Flight Attendant Shares 3 Things People Should Stop Doing On Flights & One Of Them Is Really Concerning
Her tip about the airplane bathroom might be even more distressing than the one about plane crashes.
Svitlana Hulko / Shutterstock Most of us who've flown frequently know the drill when it comes to flight attendants' recommendations — listen to the safety announcements, don't be gross and please don't be belligerent. (Not that those basic things aren't a struggle for all too many passengers nowadays).
But one flight attendant says there are a few additional things that way too many of us are doing on flights, and they range from unsafe to downright gross.
Cher, a Dallas-based flight attendant, TikToker, and, it must be said, possessor of a truly fabulous name, recently shared three tips for passengers that go well beyond the regular don't-be-a-jerk directives — things she sees passengers doing all the time that she'd never do herself.
Here are 3 things people should stop doing on flights, according to a flight attendant
1. Wearing shorts
Huh? What's the problem with shorts? If it's hot outside, it's hot inside them pant legs, too, right?
But Cher says there are "so many reasons" she would never wear shorts on a plane, starting with the fact that planes are frequently frigid in the summer. "You're going to freeze to death," she said.
Photo: TanyaKim / Shutterstock
Personally, I'd like to solely fly on whatever planes she's on as the ones I board in the summer are always thermonuclear because, much like in office environments, people who are always cold seem to have a bizarre aversion to carrying a hoodie with them and insist instead on complaining about the air conditioning until the rest of us are forced to roast in misery like legs of lamb. But that's just me!
Anyway, there is a far more important reason to not wear shorts on a plane. "Say we have an evacuation," Cher went on to say. "You have to go down the slide. Your butt cheeks are going to be sizzled off."
This has literally never occurred to me and I now feel like I've been cheating aeronautic death — or at least third-degree butt burns — my entire life. Message received, Cher!
2. Booking a ticket with a layover less than three hours
This one's a heartbreaker, as those flights with short layovers are always cheaper. Plus, who wants to have to loiter around an airport for hours on end?
The food is bad, the shopping is either garbage or Chanel and nothing in between, and everyone you meet in an airport bar is, without fail, a full-tilt weirdo. Personally, I cannot get out of an airport fast enough, even if it makes my connection a liiiiittle bit stressful.
But Cher says, especially nowadays, when flights are almost always delayed by default because of staffing shortages that analysts say could last — wait for it — for the next DECADE, short layovers are a really, really bad idea.
"The likelihood that you're going to miss your connection is pretty high if you're booking shorter than 3 hours," Cher says. So prepare to grab an Auntie Anne's pretzel and park it on one of those hideously uncomfortable chairs unless you want to get stranded.
3. Using the toilet paper in the airplane bathroom
Now, calm down. Cher is not suggesting you just do your business and let it ride without cleaning yourself. She's not an animal! As she put it, "Hear me out, because I wipe!"
Rather, her airplane TP policy is due to a horrifying phenomenon that has personally never occurred to me. "If you examine the toilet paper, I promise you're going to see water droplets on it," Cher said.
"Yes, of course," I said in my head in response. "Due to people dripping water from washing their hands, right?" Ah, what a fool I have been all these years!
Photo: tratong / Shutterstock
Because Cher clarified that "what you think are water droplets," are actually ... well, something else. As she put it, "I don't think we can trust most men to make it in the toilet on a normal day, let alone, flying at 36,000 feet with turbulence."
Never in a million years would I have put this together, but if you've ever lived with a man, you know that Cher's right — we can't aim when we're in there. It's congenital. There is no cure. Save yourselves, and do as Cher does: "I just tell all my ladies, just use the Kleenex instead."
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.