Flying can be a nightmare for passengers. But imagine what a nightmare it can be for the flight attendants. While you’re sitting there in the cramped comfort of your airplane seat, there’s a team of flight attendants hard at work keeping everyone safe, cleaning up messes, and making sure that the Mile-High Club isn’t getting any new members.
What are some things that airline cabin crews know, but won’t tell you?
1, One of the interesting things Crew have that many passengers don’t know about is the ‘’crew rest compartments’’ we have on board certain aircrafts. On long haul flights, for example flights 14+ hours, we get 4–5+ hours break. The breaks crew get is located somewhere in the plane. There is a secret door somewhere on board that looks like this:
It depends on various aircraft types, if we take the stairs up to sleep or stairs down. Depending on aircraft type the rest compartments looks different. It is great resting/sleeping in there. I always feel like I am on board a ship when being in those areas. It is actually super fun to climb/take the stairs up or down to these rest areas.
2, One secret that perhaps many passengers don’t know about and we never tell, is that some lavatories (WC) on board can get unlocked from the outside. We lock the lavatories during takeoff and landing. We lock the lavatories during various situations too. But it is good to know how to unlock the door from the outside if you are a passenger and for example you have a child who suddenly can’t open the door from the inside. We have had passengers who have gotten some kind of panic attack inside the lavatories. We would simply unlock the door as it is shown above in the photo. You just swipe that metal handle to unlock it.
3, The meals we get on board are always frozen. We heat them up during service time. The meals on board are obviously not the healthiest.
4, You can complain about a passenger, but the crew can’t. In order to avoid discrimination suits, the crew must be very careful in difficult situations with a particular passenger. For example if the woman sitting next to you is overweight and spilling over to your seat, the crew cannot tell the passenger to switch seats or request that that she adjust herself. But you can! “The worst that can happen is you’ll get a no and maybe a glare.” Social media has also heightened the need for flight crews to be diplomatic.
5, The crew can give out freebies to whomever they like. The key here is to be super nice and fingers crossed you connect with a crew who will be nice enough to give you those freebies. Sometimes if the crew are nice they can give you free amenity kits, snacks and ice cream from business class. It all comes down to the connection you will create with the Cabin Crew.
6, There are various monitors on board. For example crew can turn off call bells via those monitors as they wish. If you press the call bell but notice that no one is coming to assist you and the call bell light goes off, press it again.
7, If you want extra snacks, drinks and meals, etc., it is better for you to go to the galley (kitchen) and ask for it. The crew prefer passengers to come to the galley and ask for extra things instead of pressing the call bell. The crew often gets in a bad mood when someone presses that call bell. You get on the crew’s better side if you go to the galley yourself.
I don’t know about you, but I’m extremely happy to know flight crews are more focused on safety than how to meal prep! To all the flight attendants out there – thanks for keeping passengers safe and sharing some of your secrets with us.
