"People Who Work For Airlines, What Are Secrets Passengers Don't Know?" (30 Answers)

If you checked your Dog there's about a 30% chance it's terrified before it even gets on the plane, who knows how scared it gets during the actual flight. Bag room agents will usually try to comfort a scared animal, but all we can really do is talk to it, so if you write your pet's name on their carrier it usually helps a lot.

I've never seen a cat who was scared in the bag room, cats don't give a f**k.

Not a secret, just common sense; the reason some bags miss their flight or get misrouted is because passengers don't remove old tags. It confuses handlers as well as the conveyor belt scanners. I see it happen all the time.

If you're European you have really, really good consumer protection against delays, cancellations etc.

If you're more than three hours late, your compensation starts at 250 euros, and goes up depending on the length of your flight and the length of the delay.

When I went to London a few years ago, my flight was overbooked, so I got bumped to a flight fours hours later. The compensation I got was more than the ticket I bought...round trip.

People fake needing a wheel chair to gain boarding priority. 10 wheelchairs get on and olny 1 person needs it getting off. We call um miracle flights.

If you check a skateboard by just slapping a sticker on it, it will get ridden or used as a dolly.

My partner worked for Delta for about 4 years as one of the guys who loads and unloads your luggage and waves wands. Nothing is safe in those bags. They pop open all the time and your s**t just gets haphazardly shoved back in. They get tossed around like volleyballs. TSA is a lie. A lot of decisions about boarding or switching flights, ect., are at employees discretion.

Sometimes your pilot can be on food stamps because they only make 19k/yr.

Baggage handlers see hundreds of bags a day. No bag is treated special, unless it is OBVIOUS. Even then, depending on the person, sometimes they're not (which is rare). Bags are not intentionally harmed. They are, however, intentionally thrown, slid, jostled, stacked under hundreds of pounds of other bags, and exposed to the elements because that is the nature of the job. You can safely assume that your bag is touched and handled by at least 7-8 people, per flight segment, if you are connecting, at least 10 different people, not including TSA.

Sometimes, the vehicle that fills the potable water for washing hands and making coffee is parked next to the vehicle that is used to dump the shitters and fill the blue juice for the lavs. They're not supposed to. Sometimes, they're parked at a distance from each other, which is policy, yet the guy who is filling the water is using gloves that he hasn't changed in over 2 years.

The most power you could
probably wield is twitter. The employee in front of you has so little power to actually remedy tough situations. Baggage handlers are usually short staffed. As well, customer service agents are usually limited in their options. Also, it would help us get a message to higher ups because our work is not being supported as it should be. Hell, I'd even recommend asking an employee about the problem and say something like, "if I were to take my complaint to twitter, how could I phrase it in a way that would help you too?"

You get more customer protections buying directly from the airline. All those third party travel sites are owned by the same company, and you lose a lot of the rights afforded to you in the airlines contract of carriage.

If you're nice to people, they'll be nice back to you.

That there's a huge list of things that can be missing from the aircraft while still being allowed to fly.

I am a gate agent for a large airline.

1 there's very little I know that I don't share with passengers during a delay. If the crew tells me the maintenance issue, I'll pass that on. I'm not hiding information from you.

2 I do fly for free, a lot. I know the major airports very well. So when you come up to my podium and argue with me that the 1/2 hour connection you booked yourself isn't going to be long enough I'm going to roll my eyes and explain that yes, yes it is. If you want time to leisurely enjoy an airport, book flights with longer connections.

3 The FAA/DOT are up the airlines asses about everything, from the handling of passengers with disabilities to how many delays we have. For this reason we take extra precautions to not have any violations, some of which I can be held personally responsible for

4 EVERYONE ON THE PLANE ARRIVES AT THE SAME TIME. SEATS ARE ASSIGNED. SO WHY ON GODS GREEN EARTH ARE YOU ALL CROWDING THE PODIUM TAKE A FREAKING STEP BACK. seriously. if you're worried about getting a space for your carry-on stop packing your carry on so full! If it doesn't fit due to bins being full I'll check it through for free

5 yes the ramp crew in the jet bridge are checking you out. they're usually nice guys/gals. you could do worse.

edit: formatting

The coffee is absolutely disgusting because the no one washes the container that goes out every morning. The station agents who get paid way too little don't give a s**t about cleaning it. I certainly didn't when I worked for AA.

Also, because we weren't given the proper supplies to clean it. We pretty much just rinsed it out and dumped coffee into it.

Be nice to the ticket agent and they will pretty much always let you get away with overweight bags. If you were funny, I'd even not charge you for bags.

Airlines doesn't charge large or overweight people extra because they make the plane heavier, or because they hate fat people or whatever.
They do it because you are a security risk.

OK, here goes!
1. Don't pack your bags so full that they're round. Not only because the zipper will pop, but also because sometimes they roll off the belt loader right onto the tarmac.
2. really slick hard sided bags tend to fly off of the "stack" in the "pit" when the plane lands, sending your bag flying 80mph into a wall of the pit. Wonder how your wheel got broken? Fabric bags are better, because friction.
3. speaking of which, we don't cover broken handles, zippers, or wheels.
4. we learn which bags suck and which bags don't. Dakine and Osprey are some of the best. Louis Vuitton bags break just like anything else. Look for bags with recessed wheels. Also look for bags with side handles that are easy for a gloved hand to grab, and your bag will get treated better than ones that don't.
5. Rolling duffle bags are annoying. They roll down the belt loader on their own, often either onto the tarmac or right into a ramper's crotch.
6. If you miss your flight, we don't have to rebook you, but we do as a courtesy. If you come back within 2 hours we'll put you on the next available flight. This is called the flat tire rule.
7. Cargo is more important than you. We will take passengers off before cargo. Most of our cargo is important medical stuff.
8. Many of us work part time, just for the flight benefits, and are smart, successful people with businesses, degrees, etc who just want to travel for free. So don't treat us like a moron (even though we're getting paid barely more than minimum wage).
9. we didn't lose your bag. we are just taking your bag claim for you.
10. If you wait to check in, you're more likely to get an upgraded seat when you check in last minute, because likely only upgraded seats that nobody wants to pay for are available. You also run the risk of not getting a seat at all though if it's an oversold flight.
11. We really can't tell you if your 97 year old grandmother is on the flight or not. We can't disclose anything about the manifest.
12. We can't control the weather. We wish we could. We know you PAID FOR YOUR TICKET and you HAVE TO BE ON THIS FLIGHT, but the category 5 hurricane says otherwise.
13. Your pilot might be getting paid less than an elementary school bus driver. For real.
14. Only drink coffee on aircraft that have the coffee maker on board. Otherwise it's questionable.

Employees and their families get "ID tickets" (ID is for "industry discount"), which means they only pay taxes and fees and nothing for the actual ticket.

The airlines basically lets them fly for free. And not just with their own airline, but with every airline in any alliance. The tickets are stand-by tickets, so you're not guaranteed to get on board, but you get a seat more often than not. The family members can travel on these tickets without the employee.

My dad worked for an airline in Star Alliance, so I used to get free tickets with airlines in One World and SkyTeam as well as Star Alliance. I usually traveled in business class, all around the world. A return trip between Europe and Japan was something like 200 USD in business class, and maybe 50 USD in economy.

I don't get any perks anymore, as it was only valid until I turned 25.

This one is pretty much on its way out as a 'secret' nowadays, but: There really is no good reason passengers need to switch off mobile devices during takeoff and landing.
The frequencies used combined with the lack of signal power in the antennae of consumer grade mobile devices means there is 0% chance of them ever interfering with the plane's sensors and instruments in any way whatsoever.
This has been tested ad nauseam since the beginning of aviation/mobile communication technology, and it has NEVER shown to be a problem.

I work Revenue Management for an airline. On average, the cheapest time to BUY a ticket is Tuesday afternoon. The cheapest time to FLY is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday. This applies to US flights in my experience.

You know how all the other armrests can be raised except for the one next to the aisle?

Turns out that one can be raised as well via a small button in a divot on the underside of the armrest. Useful if you want to spread out a bit more, though some flight attendants may tell you to put it back in place.

Flight attendants have a list of who is who and what seat they are in. As well as what level of frequent flyer they happen to be. Or if they are employees or family and friends tickets. This is why you will see them being rude to someone or bending over backwards for jerks.

Flights are routinely overbooked because there's a estimate per route of what percentage of people tend to miss the flight. So if you don't have a seat assignment, you might not get on. Which is why they ask for volunteers. If you are a frequent flyer and know the busy times and flights you could volunteer all day from every flight going to a hub and make $1,000 in credit.

Invest in quality luggage. You are the only one that handles your bag with care. Your bag is going to take a beating in the system.

Edit: Wow this got a lot of attention. Yes I know Southwest FAs don't have a list of who is sitting where. Obviously. I have to say to any redditors out there, if you get a chance to work for an airline, take it! It was a great experience in my early 20s. Even while going to college on my days off, I was also able to fly around the world for free. I can't recommend it enough. Sure there are plenty of bad experiences like getting yelled at all day long by irrational and irate passengers whose flight you just cancelled after you had them wait for hours. Or dumping the lav on a windy day. Or knowing you're walking into a very bad day of work just because the weather is bad in your city or wherever your flights are coming from. They pay isn't great but if you enjoy traveling, work for an airline!

On larger aircraft, there are secret compartments where your cabin crew and flight crew are able to get much needed rest. [This is the flight crew rest on a Boeing 777 and it's located above the ceiling of the first class cabin.](http://i.imgur.com/vDBMa0s.jpg) There are two beds behind the seats as well as [personal entertainment screens for each seat.](http://imgur.com/LcRRLDJ) [This the the cabin crew rest of a Boeing 787 located above the economy class.](http://imgur.com/pG7n4eu) Older Boeing aircraft have crew rest areas within the passenger cabin and I've been told some Airbuses have crew rests under the floor.

Αerospace fastener production here. Nobody еver asks what is actually holding thе plane together. Don't worry аbout it.

I'm an outstation mechanic for multiple airlines. I cover all flights at a major US city airport--by myself. Where to start? If your flight has a maintenance delay and there is no on station mechanics for that carrier I get called. If it's a quick fix, I fix it. If not we check to see if it can be deferred to get fixed later. Either way, most of your delay is spent waiting on me to do all the paperwork to clear the aircraft or for me to finish the other seven calls I'm out on to get to your plane. There is also constant pressure on both me and the pilots to clear/fly aircraft that have some fairly significant problems. I have airlines try to get me to sell some pretty sketchy stuff to the pilots to get them to fly and avoid a costly delay. I have no problems telling a pilot to call his controllers/dispatchers and tell them to f**k off if I'm not comfortable with whatever concoction of deferral action I was asked to perform. Don't get me wrong, the airlines would never willingly fly an unsafe aircraft. But if there is say an engine vibration that is just right at a c**t hair under the limit they will fly it. If the oil is super low but servicing it will cause a delay--service it at the next stop. If the pilot encounters something at altitude that I can't duplicate on the ground--sign it off and see if it happens again. Those are the ones I usually push back on depending what it is. Also, if you have to get out of your seat so a mechanic can fix something don't b***h about it. I get harassed all the time by passengers even though my sole purpose is to get them in the air. Besides, I tell gate agents all the time not to load pax until I get out there but they never listen so go b***h at them. This is turning into a soapbox so I will stop.