Transcription
I do not touch the coffee. It's more to do with where the water is kept. I've never seen them clean the coffee pots. If a flight attendant's not doing it, don't do it.
I've been a flight attendant for 1 year. 3 years. 15 years. And here's how I fly like a pro. Always have wet wipes with you. Wipe down those tray tables. Just trust me. I go to my seat with these Clorox wipes and I make sure I wipe down the seat from top to bottom and from the tray table, because truthfully, you never know who was sitting there before. The grossest thing I've seen is someone putting their feet up on a tray table, which is another reason I will never use a tray table. I've actually had someone stand up, their pants fall down, and they have sat back down in the seat without pulling their pants back up on the seat. It gets cleaned in between the flights, fine. But, bare naked bum.
I do not touch the coffee. It's more to do with where the water is kept. I've never seen them clean the coffee pots. The filtered water is not the cleanest. A flight attendant's not doing it, don't do it. I have heard rumors about the ice being dirty. I'm here to debunk that. You can drink the ice. I ignore the rumors. I don't want to know. I drink it all the time. It's fine. It's in bags. Nothing happens.
And I do try to avoid carbonated drinks, cuz a lot of times the pressure on the airplane and you'll just feel like your stomach just like bloating and bloating and bloating. So, I personally don't eat airplane food, because I know too much about airplane food. There is a lot of sodium in the airline food. My ankles would be so swollen because of all the salt that's in the food. Let's just say if the ingredients list is longer than a CVS receipt, then you may not want to put that into your body. Also, if it expires a year from now and it's an egg sandwich, maybe you should be asking some questions. There's a lot of preservatives in the food that we serve to these passengers. There could be a beef steak with potatoes and some string beans, but it has 34 ingredients in it. The higher the altitudes you are on the plane, the more you have to keep the flavor. And it's not all bad, obviously, but it's a lot.
When you fly, especially the routes that I fly, which are typically long distance, you get dehydrated quickly. Like within 10 minutes, I want to say. Probably not true, but I want to say it. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I have a lip balm in every single one of my pockets. I always have my gallon of water with me and I'm sipping that water from takeoff to landing. That's one thing I had to learn the hard way when I became a flight attendant. I felt like I was 30 years older and I probably looked it as well.
The best way to get the most out of in-flight service is to be nice to your flight attendants. I know it's a thing on TikTok that if you bring us goody bags, that we will upgrade you. We don't have that power, but if you do scratch my back, I'll scratch your back. I'll probably give you some free alcohol. I'll pay extra attention to you. When the drink cart is coming, take your headphones out. Look alive. Be aware. Say please. Say thank you. Like kindness goes a long way for us. You know, we do have a hard job. We're always constantly going. To know that we have somebody in our corner like appreciating us, it's like, "Wow." You get extra biscotti cookies. I bring goody bags for the flight attendants. A Snickers goes a long way. Bite size or even king size. We love them. Oh, I have a great sweet tooth. That's the reason I have so many cavities when I go to the dentist. If we get something from a passenger, we always make sure to take care of them in return. So, sometimes passengers will give us candy and it's like open. Like, they already helped themselves to the candy. We're like, "Oh, thank you." In the trash. I like to bring like a little goody bag with a little Starbucks card. The crew recognizes who is like doing that and then when they do service, they can hook you up with like a drink or just extra snacks. At the very least, you know, if a customer just kind of says, "Hey, thank you for everything you do." Because I think we are quite under appreciated. That goes a long way. You know, you catch more flies with honey, right?
Bring a blackout eye mask. So, if you're sitting in an aisle seat and the person in the window wants to just gander at the sun for the whole flight, you can still get your Z's in and they can still take their sun time. Do not wear wireless earbuds on the plane. I have had so many passengers who have lost their earbuds on the plane from turbulence and those planes are black holes for AirPods. Wear compression socks. They are very good for your overall circulation and they help prevent varicose veins. I've seen some old senior mamas with them. It's not a cute look. Listen, sunscreen up in the air is a real thing, people. You're closer to the sun. Make sure you wear your sunscreen on a plane. Oh, I always got a full size thing of lotion. Never want to be looking ashy on planes. It's not a good look. I do not outsource my comfort. I bring my own snacks. I download Netflix. I download Spotify. Everybody loves a travel hack.
My favorite type of passengers are passengers who have served in the United States Armed Forces. They come on literally single file. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Back up, sit down. Boom, boom, boom. Back up, sit down. And that was like probably the fastest boarding process that I've ever had in my entire life. I feel like if a passenger tells me, "Trust me, I travel a lot. Trust me, I fly a lot and this is how it's done." I feel like you probably don't. I fly a lot and you don't know what you're doing. A lot of people don't know that you're not supposed to take phone calls in the air. That is against the law, so don't do that.
Please don't let your toddler go to the lav barefoot. There's pee everywhere in there. It's not your living room. It's not This is a plane. It's not your house. It's not your couch. One thing that I see often is passengers board the plane and then they immediately try to use the restroom. Don't wait until you get in the airplane. You know, it kind of delays the process. It's not that you can't use the restroom, but I think it's just much easier to use it in the terminal. Plus, it's nicer and bigger. Passengers will ask where the restroom is and they'll like touch everything but the bathroom door. They'll go through the emergency equipment before they get to the bathroom door. Passengers struggle to open the bathroom doors. I see that a lot. It will say push and they will pull. Twist and pull. Twist and pull. It's really not that hard. Just twist and pull.
One mistake that passengers make over and over again. If you packed it, you definitely have to be the one lifting it up. Because we as flight attendants are not allowed to lift your carry-on because it's a liability issue. And just think about it. It kind of is logical. You're a flight attendant, you do multiple flights a day. There's 250 passengers. Think about what is going to happen to your arm, your elbow if you lift 200 bags a day for however many years you're in the flying industry. If you can't lift it, we'll definitely gate check it for you free of charge to your final destination.
The way I fly like a pro comes down to the packing. Everything that I pack needs to have more than one purpose. Gym shoes are also my sort of sneakers that I wear during the day. Running shorts are also swim trunks. Basically, every inch of the suitcase matters. A week's worth of clothes? I can fit it in here. Two to three pairs of shoes and a week's worth of clothes. My hack to fit it into this bag is to roll your clothes. Roll them up. Roll them up in space bag it. Literally, a game changer. Compression packing cubes. Get them. They will change your life. Vacuum seal bags.
In my carry-on, I have portable self-heating water bottle. I can always have hot water when I want it. Oh, I always pack extra underwear in my carry-on. I know that sounds like kind of silly, but I have gotten derailed off my travel plans a few too many times and was left literally like blow-drying my underwear in the sink. I also try to pack like my portable charger, because you don't know if your seat is going to have an outlet in it. And if it does, it might not always work. I make sure to pack snacks in my carry-on bag, because in the event of turbulence, flight attendants are unable to make it through the aisle with those heavy 200-lb carts. One took my knee out that hit me the wrong way and I had a occupational injury that it just destroyed my knee, cuz it hit my knee sideways. So, I make sure that I have my snacks ready just in case.
I always put AirTags in my carry-ons and in my checked bags. Checked luggage gets lost a lot and I know that that can make people freak out, but I promise you the airline will find your luggage if they lose it. Know when you're going to get stuck somewhere. Yeah, I definitely need to have extra underwear, extra socks. I always carry a sewing kit, cuz you never know when a button's going to pop off. If you're going on a long vacation, I would just check an empty bag and I would buy clothes while I was there and put everything that I think that I would absolutely need to wear in a carry-on backpack. Any little thing goes a long way. So, if you just come on and you're kind and you communicate with us, I promise you that your in-flight experience will be so much better.