30 Do’s And Don’ts When Traveling By Plane, As Pointed Out By Folks In This Online Group

Keep your hair, feet, hands to your f*****g self.

Make sure to pet the plane right before you get on and tell it that it is a good plane. I do that every time and the plane never crashes.

1. Take a picture of your passport. Keep a copy on your phone and a hardcopy in your luggage.

2. Take a picture of your luggage. If it is lost, showing the picture to the lost luggage person helps a lot.

This one is pretty general, but from experience I guess it still needs saying: If a person has headphones on, earbuds in, *whatever,* don't try to make small talk. It's nothing personal, but some people have really long days at airports (Can't tell you how many red-eyes I've caught after waiting standby all day) and just *don't want to talk*.

Follow-up, for the flip side of this instance: If you're listening to music, be reasonable about the volume. The people around you shouldn't be able to hear your tunes.

If you have a lot of time to kill, find the area in baggage claim where pets are reunited with their owners. It's a blast watching those dogs get out of their carriers, and they all behave differently.

I’ve flown over a million miles so hopefully this helps. Make sure to check behind you before you throw your seat back when reclining, the overhead bins are shared spaces, if you have a backpack it’s best under the seat in front of you to save room in the overhead. The person in the window seat gets the wall and an arrest, the middle person gets two armrests, the aisle person gets a little extra leg room and an armrest. Treat your flight attendants with respect. Most of all flying is inherently miserable so don’t be a d**k.

Late to the discussion, but... If you're a smaller person and a large person sits next to you, do not say "yes" if they ask to put up the arm rest between you. I feel a little bad for them because they are crammed into a small seat, but the most miserable flight I've ever had was having 1/3 of my seat taken by another person.

Once the plane lands and the seatbelt sign is switched off, just...chill. Stay comfortably in your seat until people start exiting the plane. There is no point standing with your head hitting the overhead locker for five minutes - it's not going to get you off any sooner.

You can't bring a bottle of water through security, but you can bring an empty bottle through security and fill it up once you are inside the terminal.

Quit crowding the f**king gate when it's not your turn. Your seat will be there.. Unless you're on southwest then stand where you belong.

Edit: in order to answer the question-- to improve your gate experience, and the experience of those around you, wait for your turn instead of crowding the gate. Really bumps up your experience from s***ty to almost s***ty

Not a frequent flyer but in my experience frequent flyers say try not check bags if you can help it. If you have to, try to have medicines and a change of clothes in your carry on if they lose your checked bag

It doesn't matter how much time you think you have before your flight, find your gate first, and confirm it is the right one for your flight. Then, set an an alarm on your phone to give you plenty of time to get back in time to board.

Missing your flight because you don't realize how far away your gate is will be a mistake you only make once, but better to not make at all.

Early morning flights FTW — a lot less can go wrong with the first flight of the day, that plane is typically there overnight so you aren’t waiting on crew or equipment. Security lines are shorter. Traffic to the airport sucks less.

Reclining, especially in steerage, is a moral failing and should be avoided at all costs.

When they start the boarding process, you don't have to stand up and queue. It usually takes a long time and you have a seat assigned to you anyway, so relax a bit more before your flight.

For the love of god, if everyone could learn that people should get out of their seat by alternating rows, de-boarding would be so much easier.

If you get stuck in a middle seat, you can put a coat or blanket over your legs and tuck it under you to hold your legs relatively close together. This will allow you to fully relax your leg muscles without bumping into your neighbors.

If you are taking a bus to the airport, and there is one that gets there 3 hours before your flight, and one that gets there half an hour before your flight. Take the one that's there 3 hours before and just have time to relax, and you don't have to worry about your bus being late/stuck in traffic.

I learned the hard way my first time flying overseas: drink a s**t ton of water while you're waiting on your layover. Just bring an empty canteen or aluminum water bottle to fill up at fountains.

I know you don't want to get up to pee all the time, but on a long haul flight you'll get sick, bloated, headachey, and dried out if you don't hydrate. Drink up. You'll thank me later.

The most important tip: NEVER fly Spirit!

Screenshot your boarding pass and keep your ID in your front pocket makes security as simple as possible. EVERYTHING goes in your bag before you even get in line (wallet, keys, belt, shoes).

Edit: Turn the brightness on your phone ALL THE WAY UP when presenting your boarding pass in security lines or when you board the plane.

Lock the orientation on your phone, with the QR code open, and place your phone about a foot above the scanner. Push the phone down onto the glass scanner, and then raise it back up. This is the best way to scan that QR code... those scanners can be finicky.