Flight Attendants Share 10 Tips for Nervous Flyers

0:36SPEAKER_02:Today's episode, we are gonna talk about some of our favorite tips for anxious passengers because it's totally normal to be afraid of flying. We get it. I know you're a 45-year-old man ordering an apple juice when you ask for a straw. Hold it with your whole chest. Don't be like, oh, this aircraft I'm getting on. Let's see what the crash history looks like. I don't recommend doing things like that.

0:59SPEAKER_00:Well, we're living life on the fly. Telling stories of our time in the sky. I'm bored with leaving the game. It's time for two guys on a plane.

1:14SPEAKER_02:Being afraid of flying is totally normal. And as flight attendants, we see nervous flyers every single day. People always ask us, are you afraid of flying? Are you scared of turbulence? Which would be kind of hard to do with this job. While we can't promise you'll suddenly love flying, there are a few things that we can recommend that you do as an anxious passenger before your next flight to make things a little bit easier. Um to start off, we have a couple of facts from Iata, Iada, why did I fuck that up?

1:44SPEAKER_02:Iata. Iata iata.

1:46SPEAKER_01:You oughta know.

1:50SPEAKER_02:To start off, we have a couple of facts from IATA, which is the International Air Transport Association. And this one fact I think will help you feel a little bit better. The all accident rate of 1.32 per million flights, that means one accident for every 759,646 flights, was better than the 1.42 recorded in 2024 and slightly above the 2021 to 2025 five-year average of 1.27. So while we are seeing an uptick of incidents that are making their way into the news, it doesn't mean that aviation is definitely on a, you know, is is less safe than it was before or anything like that.

2:31SPEAKER_02:And another fact that is uh might ease your comfort a little bit is that the most common accidents that happened in the 2025 year were tail strikes, landing gear events, runway excursions, and ground damage. So most times fearful flyers are afraid of things like, okay, the plane's gonna fall out of the sky. And those are not common issues at all. So rest easy. You can take a nap on your flight, and you don't have to stress out. But before we get into our tips for fearful flyers, Andrew, how has flying been for you lately?

3:05SPEAKER_02:Uh, you know, summer has been summering.

3:09SPEAKER_01:Don't I know it? Uh I try not to call out seasons or what's going on on this uh on the podcast very often, but summer is in full swing right now, and we are dealing with all of the fun summer things. The um I think it's crazy because I think people think winter would be worse because of the snow, but the rain and summer, like the storms in the summertime, make things exponentially worse than like winter flying. Literally so bad. Winter flying just takes longer because you have to like de-icing things, but it's way more predictable.

3:44SPEAKER_01:Way more predictable. It is snowing. Right. You don't know it's raining, you don't know when it's gonna rain or how it's gonna rain, or the rainstorm that pops up at two o'clock in the afternoon at the moment that you're supposed to land that holds you up there for an extra hour and a half, and then you get on the ground and the ramp's closed, and they're not allowed to be out on the ramp because of lightning for like 30 minutes after the last lightning strike.

4:06SPEAKER_01:So you end up sitting there for like an hour and a half because lightning just keeps popping up, and legal to start, legal to finish means you sit there until you can pull to a gate. You can't be like, oh no, I'm out of duty time. No, no, you have to sit there until all of these safety functions are in place for you to get to a gate. And next thing you know, you are always pushing duty limits. And I really I'm just tired of pushing duty limits and having men rest.

4:30SPEAKER_02:I am with you, and I it's so true. Like the snowstorms don't pop out of nowhere last minute, like you you know they're coming.

4:36SPEAKER_01:Also, you know when it's a certain temperature, snow or not, you're going to the deep ice pad. It's gonna happen. We're doing it.

4:44SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm with you on that. Summer has been summering, and I'm kind of over it. Well, I I know yours has too. So tell me about yours. Flying's been okay lately. I've been lucky with some good crew members. Um, and uh, you know, if I have a good crew, I can deal with pretty much any passenger behavior. Yeah, like the passengers, I I have patience for them. The crew members, I don't. I'm like, you what are you doing?

5:10SPEAKER_01:We so I've been lucky signed up to do the same job.

5:13SPEAKER_02:Why aren't you doing right? Right. What do you mean you don't do trash? Uh-huh. Um, but one passenger behavior that I've noticed lately that is kind of getting on my nerves is like when they just check out immediately after ordering a drink from you. Like, I'll have a Diet Coke. Okay, I turn back to the cart, I get the Diet Coke, I turn right back, they're gone. They're asleep, they're looking out the window, and it's like, where did you go in that like 10 and a half seconds that like you just ordered this?

5:45SPEAKER_02:And then suddenly they're like, Oh, oh, oh, I'm so like I'm so surprised. The drink that I ordered five seconds ago is now here. Like it blows my mind.

5:55SPEAKER_01:I have a two-row before and two row after me rule for like paying attention when the service card is in the aisle. Like, yes, if I'm not awake when the service card's there, like two rows before me, I don't even order. Right. It's a no for me. No, thank you. Um, because I like need two rows to get prepared for the order, and then I like stay alert, headphones off, yes, everything down for two rows after in case they forgot something or need to come back and fix something.

6:24SPEAKER_01:I don't know. Anyways, I have like a two-row rule. That is just the correct airplane etiquette, in my opinion.

6:29SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like if the cart is in my peripheral, uh-huh, I have my headphones out and I am ready for the flight attendant. Uh-huh. And I am gonna be a good little passenger. But I mean, these people, it's like it's then they're annoyed that you're giving them the drink they ordered, and I'm like, but you chose this, like, and then you know the tray table's not out and they're fumbling, and I'm like, guys, get it together.

6:51SPEAKER_01:Um you know what behavior really annoys me recently that I've seen it uptick in? It's the whispering of the order. Uh uh. Are they doing this to you? They just mouth it. Uh-huh. And you're like, excuse me. And I'm like, excuse me. I still can't hear you. Yeah. Right. Uh, it's like they're embarrassed of what they want to order. And I'm like, with your full chest. I'm I'm way up here, it's loud up here. With your whole chest, please.

7:14SPEAKER_02:I know as you want. I know you're a 45-year-old man ordering an apple juice and you ask for a straw. Hold on.

7:21SPEAKER_01:Say it with your whole chest. I can't lean in any closer. Like, I, in particular for the window seat, I'm leaning over two other people to try to get close enough to you to hear what you're saying. And then as soon as I turn around, you've spaced out anyway. I have to like clap and wave my hands to get your attention to get you to take the thing from me.

7:42SPEAKER_02:I was I was doing the drinks the other day, and like I was trying to get the windows' attention because I know they're awake and I know they're not paying attention. And so I want to get their attention because I know if I move three rows away, they're gonna be waving and saying, You skipped me. So I'm trying to get their attention and accidentally threw a cookie at them. I was like waving the cookie, like trying to get their attention all of a sudden, bam.

8:03SPEAKER_01:I it worked. Don't recommend this, but I saw a flight attendant the other day. You know, those like school uh like telescoping pointer things that they had. Oh, yeah. It had a finger on the end of it, and she was like, with the pointer to get people's attention. I was like, it's bold and crazy, and I loved it, but also I feel like I would get fired for that 100%. It was so funny though. She was just tapping people with the pointer man.

8:30SPEAKER_02:Flenitants are crafty, but sometimes we go too far.

8:36SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, use it for the bathroom door, like use the tapper for the bathroom door to show people where the bathroom is. Like during service to get people's attention, you took it to choice. You took it, you took it to a place step too far.

8:49SPEAKER_02:Oh my god, that's funny. Um, but yeah, lately I've just I've had so many passengers asking me, like as they come on the plane, they're like, is it gonna be bumpy? Is it gonna be smooth? Is it gonna be turbulent today? And I'm like, it's summer flying, there's storms everywhere, it's gonna be bumpy at some point. I have no doubt about that. And I'm I'm not one of those flight attendants who lies the passengers. Oh no. I just can't bring myself to do it.

9:14SPEAKER_02:Um, so I'm always like, yeah, it's gonna be a little bumpy, and here's where it's gonna be bumpy. So we figured today's episode, we are gonna talk about some of our favorite tips for anxious passengers because it's totally normal to be afraid of flying. We get it.

9:29SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um, totally. And my biggest thing for this, um personally, um, is just to tell us. Just talk to us. If you know that you're a nervous flyer, just tell us about it. One will probably be a little bit more compassionate with you. Two, we'll probably try to get information that you need to help ease your fear. Um, and I was having lunch the other day and we had turbulence, and this girl screamed. She was the only person in there, screamed, and then literally started bawling.

10:08SPEAKER_01:Oh no. I thought she found out somebody had been murdered. Like the way, like the reaction, like I thought she was like learning someone had just died. Um, like, and I was like, How? How are you getting this information up here? But anyways, not necessary to the story. But her reaction to the turbulence was like finding out her mother had died, like screamed out loud, just started crying. But I had no knowledge that she was a nervous flyer. So then I'm trying to figure out what's actually going on.

11:32SPEAKER_01:Um, and you know, she's embarrassed enough for her reaction, but now you've got me trying to figure out what's going on, which is more embarrassing. When if you had talked to me during the flight, I would have A, been like that came out of nowhere, and two, I would have been like ignored it. That's just how you react to all of this. It would have made a big deal about it. Right.

11:53SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I telling the crew, I mean, most of us I think are willing to like look out for whoever the nervous flyer is, or multiple of them. Like we don't want problems on here. Right. If I do what I ran to to keep that from happening, if I can avoid you having a freak out on my plane, I'm gonna do it. Right. Um, yeah, that's the the that's the number one tip, I would say. Um, next up I is you know, remembering that turbulence is uncomfortable, but it's not necessarily dangerous.

12:25SPEAKER_02:And I think that that's where there's such a common misconception. Like, you know, you see a movie and there's turbulence and then the plane falls out of the sky. Like, that's not what turbulence is, you know, it's like it's like driving down a bumpy road. It you might hit a couple bumps where you could get hurt if you're up and about out of your seat with your seatbelt off. But you know, just because we're hitting turbulence doesn't mean that it's unsafe.

12:51SPEAKER_02:The planes are designed to withstand lots of turbulence and lots of other factors. So, you know, just because the plane's going through a rough patch doesn't mean that anything bad is happening or anything dangerous is happening.

13:03SPEAKER_01:I am not making fun of him, but I'm going to use my little brother as an example because he is terrified of turbulence. Like tracks weather, tracks airplanes, tracks pilot behavior to try to like figure out really. Yeah, he calls every time he has a bad flight with turbulence. Like he's really afraid of it. Wow. And he was like, Aren't you scared of it? And I was like, No, he was like, What I mean, I think the thing to remember with turbulence are there's different types, there's different levels, so not all of it's dangerous.

13:33SPEAKER_01:Um, there are times and places where it it could be. Um but for the most part, I think what you should remember um is that it's like a boat on water, like it just it just moves with the air, right? Um, and that's really all turbulence is is like moving over that air. I think people for some reason can't equate it the same way. Yeah, you sit on a boat and you're just fine. Like we go on cruises and we don't scream every time the boat jostles around a little bit.

14:02SPEAKER_01:Some of them do. I haven't been a moment where that happens, but um, yeah, I think it's just it's really important to remember that you're you're still moving it it's like moving a boat over water. It's moving a big piece of machinery through the air, and you're gonna get ripples from that. I think the other thing to remember that's really important um is that the crew is kind of aware of what's going on. Like we don't necessarily know the full extent of what's happening because the weather changes a lot and wind moves differently and clouds dissipate as people are flying through them.

14:37SPEAKER_01:But we are getting reports. So we're trying to tell you when it's gonna happen. And I feel like this is where people just check out because right, we got a report from a pilot that we needed to sit down. We made an announcement that we're expecting turbulence and we now need to take our seats, and then you can't figure out where we went or why we're going over bumps. It's it's really confusing to me how checked out people get in this process when we've given you the necessary information.

15:05SPEAKER_01:Right.

15:06SPEAKER_02:And sometimes that knowledge is half the battle. Like when you're aware of it, you're a lot calmer because you can mentally prepare for what's happening. You know that the the crew that's working is aware of what's happening. You know, there's a lot less to be nervous about in those situations.

15:21SPEAKER_01:And this is why I always tell people to like tell the crew that you're a nervous flyer or that like turbulence is the problem for you. Yeah. Because when I get that phone call, I'm gonna walk back to you and say, We just talked to the captain, we're expecting like five to fifteen minutes worth of rough air. It probably won't be anything, but like buckle up and we're gonna go sit down now. Yeah. At least you know you have five minutes five to fifteen minutes to stress out versus the whole flight.

15:49SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. Uh okay, next. Uh, watch the flight attendants.

15:55SPEAKER_02:I think that's similar to telling the flight attendants is watching us because if we're afraid, you should probably be afraid. But the chances of us being afraid are are already kind of slim to none. Yeah. Like uh, I remember I was I was, I don't know, high school or college, I was flying somewhere by myself, and I was on a plane, and wherever I was sitting, I was like sitting directly across from where the flight attendants were sitting. There was like a little galley, no idea what aircraft this was.

16:27SPEAKER_02:It was a long time ago. But I specifically remember we started going through turbulence. I saw them buckle up, so I made sure my seatbelt was on, and they're sitting there and they're having coffee and you know, typical like flight attendant fashion turbulence, and I'm still sitting there drinking my hot coffee, and all of a sudden the plane just like like drops like a little bit, and both of their coffees like splashed over, and they both just look at each other like real quick with this like almost panicked face, but clearly more so about the coffee than the turbulence.

16:58SPEAKER_02:They were panicked about losing a hundred percent, and like there was this like bolt of lightning that happened at the same time, so it was like a whole flash, and I'm like panicked. I'm so freaked out. And I see their faces, and then all of a sudden, like half a second goes by, and they're both cackling about this. They're just like laughing so hard at this situation, and I'm like, well, shoot, if they're laughing about this, then what the hell am I even worried about right now?

17:26SPEAKER_01:Well, and I always add the caveat with watch the flight attendants because I am a human, and that's exactly right. Like, if something catches me off guard, my face may change. But what I always tell people is watch the flight attendants. And if we start to do things quick and quiet, that's when you have to be concerned that something's wrong. But if I'm sitting there having a conversation, acting like it's a normal day, we hit a bump like that, my face may change, but like the conversation didn't, we're giggling with each other.

17:52SPEAKER_01:But like if we're running up to the front galley to like lock things down and like move things really quick, the quicker and quieter we do things, that it's really that that should be your cue that like something's going on in the airplane. No, you're gonna make them all paranoid. The flight attendants got real quiet, those flight attendants are not saying anything. Yeah, but you can't just use my face because I am a human, I am up there, and things surprise me sometimes.

18:18SPEAKER_01:So, like, if you're just watching us, that's normally what people watch for those weird faces. Like, you'll you know the behavior, you know what I'm talking about 100%.

18:26SPEAKER_02:And general awareness is is just helpful and which is what's lacking in the lacking. Um, next up is learning what the normal noises are. And I think this one's so important because I literally think about this all the time. It was like a couple months ago, I was sitting on a 321 in one of the uh at 3L and R. I'm like sitting facing passengers in my jump seat. And this woman who's in the emergency exit room agreed to help in an emergency, which in hindsight, don't think she would have been super helpful.

18:59SPEAKER_02:Um did she ask you if they could turn the engines off because they were too loud? No, she wasn't she wasn't that bad, but like every little noise, like on takeoff, like a bag slid in the overhead, and she was like, What was that? What was that? And I'm like, girl, you've got to breathe. Like you were you're giving me an anxiety attack, and I'm not even the one that's afraid of flying right now. Um, but yeah, I think about that often. So yeah, learning what normal noises are, things moving in the overheads, or different sounds and bells, different Airbus hydraulic barking noises.

19:33SPEAKER_02:You know, there's so many like weird little airplane noises that I think people just need to kind of get used to.

19:39SPEAKER_01:Um, I totally agree. And no, we can't turn the engines off to make the flight quieter for you, despite your asking. And they do ask. Uh, don't interpret every change as something going wrong. Um, you know, there's a lot of reasons that the altitude would change, there's lots of reasons that the speed would change. Um, none of those means anything is wrong. Um, it probably means ATC is busy and we're running too quick. The wind is pushing us too fast and we're running too quick, and they need to slow us down so we meet our slot.

20:13SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and some of that stuff is so common too. Like, especially I think coming into Philly, you know, air traffic will put you into a little holding pattern, and you'll have passengers that are like, I feel like we're going in circles. What's happening? We are, we are going in circles. We're waiting for our spot to land, and air traffic is trying to like keep all the aircraft, you know, kind of going in in the correct order and all that sort of stuff.

20:35SPEAKER_02:Um, and so things like that. And then another thing I had recently was a go-around because the aircraft on the runway hadn't fully cleared the runway yet. And as we were coming in, air traffic let the pilots know that that was the case. So we did a go-around, which means we were coming in for landing, and then we just took off again and did another loop just to make sure that everything was totally 100% safe.

20:58SPEAKER_01:Now, this one isn't super common, and I understand where people get a little bit dicey feeling on that one or frazzled, uh, because I think what they forget is that the pilots are busy actually maneuvering the airplane, and they don't have time to like immediately tell you what's going on. But the there's that like sense of immediate I need to know what's happening. Yeah. Just take a deep breath. The we're all trained for your safety. So while I understand that that's frazzling, you have to give the pilots a minute to like stop maneuvering the airplane around.

21:28SPEAKER_02:Next up, choose your seat strategically. Um, this is a good one because the back of the airplane always feels turbulence way more than the front of the airplane.

21:40SPEAKER_01:Always.

21:41SPEAKER_02:If you can be like around the wings or forward, it'll be worth it for you to experience just a little less jostling around. Because, you know, even the pilots, like they'll be sitting up in the flight deck and they're like, oh, there might be a couple of bumps here and there, and we're in the back, like flailing around, you know, trying to latch everything. And it's like, you know, it just the the way the aircraft is and the way it's flying, the back just gets kind of bounced around a little bit more than the front.

22:06SPEAKER_01:So when I first left the regional airplanes, because they're so little, like it's not that's not a thing that happens on like a 50-seat jet. Um, so when I first everybody's bouncing, yeah. If we're bouncing, we're all bouncing. Um, I first got there, and during one of the briefings, the pilots was like, So if I forget to turn on the seatbelt, or like if you feel something I don't call up and just I'll take care of the seatbelt sign. And I was like, What can that possibly mean?

22:30SPEAKER_01:And then we're sitting on the ground and it's a windy day, and the back I we're not even in the air, and the back of the airplane is like being thrown around. The front of the airplane is just fine. We get up in the air and it is crazy turbulent in the back of the airplane. And I called up front and I was like, um, maybe a seatbelt sign, and they were like, Is it bad back there? And I was like, You don't feel it at all. I don't understand what's going on.

22:53SPEAKER_01:The back of the airplane, I was like, moving, but that was on the ground before we even left. So that's when I was like, uh 50 seaters. We're all moving. Yeah. Uh-huh. Those little jets, they feel every bump. Uh, yes, the front of the airplane is a better um idea for if you're really scared of turbines. Uh, give yourself something to do during takeoff.

23:19SPEAKER_02:I mean, that's I think a good idea for any phase of flight, but yeah, especially during takeoff and landing where I feel like you know, your nerves might be a little bit higher. But I mean, distracting yourself from anything that causes you anxiety is always a good idea. So whatever you'll be most engrossed in, I think, like, you know, whether it's your favorite comfort show, a book, a podcast, um, you know, things like that. I one thing I don't recommend is pills.

23:49SPEAKER_02:Um, the people that take their pills and then get a glass of wine and then wonder why they're going off the deep end now. Yeah, that that that I would not recommend, but definitely having some sort of activity or something to keep you entertained to keep your mind off of things is always smart. Distract yourself. Love it. What's next? Next up, we have avoid doom scrolling before your flight. Watching aviation incident videos at the gate probably isn't going to help unless you're a crew member, because this is just how our brains operate and we're always watching aircraft.

24:25SPEAKER_01:I was just about to say, this is not flight attendant advice. Yes. Um, someone else came up with this piece of advice for you because we love aviation.

24:34SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, but I wouldn't recommend it for passengers.

24:36SPEAKER_01:Oh.

24:37SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, the doom scrolling part. Yes. But like, you know, don't be like, oh, this aircraft I'm getting on. Let's see what the crash history looks like. I don't recommend doing things like that. Yeah. But yeah. True, true, true. Try to try to keep things positive. Think about all the millions of flights a day that do land successfully.

24:57SPEAKER_01:But there's some really good aviation docs out there for there are a day you're not flying.

25:01SPEAKER_02:Yeah. On a day you're not flying. We always joke that that's what flight attendants do in their layovers is they watch aircrash investigations. Sometimes it's what's on TV at 2 a.m. and it comforts me. It's so soothing.

25:15SPEAKER_01:Uh give yourself permission to be nervous. Um, and I'm a big advocate for this one, uh, particularly because I mean, fear is just unexplainable and unavoidable. Like, I'm sure you can go to therapy or do one of those EDMR things to get rid of the fear, but um, I think it's okay to be afraid of things. Um, there is some fear in life, and I think that's okay. I personally um I tell everybody I'm afraid of bridges. I know exactly why I'm afraid of them, but that doesn't change the fact that I roll the windows down and I'm booking my seatbelt every time I go over one.

25:50SPEAKER_01:My husband will tell you it's true, I'm crazy. I'm literally crazy. Not just my window, but all the windows come in. All the windows. Just to be safe.

25:59SPEAKER_02:I mean, I don't I don't I I kind of understand your logic behind it, and I I don't think it's that crazy of you.

26:09SPEAKER_01:Okay. I still give my permission to be afraid of this thing. I give myself to Oh, yeah, for sure. So, like whenever somebody comes on and tells me as a flight attendant that they are scared of flying, I'm not judgmental or I'm not gonna make fun of them for it. Because like fierce fear. I don't know why you have this fear, yeah. But it's real to you. I may never fall off of a bridge, but I'm convinced that I will. So I roll windows down. Yeah.

26:33SPEAKER_02:I mean, whenever you're afraid of something, I think talking about it and like that we say like recognizing that feeling is like the best way to address it. And I think that that's true in this situation where it's like, okay, say it out loud. Yes, I'm afraid of flying, you know, like verbalize it, name it, yeah, and that sort of thing. And that that sometimes is half the battle with like easing your anxiety over something.

26:58SPEAKER_01:Agreed.

26:59SPEAKER_02:And then the last tip we have remember how much redundancy exists in aviation. Commercial aviation is designed around the assumption that individual things fail. That's why we have like a million safety checks. Every department, every work group, pilots, flight attendants, gate agents, rampers, mechanics, like everybody has some sort of like policy and procedure and manual that they follow to a T to make sure that every single detail is safe. Um, you know, that things don't get overlooked like they do in other parts, you know, other other industries, because we just have so many checks in place.

27:40SPEAKER_02:Um, so you know, you've got to think about okay, it's not just we're taking an airplane out, like a thousand things happened before you even got to the gate, you know, in order to make sure that that's safe.

27:51SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And we know your friend's a pilot. He told you about that he's the only one that does a walk around, but there are at least seven different departments that walk around the airplane. Like we do our safety checks, but there's three other departments that have done safety checks of the same thing that I'm checking. Like it's not just one set of eyes doing anything, there are multiple sets of eyes on everything in aviation.

28:14SPEAKER_02:And we have checklists for everything, we have you know standards and rules and and so many different things that we do to make sure nothing falls through the cracks except catering. They don't have any of that, and that's probably gonna be messed up. Sorry, catering.

28:32SPEAKER_01:Sorry, catering, but you know it's true. We have 20 seats. How did you bring us four meals? Like, I don't understand where they went.

28:42SPEAKER_02:Have you had any like crazy turbulence or any like situations on an airplane recently where you've been afraid? Uh not recently, but at all ever.

28:52SPEAKER_01:Not recently, and I don't know if I've talked about it on the podcast or not, but I had this one turbulent experience that was the craziest inexplicable thing I've ever experienced in my life. Um, I was the forward flight attendant. Um, and you have to go to the back to I was in the front of the airplane. You have to go to the back to get your service cart and you move through with one of the back flight attendants. So we I like went and was walking back to get the cart out ready for us to push forward.

29:24SPEAKER_01:I literally don't know how any of this happened, but we hit such bad turbulence that like the cart and me came off of the eighth floor. I was standing between the bathrooms of a 320 where the bathrooms are in the aisle. So I was standing there getting ready to move the cart. The cart came up. I came over the cart, and for some reason the back flight attendant put the jump seat down. Oh as all of this was happening to like go sit down, and we both landed in the jump seat together at the same time.

29:55SPEAKER_01:Couldn't have planned that better. Could not have. I could have ended up on the floor, I could have ended up on the cart, like broken. Somehow I did a full flip over the cart and landed in an open jump seat, and I was like, Well, I guess it's time for seat belts. I mean, that worked out really well, really well. It was the craziest thing. I have I will never forget it, and I'm sure we're gonna get a bunch of comments. It was like never happened, but it did.

30:21SPEAKER_01:There were at least three other witnesses to it. Well, yeah, I don't flipped right over the cart and right into a jump seat. It was wild. I mean, we just hit, and you were like, you know how those go. Oh, yeah. One of those, like out of nowhere, totally scary.

30:37SPEAKER_02:What about you? Um, turbulence-wise, not really. I've never I don't think I've ever been afraid of anything turbulence-wise. I've had a couple like dicey situations like that with a cart where it's like, I don't know if we're gonna make it to the back in time. Um, but I've had a couple situations, like we I had an emergency landing one time where we had a bird strike leaving LaGuardia, and that was one of those things where I was new and I was afraid and was kind of like, you know, is this am I having like this horrible thing happen like three months into my career?

31:08SPEAKER_02:Is this normal? And I think going through stuff like that makes you less afraid because you realize how well you're trained. Yeah. Because we're, you know, we spend days and days and days and hours training for these situations. And so you realize how well you're trained because how quickly stuff starts working in your brain. Like you it's automatic. You start responding to emergency situations. So I think things like that over the years have just made me realize like how safe aviation is, how safe flying is, because these things are just drilled in us.

31:43SPEAKER_02:And I know it's true for every other work group that is involved in the safety of the aircraft. I I think everybody is on the same page, everybody does what they're supposed to do. There's like hard limits of like this is okay, this is not okay. And I I think knowing that always eases my mind where it's like, okay, yes, weather might be crazy. There might be crazy turbulence, we might have a maintenance issue, but everyone involved in this is trying to make sure that the aircraft is safe, period.

32:12SPEAKER_01:Yes. And I also I think that the general population forgets that like we're trained first responders. And so, like, the whole time I'm doing my job, it's not everything is a what if scenario. But like there are so many points where like you sit down in your jump seat for takeoff, I'm thinking what if so that I get that training back immediately. You're pushing your cart through the aisle and you're thinking, what if? Like the whole, like your your brain is so hardwired to be like, what if, so that you're pre, like you're prepared to take those steps.

32:47SPEAKER_01:I think half the time we don't even realize we're doing it. But like my whole job is like safety-minded. What if?

32:53SPEAKER_02:It's so true. Like you'll be on the jump seat and you're like, Well, if today's the day we're going down. Here's what I'm gonna do if that happens. And it's crazy the way your brain is trained. Yeah. Because I'm like this, and I mean, I've always been an anxious mess anyway, but I'm like this in every area of life where I'm like, okay, what if this happens? Um, and maybe it's a little like worst case scenario, doomsday, and maybe it's not always the best outlook, but it does help us to be prepared.

33:19SPEAKER_02:And I I'm ready for anything.

33:21SPEAKER_01:Uh yes, 100% ready for it all. Including non-rev. Including non-reviting, including non-rev.

33:31SPEAKER_02:Where are we going next? Uh we're going to India. We are going to India. How are we gonna get there?

33:39SPEAKER_01:Uh I haven't looked, have you? No. I haven't even opened an app. No. I'm gonna need you to open Staff Traveler and start punching stuff.

33:48SPEAKER_02:For sure. I seriously don't think we'd get anywhere without Staff Traveler. I um including here, honestly. I also I have to um share something funny that happened recently where someone um said that we no-showed one of our group trips. They said that our group trips that we do are um not real and that we don't even go on them, that we just collect everybody's money and then send them on their own, which is possibly the craziest thing I've ever heard.

34:23SPEAKER_02:Um, but with that being said, they were like, Oh, you don't even have confirmed flights. And I was like, No, we use staff traveler. And uh sometimes we've bought flights in last minute situations, refer to our episode about Thailand for that fun adventure, right? But for the most part, we we just go early and we use Staff Traveler, and we've always been successful so far. Um, but we truly wouldn't get anywhere in the world without Staff Traveler.

34:49SPEAKER_02:And if you don't have Staff Traveler, it is the number one non-rev app. It makes travel easy, it makes it stress-free, it's free to download, free to use. You answer requests for other for your airline from other people, and then you can put in requests for um other airlines so you can get flight loads.

35:07SPEAKER_01:We just got back from Peru though, and there's a new feature that we learned about because we were trying to find loads last minute. Our flight filled up, so we were searching everywhere uh to try to figure out loads, and we had like a hundred requests in because we every flight, everywhere we were trying to figure it out. Latam, I think we had like 24 requests in at one point. And you know which one they answered? The new priority one, yeah. Uh, which is what I really love.

35:34SPEAKER_01:I like this feature. So it doesn't, they have a new priority feature where it puts your request above all the other requests in the system, it puts it in queue with other priority requests. Now, this doesn't pull from your normal allotment of um like tokens or whatever. You have to earn special priority tokens um or pay for a priority. Um, but it's really worth the money because we had probably 35 checks out and we weren't getting a response. We put in a priority request and within minutes we had our loads.

36:03SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, but for you, the user, it's really great because you also by answering the priority one, you earn extra tokens.

36:10SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You um you get double the amount of credits when you answer priority requests, which is what makes it a priority and makes people want to answer it. So it's good incentive if you're uh putting in the priority requests because someone will answer you quickly, and it'll, you know, it's great if you're the one answering the request too, because then you get to put in um get a little extra credit for doing it. So it's a win-win situation for everybody.

36:36SPEAKER_02:The new priority requests is a game changer. Shout out to Staff Traveler. Thanks for being a sponsor and for getting us where we need to go. Because we can without you. Literally never fails. Go to stafftraveler.com slash two guys t w o g u I s. Download the app for free. We promise you will thank us later. Before we go, do we want to do a little galley gossip? I hope you have a good one for me. Oh, I do. For those of you that don't know, Galley Gossip is our regular segment where we share stories from our listeners about crazy, funny, heartfelt, whatever stories you have from the airplane.

37:19SPEAKER_02:And um, we read them out loud on our show and talk about what we would or would not have done in that same situation. So today's story is from Allison. She was flying from London to Edinburgh. It was just over 30 years ago. So we're going back in time.

37:35SPEAKER_01:We were off a time capsule. Tell me your best story.

37:38SPEAKER_02:We were flying from London to Edinburgh on the way back from an exhausting family wedding with two toddlers. That sounds like a handful. By the time we boarded the flight, I was cranky and I was exhausted. Back in those days, we didn't have seats allocated to our names, just four seats for our family, three on one side and then one on the aisle on the other. The two girls slid into the seats next to the window. My husband planked plonked himself down in the single seat across the aisle, and I lost it.

38:07SPEAKER_02:I stood there, I refused to sit down until he moved next to the girls, and I could sit alone across the aisle. At that point, the cabin crew obviously thought I was a crazy woman, and who could blame them at that point? Next to me there was a spare seat, then a man in the window seat who was avoiding eye contact with me as much as he could. After all, I was a British woman who made a fuss out loud. It's just not done. The plane began to taxi and my seat moved just slightly, and then it shifted.

38:35SPEAKER_02:I reached up and I hit the call button. The cabin crew looked at me, realized it was the crazy woman again, and ignored it. The next minute, the entire seat row that I was in came loose from the floor and started to fold up with me in it. By this point, everyone around us was hitting their call buttons to get the crew's attention. What was absolutely hilarious was that the man in the window seat, being Scottish and genetically wired not to make a fuss, was still pretending that nothing was happening while being engulfed in his seat.

39:04SPEAKER_02:I don't know if the seats are still designed like that, but the row of seats was folding up with us inside them, and they were a lot stronger than I was. The plane was moving towards the runway at this point, and the cabin crew finally realized this was an emergency, and the plane was stopped. Eventually we returned to the gate. We were rescued, and the row of seats was removed, and then I ended up at the back of the plane, peaceful as could be for the rest of the journey.

39:28SPEAKER_02:That is funny.

39:29SPEAKER_01:I've never heard of a row of seats folding up, but that's wild. Oh, that is wild. Um, it sounds like they got on it and took care of that part really quick. So, and no commentary there. What I will comment on though is um I would have gladly joined in on your rant, um, ma'am, about the fact that your husband thought he didn't have to take care of your children. Um, I would have walked up as a flight and been like, what is happening? And then as soon as you told me what was going on, I would have been just as mad or not madder than you that he tried to get out of taking care of his children.

40:01SPEAKER_01:And I would have moved you to like first class or something if I had it to move you to, because you absolutely deserve a break or five minutes to like decompress and read a book and watch a movie because you don't get enough of that time. Not saying dads don't, but they um usually are the ones that are not taking care of kids on the flight. So I'm always like, no, no, she can have the single seat.

40:22SPEAKER_02:I'm always empathetic towards the mom every single time. And it's funny because she didn't say it explicitly in this story, but you can just tell by the level of frustration that she had reached and how over it she was that she'd been chasing toddlers.

40:36SPEAKER_01:She had been momming for a minute and really just needed dad to be like, you know what? I I got this for you. No, no, I'm gonna take my book over here.

40:45SPEAKER_02:That entire wedding weekend, she was running around after those toddlers, and she just wanted a glass of wine and a nap.

40:52SPEAKER_01:I'm glad your seat broke and you got moved to the back of the plane so you could have a nap because you earned it. You deserved it, mom.

41:00SPEAKER_02:Keep sending us your galley gossip stories. We love reading them. Go to twoguysinaplane.com slash podcast and submit your story. You don't have to love flying, but you do have to get through it if you want to go anywhere. Make sure next time you're flying, you ask questions, tell your crew if you're nervous, keep that seatbelt buckled, and remember that things might feel unusual or scary to you are completely routine for us. So please don't be scared of flying and come fly with us.

41:27SPEAKER_01:Him. Fly with him.

41:29SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm nicer, so fly with me. And then make sure you go to Patreon uh for more um behind the scenes content and early access to new episodes and fun new galley gang merch. We're really excited about that. Um, if you join our galley gang, you'll get exclusive galley gang merch and you get to support our show. And we couldn't do this without you. So go to patreon.com slash two guys on a plane.

41:57SPEAKER_01:Join us next time for more humor, heart, and stories from our beverage card.