense to cancel the flight vs. stringing the passengers along to departure that will never happen.”
Lastly, it’s important to remember that although flight attendants are there to help, they are human and may not have all the answers you need. One flight attendants shared her biggest tip for anyone getting ready for a trip, “Do not depend heavily on the airline/flight attendants. Things happen, we make mistakes, and sometimes we aren’t having the best day, but if you can make the flight attendants smile or laugh, you’ll never go thirsty. Always anticipate delays and your own needs such as temperature — bring a sweater, dietary needs — we aren’t a 7-Eleven, bring your gluten-free stuff from home, medication — keep it with you at all times, along with your wallet, keys, and passport!”
