The Ten Commandments of Flying

If you’re the type who travels much via planes (this does not include those of you who works as an Air Crew/Stewardess/Stewards), I’m sure you’d have come across sitting beside or in front of passengers that has been an arse. Maybe, even you yourself without knowing it has done it to others.

As travels become cheaper, everyone starts to fly even more and I’ve heard a lot of stories how one passenger would complain about the other passenger and their lack of respect for other people’s space. Noise pollutions and so on and so forth.

John Rosenthal wrote this on Bing.com and I thought it’ll be nice to share it with the readers of my blog while I’m not around. You know how it is, not able to update as much as I like but still want to keep putting up contents for whoever that comes across this blog by chance or have a weird sense of finding this blog entertaining.

I’m sure you’d know that much of the nuisance of flying is caused not by the airlines or even the safety officers or flight crews, but by our fellow travelers. Obeying some of the following golden rules might make flying more of a pleasure.

Call them the 10 commandments of flying: the passengers bill of responsibilities.

1. De-compartmentalize

That’s an X-ray machine at the security checkpoint, not a cashier totaling up the value of your belongings. There’s no reason to put your coins and keys in one plastic bin, your laptop in another and your coat in a third. (And, now that the Immigration/Custom has issued new rules, please don’t put your shoes in a bin at all.) All this does is clog up the line, as passengers behind you have to wait for you to clear all of your bins from the far end of the belt. And the Immigration/Custom agent who wheels the bins back to their starting place has to halt the procession through the metal detector three times as often.

Instead, put your metal objects inside your carry-on bag, and use a single bin unless you have a laptop, which requires its own. That way, the X-ray machine can scan all of your belongings at once, and we’ll all get through the screening process a whole lot faster.

2. Hurry up and wait

I never understand the great rush for everyone to get on board the airplane. You’re going to be sitting in that seat for several hours; do you really need an extra 12 minutes? Sit on the plane, sit in the lounge: What’s the difference?

Yet everyone pushes to be among the first onboard, as though there’s some prize to be awarded at the end of the jetway. Not so: Your reward is the same line of passengers, 25 feet closer to the aircraft, still standing and waiting for that one person in row 9 who’s holding up the entire queue by blocking the aisle.

Wait until your group is called. It makes the entire boarding process faster and less stressful for everyone.

3. Go solo

All of the major airlines limit carry-on baggage to one piece of hand luggage and one personal item, which they usually define as a purse, briefcase or laptop. That does not mean you get to carry all of the above plus a shopping bag, a sweater, your buckwheat-filled neck pillow and a water bottle that doesn’t fit in any of the aforementioned cases. One means one. And don’t get cute by stuffing your valise into the overhead bin in row 7 before proceeding to your seat in row 26. Check it or leave it at home.

4. A carry-on is a carry-on only if you can carry it on

The corollary to the last rule is that you should actually be able to carry your luggage down the aisle without smashing it into other passengers’ heads, and unless you’re elderly or disabled, you should be able to lift it into the overhead bin with ease. If it’s too big or too heavy to fit in the overhead bin without forcing it, your bag is not a carry-on.

This problem is only going to get worse as more airlines charge a fee to check your suitcases. To that I say: Consider yourself lucky. Even with these fees, airfares are still significantly lower than they were just a year ago. Charging for checked baggage merely redistributes the appropriate costs to those who use the most space on the plane.

5. De-leverage

This is my single biggest pet peeve. When you’re getting up out of your seat, please don’t pull back on the seat in front of you for leverage. In case you haven’t noticed, that seat isn’t strong enough to hold your weight without bending. If there’s a person in that seat, you’re giving her an unexpected wild ride. To get out of your seat, use the armrests on your own seat to push yourself up.

6. Look back

The debate over whether it’s polite to recline your seat rages on, with both sides advancing valid arguments. One thing everyone can agree on, however, is that if you’re going to recline, at least take a glance backward so the person behind you doesn’t end up with a laptop to the gut or coffee spilled all over his pants.

7. Not so loud

What’s that incessant noise bleeding out of your headphones? Your fellow passengers may not care what it’s doing to your hearing, but they do care when the volume is so loud that they can sing along across the aisle. The whole purpose of headphones is to keep your music, your podcasts or your Rosetta Stone Italian lessons from bothering other people. Remember that.

8. Surf politely

Internet access on airplanes is no longer a fantasy. It’s already available on select flights; some airlines have pledged to offer Wi-Fi on all their flights by midsummer. How widely carriers extend this service will partly depend on whether passengers abuse the privilege.

We’ll all dread flying a whole lot less if we’re able to check the score of the game, send and receive e-mail or update our status on our favorite social networking sites (“Ohmigod, can you believe it? I’m Twittering FROM THE PLANE!”). But the minute people start using mile-high Wi-Fi to stare at porn or watch videos with the sound on, the airlines are sure to pull the plug. And forget about using the Web to make phone calls; nothing will kill Internet access on planes faster than a bunch of people yammering on their phones for the entire flight.

9. Clean up after yourself

Nobody wants your empty coffee cup in their seatback pocket, or an in-flight magazine with your gum sticking its pages together. Flight attendants constantly come through the cabin collecting trash. Pitch in. Help them, passengers often take those men and women for granted thinking that you paid for the flight, they deserves to serve you like you’re the king. FYI, Flight attendants duties are there to help make your journey a bit more better and comfortable and not paid to be your servant in the plane.

10. On your mark, get set … wait your turn

Passengers used to applaud when pilots made a safe landing. These days, they deliver a standing ovation, leaping out of their seats in a rush to be the first ones off the plane.

We’re all in a hurry; we all have tight connections. But that doesn’t give anyone license to hurdle past old ladies or whack people’s knees with their rolling suitcase. The etiquette is simple: Exit by rows. The first row of passengers gets off first, followed by the second row and so on.

Odds are you’re going to have to wait for your luggage at baggage claim, anyway. If you’re in that much of a hurry, there’s a way to make sure you’re in the first three rows of the plane: Pay for a business-class seat.

Some parts of the article has been re-edited and a more localized term are used as the original article is more American centric. I’ve also added some additional stuff into each of the 10 commandments but ain’t going to point them out.

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