Flight Attendants Can't Stand This Frustrating Passenger Behavior During Boarding

Although you might not always pay attention to them, or you see them only as the people who bring your in-flight drinks and ask you to pay attention during the security demonstration you've seen hundreds of times before, flight attendants are a hugely important part of any plane journey. Flight attendants are responsible for passengers' comfort, of course, but are also responsible for their safety and security. They are intensively trained, and work incredibly hard, to ensure that everything goes well throughout the flight, whether it's paying attention to elderly passengers and children, or dealing with an accident or an emergency.

Flight attendants pay close attention to passenger behavior and have a huge influence on your flying experience, so it is always a good idea to behave courteously and respectfully toward them throughout the flight. It is also a sensible plan to avoid certain behaviors that flight attendants hate. One of the biggest no-nos for flight attendants is when passengers are way too desperate to get on the plane, and treat the boarding process like a race to be won, rather than staying calm and paying attention to the instructions from cabin crew.

Rushing to get to the front of the line at the boarding gate might seem like a good idea at first. But flight attendants say that at best it means you'll just be waiting around in a line for longer, and at worst it can be detrimental to the boarding process. Speaking to Yahoo Travel, Sophie Vancaeneghem, a former flight attendant for Air Belgium and Qatar Airways, said, "I've seen passengers push others to be first in line, only to spend twenty minutes standing in the aisle waiting for everyone else."

Boarding at the gates can be a slow, frustrating process, but there are rules for a reason. Passengers who need assistance and passengers with young kids need to be boarded first, so they can get to their seats easily and smoothly. Then there are passengers who've paid for priority boarding, and there's a carefully planned order in which to get the rest of the plane filled, depending on where you are sitting. Passengers who race to get to the front of the line, only to find out that they have to wait until others are boarded, can clog up or even delay the boarding process, and make themselves frustrated and tired.

Getting to the front of the line won't get you to your destination faster, as you'll still have to wait until everyone boards before the plane takes off. With assigned seating, it won't get you a better seat, and flight attendants make sure that there is always room for everyone's carry-on luggage, so there are really no advantages to beating the rest of the passengers to get on to the plane.

Ultimately, you'll have a much better experience on an airplane if you behave considerately. "My best flights weren't necessarily the flights that ran on schedule," Vancaeneghem says. "They were the flights where people remembered how to be human." Staying calm and listening to what the cabin crew have to say is guaranteed to make your journey run far more smoothly than if you try to cut corners and beat the crowd.