For many travelers, the best part of a long flight isn’t the movie, the Wi-Fi or even the meal.
It’s finally getting some sleep.
But if you doze off before the meal carts come down the aisle, will a flight attendant wake you up…or quietly pass you by?
The answer isn’t always what passengers expect.
Despite all the hoopla before boarding, once you’re settled into your seat, flying is usually pretty uneventful.
I mean sure, you can watch inflight entertainment if your airline offers it. Or maybe you have your own entertainment or work you can do on your personal electronic devices.
But if you’re really lucky, you can sleep through a good chunk of the flight. 😉
Since many people like to get some shut eye during a flight (particularly on long haul or overnight flights), there’s always the question of whether or not the flight attendants will wake people up when meals are served. I mean, ask ten travelers whether flight attendants should wake sleeping passengers for meals and you’ll probably get ten different answers.
What flight attendants say about waking passengers for meals
Most flight attendants won’t take it upon themselves to wake someone while they’ll sleeping. Especially not if the passenger is in an economy seat.
If the sleeping passenger is traveling with someone else, the flight attendant may ask the seatmate if they think the sleeping person wants their meal (which is a nice way to suggest, in between the lines, that the seatmate can wake them up if they want to), or if they should “leave the meal here” for them.
But if the passenger who’s asleep is flying alone, or if everyone in the row is sleeping and there’s no one else from the party to ask, chances are good the flight attendants will just leave them be.
As one friend of mine, who was a flight attendant for several years, said:
I woke up sleeping passengers early in my career but eventually stopped. Just too many people who were startled, confused or angry when I woke them up. And when they were eventually awake, most didn’t want the meal anyway. So I quit waking them.
That being said, the decision to wake passengers up for meals in business or first class might be a little different, because those meals may be considered more of an “event.” Plus, let’s face it – people are paying a lot more for those seats than the ones in economy. That meal is “worth” much more. OK yes, even despite the sometimes questionable quality of the meal. 😉
But what if you want to be woken up for the meal?
Of course, some passengers want to be woken up for the meal, regardless of time (or meal quality. 😉 ).
You can always give the flight attendant a heads up, before you fall asleep (ideally at the beginning of the flight), that you’d like to be woken up for the meal. Or tell your seatmate to wake you up when a meal is being served.
Some airlines even provide small stickers or markers you can place near your seat to let the crew know whether you’d like to be woken for meal service. You can also buy eye masks on Etsy, Amazon, etc., that have little says on them, such a DO NOT DISTURB or WAKE ME FOR MEALS, to help get your point across.
Can’t you just ask for your meal when you’ve woken up?
It’s complicated.
In the interest of food safety, airlines have protocols for meals that are heated. On at least one airline, for example, the rules is that meals can’t be served more than 30 minutes after they’ve been heats, and they can’t be reheated.
So if you’re looking for something small and refrigerated, like a yogurt, the flight attendant should be able to help you out. But if you missed the hot dinner at 8pm and it’s now midnight, chances are good that you might have to make due with something else.
At the end of the day, flight attendants aren’t mind readers.
Some passengers would be furious if they were woken up for a tray of chicken or pasta. Others would be just as upset if they slept through dinner.
So if you have a preference, say something before you drift off. Otherwise, don’t be surprised if you wake up well-rested…and a little hungry.
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