Secrets of airline workers: including why you should never drink the free coffee

AIRLINE staff have spilled the beans on some shocking secrets that you might want to look out for on your next flight, including the one thing you should never do.

10 secrets of airline workers

AIRLINE staff have taken to Reddit to spill the beans on some shocking secrets that you might want to look out for on your next flight.

They’ve offered a range of tips that can help travellers save money and even prevent them from falling ill.

Here are their tips:

BRING YOUR OWN HEADPHONES

Reddit user ichigo29 wrote: “The headsets that are given to you are not new, despite being wrapped up.

“They are taken off the flight, ‘cleaned’ and then packaged again.”

Time for takeoff. Flickr: FaceMePLS

SKIP THE FREE COFFEE

WorseToWorser said: “The coffee is absolutely disgusting because no one washes the container that goes out every morning.

“The station agents who get paid way too little don’t give a s*** about cleaning it. I certainly didn’t when I worked for AA.

“Also, because we weren’t given the proper supplies to clean it we pretty much just rinsed it out and dumped coffee into it.”

OXYGEN IS LIMITED

According to a user named oraclexzf, there is just 12 minutes of oxygen available from the masks if the cabin was to depressurise.

The user added: “Also, the reason why they tell you to put your oxygen masks first and then assist children is because at an altitude of 40k feet you will only have 12-20 seconds of breathing normal air before you become unconscious.

“There is no problem if a child becomes unconscious for a few seconds as they will regain consciousness when the oxygen mask is put on.”

HOW PILOTS AVOID FOOD POISONING

As ichigo29 confessed: “Pilots are served different meals and cannot share, this is done in case of food poisoning.”

QANTAS... Airline food, and why meals taste different in the air. Pics supplied by Qantas.

HOW YOUR PET REALLY FEELS ABOUT FLYING

RabbitMix said: “If you checked your dog there’s about a 30 per cent chance it’s terrified before it even gets on the plane, who knows how scared it gets during the actual flight.

“Bag room agents will usually try to comfort a scared animal, but all we can really do is talk to it, so if you write your pet’s name on their carrier it usually helps a lot.”

Although things are a bit better if your animal happens to be a cat, as the user explained.

“I’ve never seen a cat who was scared in the bag room, cats don’t give a f***.”

GOT BAGGAGE?

WorseToWorser said: “Be nice to the ticket agent and they will pretty much always let you get away with overweight bags.”

DON’T BOTHER PUTTING LOCKS ON YOUR BAGS

User nunswithknives revealed: “Locks on zippered bags are useless. You can pop a zipper with a pen and drag the locked zipper pulls around the bag to close them back up.

“I’ve done this many times to identify bags that are tugless and locked.”

Another day, another flight. Flickr: Miki Yoshihito

LUGGAGE LOST? HERE’S WHY

RabbitMix who works at an airport bag room explains: “Somebody in the bag room f***ed up and put it in the wrong cart for a flight that leaves two hours after yours and it didn’t get caught until the ramp crew started loading that flight.”

Or

“Your bag got caught somewhere on the bag belt or it sent it to the wrong place.”

He added that your bag could have been taken away for extra screening but spent too long and missed your flight.

IT PAYS TO BE NICE TO AIRLINE STAFF

Reddit user ihatcoe revealed: “The nicer you are to us, the more we can do for you.

“Ran out of beef? Ask politely and we will get you a fillet mignon from first class.

“Your neighbour is noisy? Tell us nicely and we might be able to get you a better seat.”

“More often than not when passengers are aggressive and nasty we’d render minimal service and not extend more help than need be.”

Time for a break after dealing with all those demanding passengers. Flickr: Laszlo Ilyes