FOR THOSE FLYING
Reposting from another Flight Attendant and adding some of my own counsel.
Just some good advice for those who plan to travel this summer:
Flying this summer is ROUGH!!! I feel like as a Flight Attendant I should attempt to share some tips to get you through airline travel for the foreseeable future. 
1. Things are not good….. if its less than 7 hours – DRIVE! I’m not kidding. There is nothing enjoyable about flying right now. On any airline. If you must fly, keep reading. 
2. Download and use the app of the airline you are flying before you leave for the airport. You can do everything on it – get your boarding pass, track your bags, see your incoming plane, and change a flight. It sure beats waiting in the long line to talk to an agent! Trust me – Usually these apps will tell you a flight is cancelled before the crew even knows! 
Once in the air you can also use the app to watch movies and tv shows, get the internet for a fee, and text.
Side note on texts from your carrier: Stay at the gate if your flight is delayed! I had a 3 hour delay once and people left the airport to get food. We got word it would only be a 1 hour delay instead. We boarded up and left passengers behind. A lot of carriers will text passengers about these changes so have your phones sufficiently charged and stay close to the gate! Don’t get left behind.
3. Fly MUCH earlier than you need to – a whole day or two early if there is an event you cannot miss!! This week I saw many people miss important things like weddings, funerals, cruises, international connections, and graduations. The tears were very real, for very real reasons, and there was nothing I could do! If you have to be somewhere, spend the extra money, go a day early. Have a glass of your favorite beverage and eat a good meal, stay in a hotel, enjoy your night not being stressed while everyone else misses their events. 
Let the kids swim in the hotel pools and use the fitness centers there.
Get to the airport three to four hours early for domestic flights and five hours or more for international flights. TSA is shorthanded, too. Leave extra early for the airport and plan on long lines! TSA Precheck is a great investment and alleviates the long lines and long waits.
4. ALWAYS fly the first flight in the morning so you have all day to be rebooked if things go crazy. Yes, that may mean a 3:00 a.m. alarm, but morning flights don’t cancel nearly as often.
5. This is not unique to this year, but keep in mind summer is thunderstorm season. A single storm can shut down a whole airport. We can’t fly through them. Storms usually build as the day gets later. Book early flights! 
6. Schedule long layovers – Your 1 hour layover is NOT enough anymore. 30 minutes, not a chance. 3 hours minimum. 
Pilots and flight attendants cannot call ahead and hold your connection or next flight. Please do not ask to be the first one off the plane. Most everyone onboard will have a tight connection. It’s first come, first serve. We will do the best we can for you to get you where you are going.
7. What you see on the news is an understatement. We are short staffed and overworked. Not just pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers, but also ground crews. Without ground crews there is no one to park the planes, push aircraft back for takeoff, drive jetways, get your bags on/off planes, or scan boarding passes. This causes many delays that snowball throughout the day. Sometimes HOURS. (Another reason morning flights are best!) 
8. When flight crews get delayed we time out. We can NOT fly longer than 16 hours. It is illegal. So it doesn’t matter if you have a wedding to get to, when we are done we are done. The way things are now, there are little to no back up crews, so when this happens your flight cancels. (Now you are starting to see why those morning flights are best!) 
If a reserve crew is called out, they usually get two hours to prepare for that flight.
9. Avoid connecting in Newark. It is literal hell. You have a 50/50 chance your flight will cancel or missing your connection. They have been cancelling flights at their starting points just to keep the planes out of Newark because there just aren’t enough people to manage the planes, so the gates stay full. Also the restaurants are expensive, it is not a great place to be stuck.
10. Be KIND! As stated above, we are overworked and tired. We will not help you if you are mean, screaming at us, rude, calling us names, or insulting towards us or anyone else. No one cares that you are going to miss your cruise if you are an a-hole. Kind people get the best service!
11. Being drunk on an airplane is a federal offense, so don’t overdo it. If you drink too much at the bar waiting for your delayed flight you risk not being allowed to fly at all. We are too tired to deal with your drunk a— when we have legitimate issues to deal with. 
First class gets free drinks, but we will cut you off if we see you are not handling your alcohol well. We sell alcohol to everyone else on the aircraft so we can control the amount of alcohol distributed. Also, please do not drink your own alcohol onboard the aircraft, It’s against FAA regulations and can get you in very deep trouble.
12. Get trip insurance if you have a lot of money invested. I hate the whole idea of this, but I also hate the idea of losing money. Example: I was working a flight yesterday that waited over an hour for a gate. A family of 8 missed their flight to Rome. The only flight of the day. They were going to a cruise which they would now miss. They were all crying, there was nothing I could do. (Also a reason to fly a day early!) 
13. Flights are FULL. If you buy the cheap seats you will not be able to sit with your family. It says so when you purchase your ticket!! Flight Attendants are not there to rearrange the whole plane just so you can sit with your family because you tried to save $100 on a third party website. 
14. Speaking of third party websites and saving money….. Like I said flights are FULL. If a flight is oversold, and no one volunteers to give up their seats, who do you think is the first to be bumped? You guessed it, the family that saved a few $$ by using sites like Expedia, Kayak, Hotwire etc. 
15. Pack light! Don’t hold up boarding because you have your extenders open until they are bursting at the seams and you can’t figure out how to make it fit in the overhead. Just because it fit on the last flight does not mean it will fit on the current aircraft. Airplane configurations differ from aircraft to aircraft. (Passengers are stressed too, they can be aggressive when boarding a delayed flight) 
If you need a moment to rearrange your bags, please step to the side to allow others to board and go down the aisle while you reorganize things, too. It slows things way down when people stand in the aisles fidgeting through their bags.
When packing, make a list of things you need and check them off as you go. Take one or two pairs of shoes (including the ones you are wearing), mix and match one or two pairs of jeans with one or two pairs of shirts and skirts, Keep it simple! Wear the same outfit two or three times.
If your bag is too big to fit in the overhead bins we will have to check it and this can delay the boarding process and takeoff. If your bag is checked make sure your laptop, e-cigarettes, keys, valuables, medications, phones, passport, I.D., credit cards, wallets, cash, and other important things are not in it! Keep all of those in your smaller carry on when you pack. . Makes it so much easier to check your bag as you won’t have to take the time to open your bag, find these things, and remove them.
Big bags go in the overhead bins and smaller bags must go completely underneath the seat in front of you. That’s for your safety. We don’t want anything to create a trip hazard in case you need to leave the aircraft quickly. This includes backpack straps. Turn backpacks sideways so they go all the way under that seat. Make sure backpack straps aren’t sticking out in the aisle, either.
If wearing a backpack on your back be cognizant of others around you. Many people have bumped into others with them, knocked things over, etc. Just be aware of your surroundings.
If your bag is checked make sure to keep the claim tag. Check to see where it goes–jet bridge or to your final destination. If it’s to the jet bridge, be sure to wait on the jet way after exiting the aircraft and collect your bag. If you don’t get it on the jet bridge you won’t be allowed back on it to get your luggage. If it’s checked to your final destination be sure to get it in baggage claim. Usually you can see where all checked bags go on the individual carrier’s APP.
16. Take showers, brush your teeth, leave the perfume off, don’t eat stinky food (Caesar salad and tuna fish I’m talking to you!), and bring headphones. Trust me. These things sound basic, but add to stress on crowded planes. Please use your ear buds and head phones or mute your device. We cannot have you entertaining us with your music or movie as great as it is, especially at 5:00 am or 11:00 pm. This includes small children and their devices!! Be courteous of those around you, If you are stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours after a 4 hour flight, you will thank me for this. 
17. Bring a sweater, jacket, or pashmina scarf if you tend to be cold. So tired of half naked girls asking me to turn the heat up. NO. Wear clothes!! Side note: If you dress like this and ask for heat, there’s a chance I will turn the AC up. 
We usually do not have blankets on planes now.
18. That is not water on the bathroom floor. It’s disgusting. Please wear shoes to the bathroom!!! 
I’ve seen people walk barefoot or in their socks to the lav and that’s just gross!
19. Make sure phones, laptops, and tablets are fully charged! Not all planes or seats have charging units or USB ports. Charge in between flights as well at airports. Have your lightning cords, chargers, and even battery packs with you in your smaller carry on for convenience, Download fav movies, tv shows, books. Some smaller planes do not even have WIFI.
Please do not stow laptops in seat back pockets! They are too big for those smaller pockets and can break them. Plus, those laptops can get in the way of someone’s egress in case of an emergency. Please stow them in the overhead bins or completely underneath the seat in front of you, They can also be a projectile object on our bumpy take offs and landings. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.
Laptops MUST be stowed prior to pushback either completely underneath your seat or in an overhead bin. Please don’t stow them in seat pockets! Also, your laptop (and tray table, mind you) must be stowed BEFORE the main cabin door is closed.
Make sure all devices are in airplane mode BEFORE the main cabin door is closed.
I hear all the time from people that they just need to finish their phone calls or wrap up a report. You are welcome to go back inside the airport to finish those things while we take off then. BYE!!
20. Pack extra snacks. Nuts, cheese sticks, popcorn, trail mix, crackers, fruit snacks, candy bars, whatever you prefer (unless someone has a nut allergy then save those for the next flight or your vacation). Sometimes we are not catered properly or at all so it’s best to have some food with you. Airport restaurants and fast food places have long lines and run out of many things on the menu or have weird hours and close at different times.
Bring your own empty water bottle! Once you are past security there are now watering stations specifically for water bottles in airports where you can fill them up and bring on the plane, Just make sure to hold on to them for take off and landing. I’ve had the big metal water bottles bang people in the heads from being stowed awkwardly in backpacks, etc. and I’ve seen them go all the way down the aircraft for take off. Don’t forget to take them with you when you leave the aircraft as well.
21. **INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL–please make sure your PASSPORT IS CURRENT and has not expired or will expire during your trip! Get it renewed before you take that overseas trip! You don’t want problems getting to your long awaited dream vacation or trying to get home! And please make sure you have that passport when you leave the aircraft! I have discovered several passports stowed in seat back pockets. Do not place them there!
22. Don’t tell a Flight Attendant they look tired. We are and we know. You may cause us to ugly cry right there in galley. 
23. We really do want you to fly with us and have a great experience. Just be sure to pack your patience, kindness, whimsy, and serendipitous nature. 
All the best in your journeys and happy travels!