Airport Etiquette 101

I know that for many, flying is a luxury. And I know that not everyone does it twice a week. So for those of you who haven’t traveled in a few months, or a few years, or ever, I just wanted to give you my own personal take on a crash course in Airport Etiquette.

First let’s start with the Do’s:

DO be polite to the people around you. Even when your flight is delayed. ESPECIALLY when your flight is delayed. I promise you the gate agent didn’t perform black magic to make the weather unfavorable or personally go outside and break the plane. They just have the misfortune of delivering the bad news. They will try to help you in anyway they can but remember there are things outside their control. (DUH right?)

DO listen to the flight attendants. They are there to keep you safe throughout the flight.

DO move through security efficiently. The front of the security line is not the place to reapply chapstick, or send a text, or dig through your purse for god knows what. No one likes security and there are signs posted EVERYWHERE reminding you what to do. Stay focused on the task at hand. And if you truly don’t know the rules, take 10 minutes to Google them and do a little reading before you leave home.

DO sit down quickly when you get on the plane and exit quickly when it is time to get off.

DO use headphones. No one wants to hear your ipad ring, ding, buzz, and beep for the next two hours of their life.

NOW FOR THE DON’Ts….

DO NOT, for the love of GOD, put you backpack, purse, briefcase, jacket, shopping bags, knitting, teddy bear, etc in the over head bins. On almost EVERY flight the last people on the plane are forced to check their bags because people refuse to use the space under the seat in front of them. SERIOUSLY?! The seats are so small anyways I promise you that you’ll be uncomfortable no matter what so be a decent human and take small things out of the overhead bins. FURTHER when you do put your suitcase in the over head bin please utilize your spatial awareness. Pack those bins efficiently people!

DON’T talk on your cell phone on the plane. Especially not loudly. Unless it is an absolutely dire emergency this is totally unnecessary. You had a whole lot of time to make that call before you got on the plane while you were waiting to board. The 10 minutes between when you sit down and when you have to put your phone in airplane mode is NOT the time. Trust me. No one sitting around you wants to hear you yap into your phone. This is why they invented text messages.

DON’T bring weird smelling food on the plane. It doesn’t matter how good it smells to you, I can guarantee it will make at least one person around you feel nauseous.

And I repeat, DON’T PUT SMALL THINGS IN THE OVERHEAD BINS.

I think that about sums it up. If I missed any major airport etiquette points please feel free to add on in the comments.