If you’re sitting in first or business class, chances are you won’t have to wait very long for anything. There aren’t many passengers, and they tend to have a lower flight-attendant-to-passenger ratio than they do economy. So the wait for drinks, meals, snacks, etc., is never super long. Which, I guess, is the way things are nowadays – after all, people in first or business class paid a buttload of money and/or or points to sit there, and the more you pay, the better you’re treated.
But let’s say you’re Jamie Q. Public, sitting back in Economy. It feels as if you have to wait forever for everything, right? (full disclosure: Joe and I occasionally sit in business class, usually on the rare [one every year or two] international flights we take. But we’re typically Mr. and Mrs. Economy class, so we feel your pain with nearly every single flight)
As it turns out, there’s a specific system to how things are served in “the back of the plane.” It varies by plane and airline, but if you’re on Southwest Airlines, someone who says they’re a flight attendant for that airline just spilled the beans on how they serve things.
Officer-Nastyy is one of the millions of members on Reddit. They don’t say if they’re male or female, but they’ve been writing for about a month, mainly on the r/SouthwestAirlines subreddit. Last month, following the lead of others who have written similar posts about their lives, they started a thread that said:
I’m a Southwest Flight Attendant. As me anything.
And people did.
- They asked if they get upset when people ask for extra snack mix or brownie brittle (they don’t).
- They asked about their favorite airport (LGA), city for a stayover (Spokane), and if they’ve ever been scared of turbulence (only once)
- They asked about Southwest’s famous packaged peanuts (they were stopped because of allergy concerns)
- They asked about Southwest IT (this was about 6 months after the airline’s meltdown) and they said it could (currently) be worse but they do need upgrades.
- They asked what was the best things passengers could do and they said to be cooperative and nice. (“We tell you certain instructions because the FAA wants us to enforce safety on our flights. As much as I would like you to keep your bag on your lap, it must be under the seat for takeoff. Treats are always nice, like chocolates, hand sanitizers. We really, really, really do appreciate when you say thank you for anything.”)
One Redditor, named Tmdngs, asked about drink service:
How do drink orders work at Southwest? Do they make all the Sprite drinks at once and give them out to all the people who ordered Sprite? Or do they make drinks based on the seat order?
Officer-Nastyy’s response makes perfect sense; they said it’s all based on seat order and they all have their sections that they take care of. And then they gave these 2 little secrets:
“On the Boeing 737-700, if you sit in row 1, 9 or 17, you will get your drink first.
If you’re flying on a Boeing 737-800, sitting in rows 1, 9, 16, or 23, you will get your drink first.”
Which is VERY good info to know!
Of course, people can be as anonymous as they’d like on Reddit, so there’s no way to tell if “Officer-Nastyy” is a flight attendant or not. But based on their general replies, I think they either are, or know a lot about being a flight attendant. 😉 Also, one of the replies to the above was, “My husband figured this out and always sits on row 9” (which still doesn’t prove that Officer-Nastyy is for real, but it shows they know their stuff)
I don’t know about you, but the next time on a Southwest Boeing 737-700 or -800, I maaaaay try sitting in Row 9. You know, for science. 😉
Feature Image: Saschaporsche / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0
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1 comment
Obviously fake. No one’s favorite stop over is Spokane.