Flight Attendant Pet Peeves Pt. 1

There are several unwritten rules among flight attendants. Most are common sense (ask if anyone you're working with wants leftover meals in first class when passengers don't eat them/ offer to make the captain and first officer coffee in the morning/ the most senior flight attendant gets her first choice of position, etc, etc, etc) but some some are more of a courtesy.

For example, the other week I was commuting from Chattanooga back to Charlotte. I was wearing my badge over civilian clothes when I boarded the tiny, aircondition-less Dash 8. Normally, when the one flight attendant who works the flight sees the badge, she offers to get me a preflight drink (another unwritten courtesy rule among us sisters in the sky). But this gal was a total bitch different. This gal knew the real rules.

She takes one look at my badge, and a long hard look at my flip flops.

"You know you have to wear closed-toe shoes when you non-rev [fly on a company flight as a passenger]," she says, bold as brass.

In the Tennessee/North Carolina summer, the last thing I'd ever put on my feet would be an air-constricting shoe. Except maybe my Toms, but still. I stared at her blankly for about a tenth of a second and said "are you kidding me? In this sauna of a plane?"

"It's the rules," she said, "and please be sure you have your kindle and cell phone turned off once I shut the door."

I can't believe this chick. Probably the biggest unwritten rule among fellow flight attendants is when a flight attendant is off-duty and non-revving on your flight, do not tell her what to do like you would a civilian.  It's disrespectful and creates bad blood in what should be a sacred truce.

"Your shoes have an ankle strap, and are less than 0.5 inches in height, which is also against regulation. How about we let bygones be bygones and live another day?"

She glared at me, opened her mouth, and went back to work. But my flight was ruined. I was so mad that she had the audacity to tell me what to do, as if I had no idea what the rules were. Let me tell you something; nobody follows every single rule every single time. Except where it pertains to safety inflight. And I wasn't seated in an exit row. Show me a flight attendant who doesn't have her own way of doing things now and then which aren't regulation and I'll show you a lifeless cardboard cut-out of a flight attendant from training.

Unless a non-rev opens one of the emergency exits while you're taxiing on the runway because she wanted a nice breeze, or pours hot water over the head of the passenger seated next to her, don't assume she's an idiot. She went through the same training hell to get where you are today, and heard all the same lessons, and has the same manual. Don't insult the intelligence of your fellow flight attendants. Let them sit back, and enjoy the flight.

What are some other pet peeves/unwritten rules for flight attendants?