Flight attendants find passengers who help clear food after eating very irritating, says expert

You might think you’re being helpful, but there’s one thing that passengers do on flights that cabin crew find really annoying.

Of course, there are plenty more obvious things that might seem annoying to the crew – being too drunk to fly, perhaps, or persistently ringing for assistance.

But the most annoying thing a person can do without realising it? Trying to help clear away the food.

Ally Murphy is a flight expert with 14 years of experience in the aviation industry, with experience as a member of cabin crew with Virgin Atlantic.

She spoke about the things that passengers do which annoy people working on board – and even though they’re trying to be helpful, passengers can actually make things much more difficult without realising.

Speaking to indy100, Ally said that when guests clear all the rubbish from their trays and stack them, it actually makes it more difficult for the crew to clean away.

So while you might think it’s hugely helpful to stack the trays and tidy up the mess from in-flight meals, the opposite is the case.

“It’s a really weird one that no passenger would ever know,” Ally said. “But it's super helpful for the cabin crew when it comes to getting the trays.

“Once you've got all your meals and finished eating, try and put everything back the way that you've got it, or at least flat.”

Explaining why, Ally said that it’s “because the trays go back in the carts the exact same way that they came out”.

“So even though somebody's trying to be super helpful by putting all the rubbish on one tray, that's really not helpful, because I have to now have all the rubbish back on the tray and put them back as they were.”

So there you have it – if you want to be helpful, in this case it’s best to be lazy and leave things as they were.

Ally also revealed the secret games and codes that cabin crew use while on board – and it turns out they could be talking about you without you even realising.

The Independent