30 Dark Secrets Arlines Don't Want You to Know

Flight attendants have seen it all.

By Nathan Johnson

Published 3 years ago in Ftw

Flight attendants have seen it all. They share some of their secrets here.

1
I used to be a flight attendant and when someone was really rude I’d just go to the computer we had to reset the inflight tv screens and I’d keep resetting theirs sporadically so that they couldn’t watch their movie. Very petty of me I know.

2
A friend of mine who works for Emirates told me this little gem. Whenever they fly into Saudi Arabia, Emirates makes the flight attendants lock the entire galley including all the food, water and drinks, all the napkins and cutlery too. This is because in the past, Saudi Arabian authorities would come on board and literally take anything they want and walk out. And there was nothing the airline or staff could do.

3
I once overheard a phone call at the gate check-in. A flight attendant was hungover, slept-in and was going to be pretty late. A minute later, the person at the kiosk made an announcement about how some pre-flight maintenance was going to delay the flight. I was thinking like, 'you lying sonofab*tch'. Lol
4
Back pre-911 I was traveling globally for the military (not American. Canadian and Brit). Whenever I stopped in at a major Canadian airport I would grab a mess of Air Canada luggage tags. Alot of my American contemporaries would ask for them when flying commercial to put on their luggage, especially when flying through the Middle East and Africa. The American luggage was targeted for abuser, theft, etc They never touched Canadian bags.

5
If you bring a box of chocolates for the flight crew, you will get all the free snacks (and sometimes beers) they can throw at you. My old coworker had been a flight attendant for like 20 years and knew all the secrets. This was his best recommendation for a good flight.
6
I worked for the ground crew at a private airport. Flights from other countries have to throw away all uneaten food right off the plane, as it is International Waste, and needs to be incinerated. Additionally, if flights for private planes are delayed, their food that was standing by has to go somewhere... So they gave it to us. So tasty.
7
Used to work for a UK airline (non crew). It was normal for passengers that died onboard to be kept in their seats until landing. They would be wrapped in blankets and propped up to look like they were sleeping to not freak out other passengers.

8
Not a secret - but if you’re nice you can get quite a bunch of stuff for free. Example - I was on a flight home (American Airlines) and there was a baby behind us that was just nooooottt having it. Pretty much cried all the way from Phoenix to Chicago. I felt awful. I was in the aisle, and saw that both the parents were taking turns walking around with the baby. So I asked them if they wanted something drink or a snack…I figured even the human interaction would be nice. I ordered them something and just went back to my movie. A few minutes later - I got a tap on the shoulder and got a little 'goodie bag' with some treats, and drinks and a little voucher for 24 hour** access to the AA lounge. Be nice people - it pays off!
9
Flight attendants get equally if not more annoyed when flights are delayed. A lot are paid only for the 'flight time' - meaning they aren't paid to sit at the airport to wait....or even to greet customers during onboarding... For that reason alone, the longer the flight the better. Imagine working on a short route where your actual work is 3-4h but you're paid for 55 minutes as that was the duration of the flight.
10
Not a flight attendant, but used to be a supervisor for a major US carrier. We had an employee whose child had a science project about germs. She brought her kid in on an overnighted aircraft and they took samples from all over. The galley, lavoratories, seats, tray tables, just about everywhere. The area with the most amount of fecal matter was the tray tables. Yep. I also never drink anything that is never sealed because I have witnessed cleaners who clean the lavoratories then jump to the galley without changing gloves.

11
My friend is a flight attendant, she told me they change their emergency code words every few months. Once an emergency code word (could be something like “marvellous”) is used by a crew member when speaking over PA to pilot, pilot will automatically lock cockpit and not open the door again no matter what.
12
The Galley! Not a Flight Attendant but exEngineer and trust me, if the aircraft galley were inspected like any other food business it would be condemned within the first trolley! That’s excluding the dirty water tanks and cleaning crew using one rag from ceiling lights to floor trim. If you ask anyone who maintains aircraft, you bet they’re buying their meal at the airport.
13
The flight attendants already know what you are going to say. Every joke, come on, request, complaint. They KNOW you are going to say that thing. If this is their 3rd flight of the day, they’ve heard it 6 times already. No one is clever on an airplane.

14
You have a set limit of how many hours you can fly, and you need 12 hours of rest between duties, i've once seen a pilot Wait 2 unnecessary minutes to turn off the engine to make the flight attendant out of hours for the next day.
15
I used to work as a flight attendant and I've seen a lot of stupid and crazy [stuff]. The alcoholism, drug abuse and depression is common in the domain. It's hard for a lot of people to live a superficial life. It's fun at first to see new places and new destinations. But at some point rome or new delhi is just another place at work. Sound downing but I've seen a lot people complain about this and me as well.
16
Former flight attendant here. First of all I’d like to say that everything varies from airline to airline and country to country. I worked for a Latin American airline. The environment was quite toxic, there was A LOT of harassment from the pilots and copilots.. some of them would abuse the position of power they had to make some indecent proposals to the air hostesses. Maybe this is not a secret but for me it was a shock when a pilot (aged 40+) would text me during my days off to hang out (I was 19), I don’t even know from where he got my number and I felt very uncomfortable around him. This was nothing in comparison to other things that many of us experienced.

17
There is an alarming amount of things that can be broken/inop on a MEL (minimum equipment list) and the airplane can still fly.
18
Pilots are on their phones or reading the newspaper all the time.
19
FA here... crop dusting. Basically farting whilst we walk down the aisle due to the bloating. If you fly frequently theres a high chance an fa has farted right by your head as they walked down the aisle.

20
The toilets are near where we sit, and no matter how hard you try to cover the fact that you’re taking a dump. It makes a different noise than if you just go number 1. No matter what stupid thing you see or read about getting a 'free upgrade' 99% of the time it’s all bollocks.
21
The only dirty thing about my job was the airplanes. they never wash the floors, the seats. it’s gross.
22
We have a list with every passenger’s full name and seat number. Sometimes when we’re bored we’ll Google you.

23
I buddy of mine has been a pilot for the better part of 30 years and says that back 15-20 years ago the Russian/Soviet pilots and crew had to been watched like hawks (sometimes even being locked in a room) because there was a high chance of them getting absolutely s**t faced before when they were supposed to fly.
24
This little secret has been in the news lately, pilots and flight attendants are usually only paid when the aircraft door is closed. I am a flight attendant for a regional carrier get paid per diem, about two dollars an hour from the moment we sign in until the moment our trip is finished. However, our hourly rate is only paid when the doors closed. While the hourly rate might sound good ($20-50+ depending on carrier and seniority) we are typically only paid 75 to 85 hours a month.
25
Flying isnt glamourous, one of my friend got spit on and cornered by a passenger and the company and the police did absolutely nothing about it. Also have heard of a few pilots trying to get sexual favors in flight, to no avail (from my knowledge).

26
Pilot is sleeping and co-pilot is flying and there are [passed away] bodies in the cargo. Source: my mom who is a former flight attendant.
27
With South African Airways, it was the fact that flight attendants were stealing from people’s bags.
28
There's a special frequency called Guard that all aircraft are supposed to monitor. It's for emergencies, or for when an aircraft ends up on a wrong frequency and the controllers need to get contact with them to change them to the right frequency. It's full of pilots meowing at each other, and people accidentally asking for gate assignments and making other radio calls.

29
Sex isn't really that common in flight (ldmcr is too small to do naughty stuff)... but in hotels it happens... and its usually the copilot doing naughty stuff
30
My roommate’s a flight attendant and she says the flight crew (including pilots) often stays at the same hotel and parties together, and that the pilots often sleep with flight attendants regardless of marital status. Idk if that counts as a secret of the industry, but she says it is.