PASSENGERS have been urged to make use of a little-known safety feature that will also prevent them from annoying other people.
Plane cabins seem to bring out the worst in humans, with the tight space making it much easier to irritate one another.
AlamyThe handrail runs along the bottom of the overhead compartments[/caption]
One way in which passengers really annoy people is by pulling on their headrests as they make their way down the aisle.
This can be really unpleasant, especially if you’re comfortably snoozing in your seat, only for some thoughtless person to wake you up with a yank on the back of your chair.
It may seem necessary to use the seats to balance yourself as you walk from one end of the plane to the other, but there is a special safety device to prevent the need to do this.
A small rail along the bottom of the overhead bins is in place to give passengers something to hold onto while wandering through the aisle, keeping you steady and letting your fellow passengers snooze.
This feature is usually well utilised by the cabin crew, who try to set an example for the people on board their flight.
Art of Travel wrote about it and why people should use it on planes.
They said: “Quite often, other passengers might grab on to your seat when walking towards the bathroom at the end of the passenger cabin.
“Airplanes are designed with a handrail at the bottom portion of the overhead compartment.
“You can witness airline staff placing their hands near the ceiling. This is to grab hold of the handrail while walking during a flight.”
Grabbing passengers’ headrests is far from the only way in which people annoy one another during flights.
Sun Online Travel’s resident flight attendant revealed some of the most irritating things they have encountered in their plane cabins.
They said: “The middle seat passenger will regularly be irritated by other passengers – it’s the worst place to sit by a mile.
“The people either side will spread into their legroom, or try and monopolise the armrest.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, don’t hesitate to tell us about it and we’ll lay down the law.
“If we see someone doing something that makes other passengers’ lives more difficult, we’re more than happy to step in.”
However, there are instances when people might be annoying you, or making your flight less comfortable, where flight attendants can do nothing about it.
“If someone’s reclining their seat and you don’t want them to, there’s very little we can do about it,” the flight attendant continued.
“Everyone’s seat is able to recline and everyone has the right to put their seat if they want to, unless it’s meal times, takeoff or landing. Then they have to be upright.”
Meanwhile, this is the magic phrase you should say to stop people reclining their seats.
And this person explained how they win reclining seat wars against other passengers.
AlamyFlight attendants always use the handrail, setting an example for passengers[/caption]