Please do send comments/complaints to the company via email. In flight there is very little I can do.

Please understand the limitations imposed on you, my passenger as well as on me. Acceptance of what is leads to peace and calm. Try it sometime.

I will apologize heartily and authentically for my own short comings, but not for what is out of my control …

Susan
American Airlines flight attendant

I’m surprised there were no rules for overnight flights.
1. The window seat is for whoever among you will sleep through the flight, and the aisle seat goes to whoever needs the least sleep.
2. Just don’t recline your seat back. Period. My apologies to the tall guy in front of me who wants sleep, but you can’t expect sympathy when your head is practically in my lap.
3. If you have kids and a night flight is all you can get, load your kid up with natural sleep aids like melatonin before bringing them on the plane. Sure, they usually fall asleep on their own, but do you really want a whole plane full of restless passengers pissed at you?
4. If you aren’t going to sleep, PLEASE stick to books to pass the time. If it needs headphones or has a bright backlight, keep it in your carry-on. Now that I think about it, consider bringing something like a drawing book and a sketchpad with you; in this case, you’re letting the people around you sleep while teaching yourself a fairly useful ability.

In short, unless you’re flying for business or an emergency, you’ll have plenty of time to plan ahead; if you have restless kids or just can’t fly without your tablet to keep you busy, don’t fly at night. Before any constant night flyers respond angrily, I’d like to point out that I never sleep on planes. These are actions that I’ve noticed that made me think “I’d hate being in that other guy’s place if I were trying to sleep,” or (as is the case with number 4) things that I’ve done that, in hindsight, I realized were rude.

Plane etiquette is all about making small sacrifices that keep everyone happy. Feel free to make this point abundantly clear to people who are rude in every way imaginable, but if that doesn’t help, be the better man. Ask the flight attendant if there’s another seat you can move to or >just deal with it<, but don't stoop to their level by being an asshole in return, especially verbally; even crying babies are less annoying than crybabies.

1. Hey guy sitting behind me. Why do you have to grab my seat back when getting in and out of your row? Use your own seatback to keep your balance.

2. If you have to lean your seat back, how about doing it slowly. Give the guy behind you a little bit of time to move his laptop, drink, knees, etc. out of the way.

3. Speaking of which, put your seat back up when you are supposed to. Don’t make the flight attendant tell you to put it up. In fact, don’t even put your seatback down at all unless you’re trying to sleep.

4. Never, but NEVER put your feet through the gap in the seats in front of you. Think this is a little far-fetched? It’s happened to me. And they were bare feet.

5. If the middle seat is empty in your row. Don’t put all your stuff on the middle seat or in its underseat stowage. Ask if the other person in your row minds you using it. At the very least make an attempt to look like you’re saving half for the other person.

6. If you’re wearing headphones (ipod, DVD player, in-flight movie), take them off if you decide to talk to the person next to you. I don’t want to hear you yelling at your seat partner about how you don’t get the TV show “The Office”.

7. If you try to make small talk with your seat neighbor, and he only gives you short, quick responses, with no follow-up comments, GET THE HINT.

8. If you’re a relatively large fellow, at least make an attempt to keep yourself within your seat confines.

9. If you are not on the aisle, you’re only allowed to get up once every 1.5 hours on a flight. If you can’t deal with that, get yourself an aisle seat. By the way, if you’re on the aisle, you get to deal with at least one bathroom trip per every 1.5 hours from your row partners. Don’t give me a dirty look when I wake you up to get out. That’s part of the deal with having an aisle seat (note-the 1.5 hours was originally 3 hours, but after protest from a few women frequent flyers, I downgraded to 1.5 hours).

10. If you’re traveling with kids, keep them off of the tray table.

11. Only use your cell phone if necessary. Otherwise, wait until you’re in the terminal. Almost nothing more annoying than the guy who has to place a call the second we land to his friend to see “what’s up”.

12. If you HAVE to use your cell phone, use your quiet voice please.

13. Do not bring a big bag/suitcase packed full onto the plane and then try jamming it into the overhead bin. It’s annoying.

14. If your neighbor is reading, he doesn’t want to talk to you, so don’t talk to him.

15. While walking down the aisle, there is NO need to grab every seatback headrest on the way. If you have balance problems, use a cane or something, or crawl, or whatever.

16. Speaking of walking down the aisle, don’t EVER do calisthenics while in the aisle. I once witnessed 15 minutes of deep knee bends by some old lady. Not a pretty sight. And bizarre.

17. Get in and out of the lavatory. Don’t hang out in there, people are waiting. In fact, don’t go #2 in there…EVER. That’s gross for you and me.

18. When the flight attendant asks what she can get you to drink, don’t ask for “the can”. It’s annoying. The flight attendants make fun of you in the back if you do that. Take your plastic cup and be happy with it. If you’re lucky enough to get the can without asking, great.

19. The armrest is “first-come, first-served”. Still, be polite and share it. Don’t hog the whole thing (Brett and Kate…I like your armrest protocol).

20. If you have to take your shoes off, be discrete about it and make sure your feet don’t stink. Never take your socks off. Never NEVER take your socks off and rub your feet. No joke, I saw some guy do this across the aisle and one row up from me. Made me want to vomit. And you know what happens when one person vomits on the plane-let’s just say “domino effect”.

20. If you’re falling asleep on the plane, don’t let yourself fall onto your neighbor’s shoulder. Do what you have to do to avoid this-it’s your responsibility.

21. If a baby is crying on the plane, don’t roll your eyes, make rude comments, or otherwise. They’re babies…they’re gonna cry…As annoyed as you are, the mom or dad that has the baby feels worse. Deal with it.

22. If your row is full, don’t read a full-size fold out newspaper. There’s not enough room for it.

23. If you are NOT in the window seat, do NOT take prolonged looks through the window over the window-seat-guy’s shoulder. This rule is violated way too much. If you want to look out the window, get a window seat. It’s not hard. Just ask for one ahead of time. A quick glance now and again is okay. But I mean a QUICK glance.

24. If you want to get up and out of your seat a lot, get an aisle seat. Both the aisle seat and the window seat have their plusses and minuses. Figure out what you like and arrange for that seat-then follow the rules I have set forth for that seat. If you’re in the middle seat, too bad, there is really no benefit to that. Do all that you can to get out of the middle seat. I once voluntarily bumped myself from a flight and waited in the airport for an additional 3 hours for the next flight, just to get out of a middle seat. Believe me, it wasn’t about the voucher…I needed out of that middle seat.

25. By all means, talk “baby-talk” to your baby on the plane ride if that’s what it takes to keep them quiet and happy. But keep the baby-talk quiet. 95 percent of us do not think “baby-talk” is cute and don’t want to hear it.

26. If you’re on the window, lean a little bit towards the window. On the aisle, lean a little bit towards the aisle. Being in the middle sucks (see #24), and no one wants to be there, so be considerate. Even an inch or two of lean makes a big difference.

27. Don’t stink. BO, cigarette smoke, whatever. Do what it takes to avoid stinking. Again, this is YOUR responsibility. If you smoke before you fly, you WILL stink, even if you don’t think you do. Don’t EVER sit in one of those (very few nowadays) smoking lounges at airports. Not only your smoke, but every one else’s smoke has no where to go but in your clothes and hair. Then we have to smell it on the plane. If you have a BO problem, you really shouldn’t be flying at all. C’mon, let’s grow up.

28. When the plane has landed, and it’s time to exit, wait your turn. Don’t try to dart through the aisle before the row in front of you has cleared out.

29. Offer assistance to old people and ladies trying to get their bags out of the overhead (unless they’ve violated rule 13, then they’re on their own). Do NOT offer to carry a stranger’s baby for her-she doesn’t want you to and it’s awkward for her to say no. Offer to carry her bag or something else.

30. If you are with a group, do NOT treat the flight like it’s your own party. I don’t want to hear any woo-hooing. No seat hopping. Treat the flight like it’s a funeral or church service (but at one of those churches where they don’t sing or make any noise whatsoever).

31. If you are not at least 6 feet tall, do NOT get an exit row seat. I don’t care if you ARE the greatest at directing passengers in the event of an emergency, if you are not at least 6 feet tall you are taking away leg room from someone who could use it more than you. Don’t be a jerk. My knees hurt.

32. Don’t tell me how much you have to fly for business and how horrible it is. I’m not impressed and you’re not a martyr. Get a different job if it sucks so much.

33. Don’t pass gas on the plane. C’mon, confined space…not cool. I’m sorry if you’re getting stomach cramps-use your once-every-1.5-hours trip to the bathroom to decompress. As uncomfortable as you feel because of your gas, the 8 people in your immediate proximity will be even more uncomfortable with your stink.

34. Don’t ever clap when the plane lands. NEVER! This is not a broadway musical, or a football game. The pilot is supposed to land, and land well. Don’t give him false reward by clapping. You can thank him on the way out though-even give him a high-5. However, I will condone (even encourage) booing for really poor landings.

35. If you’re a bad drunk, don’t drink on the plane. You’d think this was obvious, but it seems that the worse of a drunk you are, the more you feel inclined to purchase drinks on the plane. Please resist.

36. Sorry if this sounds a little non-PC, but try to not look like a terrorist. We all know what that looks like. When you dress/look that way, we are all checking you out, making our own little game-plans in our heads for how we’ll take you OUT, should you so much as sneeze. So, just for once, try to look like “Joe American” tourist. You can do it this once, can’t you?

37. If you’re into “sagging”, you know, wearing your pants below your butt, make this flight a rare occasion where you actually dress like a normal person. Be an adult and pull your pants up.

38. On a similar note, if you are into the country western lifestyle, all the power to you. But, for crap’s sake, quit wearing those cowboy hats to the airport. The Wranglers, the cowboy boots and your 20 square inches of belt buckle let us all know who you are. We don’t need the giant hat.

39. Don’t EVER try to sell me anything on the plane ride. EVER!

40. When exiting the jetway, people are behind you. Don’t stop the instant you enter the terminal and look around. Move out into the hallway area first. People are cursing you under their breath.

No. I’m on a military budget as I’m active duty Navy and I’m 6’5. With a wife, a child and a job that demands travel as par for the course, I cannot afford the luxury of paying for first-class airfare. This is magnified when you add factors like overseas assignments and limited opportunities by your command in which to take leave.

To go home for Christmas, round-trip tickets cost in excess of 2000 dollars for economy class.

Usually I politely ask the person in front of me if they can keep their seat up. More often than not, they ask me what a good level is and we compromise.

For a lot of taller people, first-class tickets are not something we can easily budget for.

Last flight I was on, as I started to (slowly) recline my seat back, the man behind me said, “You can’t recline back. My legs will hit the seat.”

I was terribly sorry for him, but he and I had paid for the same amount of space, and I intended to use mine.

If you are tall, spring for the first-class. Or don’t use the service.

“To the people in the comments saying people shouldn’t recline, apply a little logic: if you lose space when the person in front reclines, you get it back again when you recline your own seat. The only loser is the very last row in the plane (and yes, I’ve been that loser).”

That’s pretty poor logic. At 6’6″, there is no way I’m going to be able to let someone in front of me recline, even if I wanted to. My knees are already pressed up against the back of his seat. There’s no logical equation that says I can shorten my legs and add that to my torso.

And I’ve never been politely asked to recline. The will get in a shoving match with my legs until I tap them on the shoulder and saying it won’t work. They usually stop…for an hour, then try again later. I am always loathe to leave my seat, in fear that I won’t be able to fit in it when I return.

please keep your shoes on. You are in a relatively small and crowded space with recycled air, any odors emitged from perfumes, food or your stinky feet are going to waft about 2 rows in either direction and stay there the entire flight. If you must for comforts sake remove your shoes, at least keep your socks on and refrain from putting your feet up on armrests, walls, etc. For your own safety and the comfort and sanitation of others, you are not the first one that day to put your naked and sweaty feet on the carpet, armres, etc….some e en making a trip through the plane to the lavatory and back while shoeless. While they pick up trash and.carpet sweep at night, they almost never wipe down or disinfect seats.and other surfaces unless spill or illness has occured. Oh and being that theres turbulence, the area is tiny, and some folks are plain dirty, there is so much urine on that lav floor that is then tracked throughout the cabin. Keep that in mind.

Please do not take it upon yourself to move to an open seat. There are strict policies about this, do not force me to embarass you. Just.ask nicely.about ten minutes before departure, and an open seat in close proximity is a better bet as there is not an upcharge… we are not allowed to move you to a different class
s seat
without charge unless to balance aircraft weight as per captain orders (even if we would like to).

Please control your alcohol intake, one drink in the air is equal to two on the ground… try not to get sloppy, sick, or threatening and disobeying…if you interrupt federal regulations for a secure.cabin with no impedments for.a safe and swift evac