Unspoken airplane rules
As many of you know, there are a ton of rules for you to obey while flying. No smoking, no gathering in the foward galley, no weapons, obey flight attendants, etc. These rules are either clearly posted up in the airplane or airport or they are spoken about in the flight announcement.
However, there are some unspoken of rules of flying. Sometimes I have to give people the benefit of the doubt that they don’t know of these secret rules. So what are they?
- If the middle seat is unoccupied, that space is to be split between those occupying the seats next to it. If you’re in the window seat and someone is occupying the aisle seat (or vice versa), you do have the right to place some of your personal items on the middle seat. Be sure it only covers half - after all, that empty seat space is supposed to be split. When it comes time to get your drink - ask the person next to you if it’s okay if you use the middle seat’s tray table. 99% of the time they’ll say yes, but it’s just courteous to ask.
- On a similar note - the middle seat - if all seats are occupied and someone is sitting in the middle seat, make it comfortable for them. After all, they are going to be the most uncomfortable out of the three of you in that row. What do I mean by this? Well, I’ve been on flights where guys refused to close their legs (even just a little) so their knees were in my leg space. Talk about uncomfortable. I’ve also been on flights where the person next to me continued to elbow me on my side (whether it was on purpose or an accident, I’m not sure) because they insisted on taking up the entire arm rest. It is constantly being debated who has the rights to the shared arm rests - however I have to believe that those arm rests belong to the person in the middle seat. Both the person and the window seat have arm rests that they don’t have to share with anyone else.
- When it comes to putting your seat back - do it slowly. This has now happened to me twice and every time it happens I just want to kick the seat back of the jerk in front of me. So what do they do? As soon as they can they SLAM their seat back as hard as possible, almost crushing my laptop. The nice thing to do is to slowly put your seat back, so if the person behind you does have a laptop they have time to move it before it gets smashed.
- Screaming/crying babies are never a delight on a plane. However we have to remind ourselves that the parent is not the one responsible for their child’s screaming/crying. There really is no need to turn around and give them the evil eye. The parents are probably already embarrassed and are doing all they can to quiet their child. In fact, you probably should’ve brought those noise canceling headphones in the first place.
- Please & Thank you! On Southwest Airlines your sodas and snacks are free and are given out on every flight. Just because you’re not asking for a special request doesn’t mean you shouldn’t thank your flight attendant for giving you the drink or snack.
The rules I just listed are only the basics. There are a lot more unspoken rules. In fact, I’ll probably post another blog about other ones.
If you have anything that drives you nuts (and should be listed as an unspoken rule) on an airplane, feel free to post it on here! I just might add it to the next blog I post about unspoken rules. :)
