Flight attendants reveal the strangest things people do on planes
The flight crew at Qantas are known for being a friendly bunch, but oh boy, do they have stories to share about the travellers they have encountered.
These stories are shared by flight attendants under an alias name to conceal their identities and to keep their jobs.
First off, the attendants revealed one specific category of flight passengers, “we call them the ‘Gimme, Gimme, Gimme’ travellers,” shared a flight attendant using the alias ‘Martin’.
“These are the passengers who if it’s not bolted down, will try to take it,” he elaborates.
The second flight attendant by the alias of ‘Melissa’ explained, “With some passengers, if they see something is available, they want it – no matter what it is. Some are out for everything they can get.”
On a rest between two long trips, Martin and Melissa compared stories of passengers which fell into the “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” category and came up with some hilarious and shocking stories.
The first story Melissa shared is one of humour. A lady on a flight quietly asked Melissa for a sanitary pad, and she discreetly passed the item to the passenger. Meanwhile, the man sitting next to the woman observed the exchange and asked for a sanitary pad too.
“I said quietly to him, ‘Sir, it’s a sanitary [pad], you don’t need one of those,’” apparently the man was not impressed by this response and demanded “whatever it is, I also want one right now”.
So, Melissa went and fetched another sanitary pad before handing it to the man, who without hesitation, unwrapped it, put his seat in recline and placed the pad over his eyes as an eye mask.
Martin added, “That happens all the time, we do our best not to laugh as we walk through the cabin seeing men with sanitary [pads] across their eyes. They actually think that’s what they are for!”
The next story, shared by Martin, was an experience before landing in Sydney, Martin had a man come into the galley and ask for a glass of water.
“We had a tray of refreshments out, so I said to him, ‘Sir, please help yourself to whatever you can find in here,’ then I turned my back to stack up a trolley.”
The passenger however, took this invite very seriously and began removing the galley curtains from to hooks.
“I rushed over and asked him to stop, as this was part of the actual plane,” Martin explains. “The man then said to me, ‘But you said I could have whatever is in here, and I can use these on our window at home.’”
The absurdity of passengers on flights continues. Melissa has observed some weird things in her time as a flight attendant and usually these observations occur towards the end of the flight, as passengers and flight crew are preparing for landing.
Passengers usually shove bits and pieces into their carry-on bags in a frenzy although one woman caught Melissa’s eye.
The woman was struggling to shove the plane cushion of her seat into her bag.
“I said, ‘Madam, you can’t have that – it’s part of the plane and you’ll need to sit on it for landing,” Melissa said whilst attempting to get the cushion out of the bag.
The woman responded, “You have so many of these on the plane, surely you won’t miss just one. I want it for my sofa.”
That’s not all passengers have tried to sneak into their bags. According to Martin toilet rolls are a prized possession on flights and are usually the first things to disappear.
“There are flights when before we’ve even taken off, passengers raid the toilets for every roll of toilet paper they can find, and stuff the lot into their bags,” Martin reveals.
“So, we sometimes have to return to the toilets throughout the flight to replace the paper, roll by roll. I remember one occasion where everything ran out, as it had all disappeared into carry-on luggage.”
Additionally, international travellers are fascinated by mini soft drink cans.
“We have many international passengers who are obsessed with little cans of soft drinks,” Melissa says. “They like to stockpile them in their bags, asking for can after can, but always insist we leave them unopened. We see them later stuffing the cans into their bags.”
Martin shares his belief into this extreme interest: “There are passengers who plan to party later in their hotel rooms and want to save a few dollars on buying mixers.”
As they continue, Martin and Melissa shared that it is easy to spot a regular Jetstar flyer “as they will fight over the blanket at the end of a flight,” Melissa revealed.
The difference being, when a blanket is purchased on Jetstar, the customer can keep it and take it home with them after the flight. Although Qantas doesn’t have the same protocol.
“When we ask these passengers to leave the blanket behind, they get annoyed and respond, ‘But I can do this on Jetstar – why is Qantas so mean?’” Melissa says.
“Why anyone would want to use an airline blanket again is beyond me!”
The final story to be shared involved the luxury of business class. When flying business class with Qantas an amenity kit packed with designer creams is a prized perk that passengers love.
Although one woman loved it a bit too much as she gathered every single kit before other people had attended their seats.
“She had her arms full as we explained there were now none for the other passengers – something that didn’t seem to faze her,” Martin recalled.
“We attempted to get back as many kits as we could, but almost had a tug of war erupt as she was not giving up without a fight.”
Images: Getty