Flight attendant condemns in-flight act you might not realise is 'super rude'
It's safe to say that most of us will go out of our way to be polite to flight attendants.
From a friendly hello when boarding to helping pick up your own rubbish, a lot of it is common courtesy while you're on a plane.
But there is one rude in-flight act you might not even be aware that you're doing.
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Are you accidentally being rude? Getty
Flight attendant and social media creator Yana Biryukova shared a video to Instagram, captioned: "Some polite airplane etiquette next time you're enjoying meal service."
In the video, she said polite airplane passengers clock when the flight attendants are serving drinks or meals to the people in the row in front of them.
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"They take their headphones out, they're not chewing food, and they know their order without making the flight attendant wait," she said.
Yana said it's a mammoth task getting food and drinks to everyone on the plane in a timely manner.
"It takes a while for the flight attendants to feed 100-400 people in 10 minutes," she wrote in the video's caption.
Be ready to give your order. Getty
"Being prepared and having your order ready really helps make it a smoother and faster process."
When discussing this with the team, one 9Travel writer says her noise-cancelling earphones have an ambient switch that she can toggle, which cuts out background noise, making it easier to hear the flight attendant talking.
However, she now realises that perhaps she "looks super rude", speaking to cabin crew without removing her bulky over-ear headphones.
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Remove your headphones when talking to your cabin crew. Getty
A few flight attendants chimed in in the comment section, saying they wish more people would act like this on board. "Now repeat it on the PA so everyone can hear it!," one wrote.
It's also important to speak up when giving the cabin crew your order. Planes are noisy, so whispering "just a Coke, please" isn't going to get you far.
Speaking of which, flight attendants find it frustrating when you ask for drinks or food outside the designated meal service.
As one flight attendant wrote on Reddit, their biggest pet peeve is "asking me for another drink while I'm in the middle of picking up trash because how am I going to remember that 6B wants a coke, 10A wants coffee with 3 creams, 12F wants a vodka soda, 13F needs headphones and 20D wants a beer by the time I've finished doing trash for 30 rows?"
If you do need something, you can press the call button and they'll be able to serve you when they have a free moment.
Should you tip cabin crew? Getty
Recently, the debate around whether it's ok to tip flight attendants has also cropped up online.
In an exclusive Nine reader survey, we asked: "Would you consider tipping a flight attendant for good service?," and unsurprisingly, most people voted no.
However, 12 per cent of respondents to our poll said they would tip - a pretty high number considering that tipping isn't really a thing in Australia.
"I think tipping for great service should be mandatory," one reader commented.
"It is a gesture of goodwill, and a thank you for service," they said, adding that they have benefited from this attitude.
