Terrible Passenger Experiences That Will Make You Want To Hug A Flight Attendant

Hurtling through the sky at breakneck speed 30,000 feet above the ground in a metal tube packed with strangers is hardly a tranquil experience. For some, air travel is a minor inconvenience for the thrill of embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. For others, it's truly a nuisance from start to finish. However you look at it, you can probably relate to at least some of those annoyances.

But have you ever looked at it from the flight attendants' perspective? The folks tasked with keeping it all together high in the sky really have their work cut out for them. If you're like most, you probably haven't thought about what they go through on a regular basis. These skilled professionals do it all, juggling the important demands of the job while diffusing tensions that sometimes occur in flight, like absurd demands, rowdy passengers, and unpredictable situations. 

Flight attendants handle all of these predicaments with such grace that you may be compelled to see their side of things in a different light the next time you travel. Pay close attention to the way they navigate the complexities firsthand — and take a peek at some of the stories that are so brow-raising, you may be tempted to hug your flight attendant the next time you're in flight!

What is it about adults throwing tantrums so outrageous they would even stop a fussy child in their tracks? Flight attendants know this better than anyone, as they often need to calm fully grown passengers throwing fits about everything from the food to the weather. You have to give it up for the flight attendants who masterfully handle these situations like they've done it their entire lives.

What's astounding  is that the source of the passenger's irritation is usually something that is completely out of everyone's hands. "I once watched a very well-dressed businessman have an epic toddler-level tantrum at a check-in counter when he was advised his flight was delayed due to fog," shared a Reddit user via BuzzFeed. "He literally screamed and jumped up and down and demanded that the airline 'better do something about it or ELSE!' The guy working behind the counter just smirked and suggested that the business guy was welcome to go outside and try and flap the fog away with his arms."

It's easy to get caught up in feelings of annoyance — but no matter what, it's important to remember your manners. Being polite goes a long way, especially up in the sky. Your flight attendant is more likely to find a helpful solution when you show them understanding and appreciation.

The menu is typically pretty standard fare (although sometimes it's the best in-flight dining experience in the world). Despite this, there are some passengers who believe that flight attendants have far more control over the in-flight food selection than they actually do. Whether it's a complaint about the lack of variety, a meal they don't like, or something missing from their requested diet, flight attendants find themselves on the receiving end of plenty of food-related grievances. Fair? No. Common? Sadly, very.

"When meal options run out, a flight attendant cannot go back to the galley and cook you the meal choice you were craving. We don't have an endless supply of food we are hoarding, and we are not catered 100% of each meal choice," one flight attendant told BuzzFeed. "If your meal choice is not available, don't expect the crew to make it appear literally in thin air. Just be grateful you're getting a meal a mile high in the sky."

Not only are flight attendants not chefs, but the food they serve is predetermined and served in bulk, leaving little to no room for such customizations and changes. None of this has stopped passengers from lashing out, though. In best-case scenarios, a culinary complaint may get passengers a snack that's more geared to their liking. Remember, there are limitations up there!

It's not unusual to see a flight attendant hoisting a bag into an overhead bin. In fact, some will readily do so. However, while they aren't prohibited from doing so, flight attendants generally loathe when plane passengers make this common request. It may seem innocuous enough, but it's actually a task that could prove physically harmful to them. Lifting heavy bags overhead can put a strain on the body, increasing their risk of developing an injury and rendering them unable to perform their duties to the best of their abilities.

Despite these clear risks, some passengers still insist on asking flight attendants to stow their luggage. Heather Poole told Travel + Leisure, "I might help [lift the bag], but I won't do it for them. If I went around lifting everyone's heavy bag I'd be out of a job. Chiropractors are expensive."

Because it's nearly always left to them to solve last-minute situations, flight attendants do often end up handling bags despite their best efforts to leave it to the passengers. Flight attendant Lara Ketterman shared her experience handling a bag that was placed in a bin the wrong way, sticking out so much that the door wouldn't close. "Yes, the passenger left it for me to figure out how to close the bin," she explained to Travel Awaits. "I had to move their bag to another open bin to close that first bin."

You can count on your flight attendant to maintain a clean environment for the duration of the flight, which includes making periodic rounds to collect trash. But there's a fine line between keeping the cabin tidy and being expected to work overtime as some sort of glorified trash collector. While it's understandable that some passengers need a place to dispose of their miscellaneous garbage, it's not actually the flight attendants' job to roll through every few minutes and clean up every mess.

It's a very common issue that flight attendants encounter often. Passengers often stuff their trash into seatback pockets or simply leave it on the floor, littering the space and leaving it to already busy crew to tidy up after landing. Flight attendants have taken to the internet to express their grievances. "As a flight attendant, you're basically a walking garbage disposal. At least that's how some passengers see you," said one to CBC Life. "People love to hand me large piles of garbage while I'm serving food, or refilling drinks."

Another on Quora stated, "We have a lot more duties than just picking up your trash. If we are still serving beverages we will not take your trash and cross-contaminate your fellow passengers' drinks." Do your flight attendant a favor and wait until they're on a dedicated walk wearing gloves and holding out a plastic bag — your cue to toss your trash.

Flight attendants say that one of the biggest complaints they hear is that the person in front of them is reclining too much. While it's a big source of debate in the travel community — and there is definitely some unspoken etiquette about reclining your seat on a plane — it's not something flight attendants can always solve. Some passengers are 100% pro-recline, and technically speaking it's well within every passenger's right to lean back if they wish. Whether you're a nervous flyer or you want to take a nap, you might find that it's the only position that can really help you relax.

What happens when a passenger is on the opposing team? Don't expect your flight attendant to come to the rescue. LaDell Carter of Royal Expression Travels tells Travel + Leisure, "Flight attendants typically will not enforce seat adjustments during noncritical times unless it pertains to safety, including during takeoff, landing, or turbulence." Of course, that hasn't stopped legions of travelers from venting their frustrations on the poor flight crew who, typically, can't do very much except gently ask the offending recliner to consider straightening up a bit.

Unfortunately, there's only so much flight attendants can actually do. "We can't call the cops or an ambulance or the fire department in flight," flight attendant Heather Poole told CNBC, adding that "there's no telling how things are going to escalate."

Flight attendants are asked for the world up there in the sky — and are woefully unprepared to deliver, through absolutely no fault of their own. The truth is that most flight attendants are only too glad to help you if you're a polite and considerate passenger. But there are some requests that are just a little bit out of the realm of possibility — not to mention downright weird (and, dare we say, kind of gross, too).

Take the example one flight attendant shared on BuzzFeed. "Someone left their dentures on the meal tray after collection and expected the crew to go through all the possible rubbish trollies and trays to find his dentures." Then there was the rather dismal request one parent had. "My sister is a flight attendant," explained a Reddit user (via Buzzfeed). "A well-known actress on board her flight expected the flight crew to change her kid's diaper. They didn't."

This, of course, is the smallest sampling of the many, very outlandish requests that flight attendants have fielded during their tenures. Given that people of all walks of life fly every single day of the year, it's certainly no surprise that they might encounter some quirky personalities. It's just one more reason to treat these hard-working professionals with courtesy and kindness!

This definitely wasn't in the job description — yet if you poll a random group of flight attendants, no doubt several would tell you they've broken up their fair share of fights. It makes sense that when a flight erupts mid-flight, it's imperative to put a stop to the situation before it escalates. In this era of Passengers Behaving Badly, never has it been more important — or more unfair, given that flight attendants aren't exactly trained to do this. It truly asks a lot of them to step into what could potentially be a harmful situation.

Take, for example, the rowdy brawl between two men that occurred on a Spirit Airlines bound for Boston. The fight spiraled, devolving into a back-and-forth punching fest — and forcing a flight attendant to attempt to break up the ruckus, per The New York Post. It was to no avail, though, and the attendant ultimately had to step back as the fight continued. A passenger who witnessed the tussle told the publication, "That poor flight attendant. She was doing her best. She's putting herself in a dangerous situation to protect everyone else on the flight."

Getting into this kind of predicament is an easy way to get banned from the airline. After all, there's a big difference between resolving a minor conflict and breaking up a physical disagreement. Flight attendants typically handle even these jarring situations with grace and composure — one more reason to admire all they do. 

Dealing with an intoxicated passenger on the ground is challenging enough, but imagine being tasked with that job while in flight — all while hundreds of passengers watch it unfold. It's an ordeal that flight attendants frequently face, sometimes before the plane even takes off. There's a good reason why flight attendants tell passengers to stop drinking at airports!

These professionals are trained to identify signs of inebriation, including slurred speech, unusual behavior, glassy eyes, and, of course, the unmistakable smell of alcohol. That was the case of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, who observed a passenger drunkenly doing cartwheels at the airport before boarding. In a now-viral video, the flight attendant turned the woman away at the door to the plane. "You can walk away," she told the traveler. "You can't come on this aircraft... that's because you guys are jeopardizing the safety of this aircraft right now."

What happens when the passenger conceals it, though, or gets drunk mid-flight? Well, things can definitely get a little bit dicey — especially when the culprit becomes rowdy and disrupts others. Take the Al Nippon Airways traveler who got a bit out of hand. "While flying over the Pacific Ocean, a passenger who was heavily intoxicated bit the arm of a female cabin attendant prompting the plane to return to Tokyo Haneda airport," an airline representative told NBC News. 

Calming anxious passengers is par for the course. These professionals can ease the nerves of a rookie, first-time flyer just as well as they can relax a regular flyer who simply hates air travel. What happens, though, when the problem requires more than a gentle conversation and a warm blanket? According to the Centers for Disease Control, medical emergencies are, unfortunately, not uncommon, occurring on approximately one out of every 604 flights. While there is often a nurse or a doctor on board, that's not always the case — and unfortunately, that sometimes means flight attendants have to step up and go above and beyond the call of duty.

One flight attendant shared a harrowing story on Reddit, explaining that she'd "lost count" of the number of medical emergencies she'd encountered over the years. "The last one happened after we landed in HND at the very end of deplaning. She was a young woman in her early thirties who went into cardiac arrest multiple times while my crew took turns performing CPR. We found out later that she survived."

The bottom line: You never know what kinds of situations a flight attendant has experienced — and potentially how many times they've saved a life. Some extra gratitude for all of their heroic efforts, big and small, can go a long way.

It's true that flying can be a very scary, anxiety-inducing experience for some people. In fact, aerophobia affects some 25 million American adults. Whether it's the idea of being thousands of feet in the air, the fear of turbulence, or the terror of experiencing a catastrophic event, fear of flying can paralyze some people. And that fear can manifest in countless ways, causing everything from lightheadedness and heart palpitations to nausea and panic attacks.

The good news is that flight attendants are trained to help passengers relax. GMA shared the heartwarming story of flight attendant Floyd Dean-Shannon holding a scared traveler's hand and telling her what to expect before the plane took off. "I went on ahead and held my coffee and I sat there next to her for like 10 minutes explaining to her... 'So you're gonna feel like this or a little up and down feeling... The gears are coming out. You're going to hear all of this. But I guaranteed the safety — that if nothing was not right on this plane, we would never lift off the ground."

The Delta attendant is just one of many who has taken a few moments to bring comfort to a nervous flyer. Given that it's so common, flight attendants have a considerable amount of experience allaying those fears. If you fear flying, it's always best to share that with a flight attendant — they can make the experience more enjoyable for you.

While it's not something that happens all the time, there are occasions when flight attendants may need to put themselves in truly risky situations to deal with dangerous passengers or those who are behaving unusually. These kinds of experiences go well beyond dealing with the occasional drunk passenger or even breaking up the odd dustup between a few travelers.

There was, for example, the American Airlines passenger who ended up duct-taped to her seat after she allegedly attacked the flight attendant, biting them while simultaneously attempting to open the plane's door. Per NewsNation, the passenger was banned from the airline. The network also reported a jarring story about a United Airlines traveler who threatened a flight attendant with violence after they requested he wear a mask during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Mind your business. Mind your business. Because I will break your neck," they reportedly said.

It's obvious that flight attendants put up with a lot — from the ordinary disgruntled passenger who's just having a bad day to the downright disturbed individuals who may pose a threat to everyone on the plane.

The idea of a hijacking is enough to terrify anyone, but flight attendants must be prepared for any scenario — even the most unimaginable. Luckly, plane hijackings are extremely rare in the modern world. However, all crew members under extensive training in which they learn how to respond to a crisis situation, including strategies they may need to use to maximize everyone's safety. "We obviously have very detailed training procedures, but for security reasons we're not willing to discuss them publicly," American Airlines spokesperson Linda Johnson tells The Christian Science Monitor.

A flight attendant, meanwhile, told the publication that it was important to prioritize calm across the board "so there are no surprises," highlighting that they would always want someone threatening the safety of the plane to know if the plane's crew were about to do something or announce something.

Understandably, it can be difficult to remain calm under that kind of pressure while simultaneously reassuring passengers. But historically, tales of heroism have emerged from doomed flights — situations in which passengers looked to flight attendants for guidance and calm, and in which these brave professionals exuded control even in the scariest moments.