While I am not a billion mile flyer, I do travel more than the average person, and over the years, I’ve accumulated a few basic rules of common sense and basic courtesy that all should follow.
Frankly, I shake my head at what some people do on airplanes. And don’t excuse it because they do not fly very often – a lot of these guidelines are just common sense.
And if you follow these, you’ll enjoy your flight more, the passengers around you will too, and won’t want to smack you with a brick!
Flying On Commercial Airlines: The Guidelines:
1. Don’t recline your seat. The person behind you is in a sardine can already. Why be thoughtless and selfish? And every day, we hear about how the airlines are going to add more and more seats, and take away more and more room…
2. You are sitting behind me, yes. But that doesn’t mean you are allowed to use my seat back as a means of pulling your fat ass up from the seated position. You do realize you are sling-shotting me into my coffee, right. And every now and then, pulling my hair.
3. Why do you have to eat food in the plane before we take off? Can’t you eat in the terminal before boarding? Especially stinky food. Really?
4. Middle seat patrons gets both armrests. Period. End of sentence.
5. Go ahead and sleep. But if you know that you snore, be mindful. If you do, I will Instagram your face when you drool all over yourself.
6. Who in the hell farted? Jesus-age-of-Christ-on-a-popsicle-stick. Really?
7. It’s bad enough that TSA makes us take our shoes off at inspection. But don’t do it on the plane. Your feet smell.
8. Enjoy your music. Just don’t make ME “enjoy” your music. #VolumeControl
9. When the flight attendant walks up and down the aisle to gather refuse, this is not license to empty all the crap out of your backpack.
10. If I’m wearing headsets or reading, it means that I don’t want to talk to you.
11. Kids are going to cry and fuss on a plane. That can’t be helped. But the parents better make an effort to try.
12. Don’t kick the seat in front of you. You’d bitch if someone did it to you.
13. Don’t invade my personal space. Your elbow, shoulder, or belly is NOT allowed in my space.
14. If you’re boarding and wearing a backpack and you turn and smack my head with it, I may stand up and smack you right back.
15. When you are the last zone to board, don’t be surprised and don’t complain if you have to check your bag. #Reality
16. When the TSA agent says “Keep nothing in your pockets,” it means the following: KEEP NOTHING IN YOUR DAMN POCKETS.” No keys, no ID, no wallet, no coins and change, no pens, no candy bars…NOTHING. It’s actually quite simple…
17. Why do you wait until the last possible minute to get yourself ready for the TSA X-ray and bag scan process? As in, don’t wait until you get scolded by the agents to remove the STUFF FROM YOUR DAMN POCKETS.
18. When you put your carryon in the overhead rack, can’t you take an extra second to position it so that others can utilize the space too? That overhead bin isn’t your personal, private storage rack.
19. When deplaning, don’t stop immediately after exiting the jetway – and in the middle of the exit area – to check your connecting flight info. There are 200 people stacked up behind you. Get your head out of your fanny, and get off to the side.
20. If it is an evening (or early morning) flight, and you AREN’T reading or doing anything that requires it, please turn off your overhead light. That damn thing is bright.
21. A little hack I’ve devised over the years: If I am assigned to Row 20, I don’t wait until I get to Row 20 to see if there is space in the overhead bin. If I notice available space on my way back, say at Row 10, I’ll go ahead and put my carryon right there, and just pick it up as I deplane. Simple.
22. If you have an assigned seat, sit in the damn thing. Almost every flight I take, someone sits in a different seat. And every time, this causes stress and a commotion.
23. And if you are assigned a window or middle seat and take my aisle seat, don’t ask me if I want to switch. I specifically requested that aisle seat.
24. When getting your luggage from baggage claim, don’t jump all over me and step on my foot to grab your bag. I promise, it will come around again.
25. For gate attendants: We know that you cannot control weather delays, crew issues, or mechanical problems with the plane. But, for God-sakes, I beg you, please get on the PA system and keep us informed. That’s all we want. Well, and a cocktail.
26. When you arrive at your seat during boarding, don’t stand in the aisle for ten minutes extracting all the crap you’ll need for the flight. Get out of the way, there is a long line of people trying to get to THEIR seat too.
27. You don’t get to cut in line just because you are running late. We’re all dealing with tight flight schedules. Manage your time better.
28. Build in some time at the airport pre-flight. Why wait until that last minute? If you have time to kill, so what? No stress, and you’ve got time to grab some coffee or cocktails, and read a book.
29. When we are waiting to deplane and we are ALL standing in the aisle waiting to get off the plane, be sure to scan the area before you blindly open the overhead bin door and smack some poor bastard in the head as it pops open.
30. When we are waiting to deplane after landing, and we are all standing in the aisle, that’s NOT the time to try to lower your suitcase from the overhead bin. All you end up doing is smacking someone in the shoulder. Just wait for an extra 30 seconds until the folks in front of you have started to clear. #CommonSense
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This is BY NO MEANS a complete list. And I will continue to add and revise as time passes, and as new experiences inform new rules and guidelines!
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