16 Alarming Airline Secrets

by Adam Last updated March 31, 2014

Well, another week, another list of “airline secrets” hah. This one comes from the Huffington Post and seems to borrow a few of the secrets from the 30 Pilots and Flight Attendants Confess their “Best Kept Flying Secrets” list that made the internet rounds the last two weeks.

Those blankets have NOT been washed. Also, there’s a solid chance your tray table has poo on it.
“I worked for Southwest as a flight attendant. Those blankets and pillows? Yeah, those just get refolded and stuffed back in the bins between flights. Only fresh ones I ever saw were on an originating first flight in the morning in a provisioning city. Also, if you have ever spread your peanuts on your tray and eaten, or really just touched your tray at all, you have more than likely ingested baby poo. I saw more dirty diapers laid out on those trays than food. And those trays, yeah, never saw them cleaned or sanitized once.” –@melhow44

People steal the lifejackets.
“People take those life jackets, located under or between your seat, as souvenirs. It’s a vile and punishable offense, and while airlines do check each seat at the start of every day, a plane could make several trips in a day, during any one of which a passenger could steal a life vest. So, I learned, it’s a good idea to check if the life jacket is indeed there.” —George Hobica, airline expert

There are hold-on handles in case flight attendants get shoved off the plane.
“Next time you get on a plane, take note of the handles by the door, just inside the plane. What on earth are those for? Correct, they’re grab handles, but why? Well, in a panicked emergency evacuation, when the flight attendants are manning the exit door, passengers, in their mad rush to get off, have a tendency to push them out of the way, sometimes all the way down the slide. The handles are there to make sure that the flight attendants stay on the plane if that’s what they need to do.” —George Hobica, airline expert

You can ask for the whole can of Coke.
“If you’ve got a thirst that’s going to take more than a few tablespoons of soda to quench, consider politely asking your flight attendant for the whole can. Most of the time, they’re happy to oblige.” —Beth Blair, former flight attendant

Check out the full list here.

Related –

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Adam

Adam is the proud Founder and CEO of both Point Me to the Plane and point.me. An international consultant turned TV programming strategist, Adam currently works full-time on both websites. His obsession with points and miles dates back to his freshman year at college. After browsing Flyertalk and Mileage Workshop, Adam pulled the trigger and signed up for his first Citibank AAdvantage credit card and MCI phone line (yes, landlines still existed). Back then, both deals were churnable and in no time at all, the college freshman had enough miles to travel to Europe and Asia in First Class for free, multiple times. Needless to say, he was hooked! Fast forward a few years and Adam of course ended up in a career with a heavy travel requirement…which meant extra miles for awards! As his colleagues and friends started to hear about and see pictures from his trips, they wanted in on the secret and Adam began to assist them with their bookings, Juicy Miles was born. At the same time, Adam started an email newsletter to prevent those less obsessed co-workers from squandering their point collection opportunities. The bi-weekly email covered everything from upcoming promotions, guidance on maximizing points, and redemption advice. The distribution quickly expanded outside the office and Point Me to the Plane became a BoardingArea blog.

Under $4 – Travel Size Yahtzee, Trouble, Battleship, Hungry Hippos, & More

13 comments

Paul March 31, 2014 - 9:09 pm

I’d recommend putting the whole list in your blog and NOT putting a link to Huff Post. Their website sucks and locks up peoples computers all the time. I can almost never get a Huff Post page up and by viewing my searched on the net loads of people have the same problem.