The Craziest Things People Ask Flight Attendants

Flight attendants deserve praise for keeping their poise around sometimes demanding passengers all day. Flight attendant instructor and co-owner of TheVacationGals.com, Beth Blair says flight attendants get used to the “normal questions” from passengers like the following:

• What if someone opens the door in flight? (The plane is pressurized, it can’t open inflight.)
• We’re delayed – does that mean free drinks? (Unlikely.)
• Is that an empty seat in first class, can I move up? (Nice try, buddy.)
• What state are we flying over right now? (Your guess is as good as mine.)
• Is this your normal route that you fly? (We don’t have “normal” routes, they change every day.)

And then there are the more ridiculous questions from passengers like the ones we collected below. Enjoy!

The Craziest Things People Ask Flight Attendants
One time, a woman holding a toddler asked where the play area was.  I thought she was joking.

I’ve had a few passengers ask if I had any dental floss they could use.  Where else but a plane does it seem perfectly normal to ask a complete stranger for something out of their toiletry bag?  The answer is: No, you can’t use my dental floss (or my toothbrush).  Unless you’re REALLY nice and I’ve had a chance to get to know you first.

I had a passenger get angry at me for not letting her use my charger.  I wondered if she’d be cool with a stranger using her charger – if she had one.

One time a passenger asked me to tell the man in front of him to put his seat back up.  Never mind his own seat was back.

—Heather Poole, flight attendant and author of Cruising Attitude:  Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet

“Will you please tell my husband that planes can stop inflight and hover like helicopters?”

“Can you ask the captain to limit his announcements? I need to sleep, work, etc.”

At 30,000 feet, a lady asks: “What kind of bird just flew past us?” (She wasn’t calling a plane a bird, she really thought an animal flew by us at 30,000 feet.)
–Beth Blair, Flight Attendant Instructor & Co-Owner, TheVacationGals.com 

I have been a flight attendant for 15 years and my craziest question was from a lady straight faced: “Are those clouds?” My response, “Yes.” Her reaction was to gasp, “Are we going to hit them and cause rain?”
–Shea

Upon landing, as we’re still barreling down the runway, a lady stands up at her seat and yells, “Miss, does this bus go to Tampa?” Not only were we NOT on a bus, we had just left Florida and landed in Illinois.

During boarding, a man approaches me in first class and asks me to put his bag overhead because it’s too big and heavy for him to do it. I politely told him that I’d check it because if he (at 6’3″ 240 ish pounds) couldn’t lift it then I (at 5’5″ and at least 100 pounds lighter) couldn’t lift it either. Needless to say, he wanted to speak to the captain because I wasn’t doing “my job.” The nerve of some people!
–Mia Herman – Flight Attendant & Travel Blogger, Travel with Mia

Passenger: (asks after safety video plays) “Are there parachutes on this plane?”
Me: No sir. (said with a straight face)
Passenger: “Well, then what do you have if the plane goes down?”
–Melissa

“Do we really have to fill out these customs forms? What’s a passport number?”
–Zach

“So, when you have a passenger who has a peanut allergy, do they go through and wipe down the entire plane?”
–Thomas

“How do I open the window? It’s really hot in here.”
–Ashley

“Do you have any vegan, non-gluten snack options?”
–Jonathon

Passenger: “What drinks do you have?”
Me: Coke products
Passenger: “Can I have a Pepsi?”
–Aaron

“I can’t eat this cookie, it’s broken.”
–Mel

I had a passenger ask me how time zones worked in an airplane!
–Christy

I had a passenger stop me as I walked down the aisle and this was our conversation:
Passenger: “Ummm, excuse me, what’s that real loud humming noise?”
Me: “That’d be the engines. See that wing out there?? They’re attached to it. ”
Passenger: “Do they have to be so loud?? Can’t they be quieter?”
Me: “Believe me, we don’t want them quieter. In fact, if they become any quieter than this before we’re on the ground, you should be REALLY worried. Pretzels?”
–Jessica