Flight Attendant Shares 3 Things She’d ‘Never Do When Traveling’

A video of a flight attendant highlighting some of the “gross” and “filthy” aspects of air travel has gone viral on TikTok.
The video, posted by user @cherdallas, has garnered 254,000 views since it was posted on August 11. In the clip, the flight attendant shares some things she refuses to do while flying on a plane, drawing from her experience in the aviation industry.
The clip begins with the flight attendant saying: “Three things I would never do when traveling as a five-year flight attendant,” before the airline worker highlights three ways to stay clean and minimize exposure to germs while flying. A caption shared with the post says: “I feel like my hands are covered in filth as soon as I step onto the airplane.”
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Fear of germs, and getting sick as a result, during air travel are understandable because studies have shown airplanes are among some of the dirtiest public spaces.
In a 2015 study by the Travelmath website, a microbiologist was sent to collect 26 samples from five airports and four flights to estimate the total bacteria population in these spaces. The study found that tray tables were the “dirtiest,” followed by the overhead air vents, the flush button in bathrooms, and seatbelt buckles, based on the number of colony-forming units (CFU) per square inch.
Drinking fountain buttons, followed by bathroom stall locks, were reported to be the dirtiest areas at airports, based on CFU, according to the study.
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Traveling by plane can come with serious health risks. The findings of a March 2018 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that “over a dozen cases of inflight transmission of serious infections have been documented, and air travel can serve as a conduit for the rapid spread of newly emerging infections and pandemics.”
However, “the risks of transmission of respiratory viruses in an airplane cabin are unknown,” according to the study.
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The study, which looked at 10 transcontinental U.S. flights, found that the “movements of passengers and crew may facilitate disease transmission,” but “there is low probability of direct transmission to passengers not seated in close proximity to an infectious passenger.”
The first tip shared in the viral video addresses the cleanliness of beverage cans served on flights.
“No. 1, I will never put my mouth on the soda cans or beer cans if I’m traveling for leisure and I decide to order a drink,” the flight attendant explains. She raises concerns about the sanitation of the cans, noting that “the catering trucks are truly gross and I don’t trust that there’s not sometimes bugs on the plane crawling on the outside of the cans, and that includes at the grocery store too that they come from.”
She adds that these cans are often seen “swimming around in buckets of water for hours on end.” To avoid potential contamination, she recommends asking for a cup of ice or an empty cup to pour the drink into instead.
The second tip involves a common in-flight practice—skincare routines. The flight attendant advises against applying skincare products while on the plane due to the high levels of bacteria present in the cabin. “Next—and don’t get mad at me for this, girls—but I’m never doing my skincare routine on a flight,” she says.
“Your hands are automatically filthy because you’re on the plane, the outside of your skincare products are filthy because they’re on the plane. Why do you want to rub bacteria around on your face?” Instead, she suggests completing your skincare routine before boarding and using a facial mist, such as Evian mist, during the flight if needed. “But you will never see my hands rub something into my skin when I’m on the plane,” she says.
The final tip focuses on bathroom hygiene, particularly the use of toilet paper on the plane. “Last, and I’ve said this one before, I am not using the toilet paper on the plane,” the flight attendant says.
She cites concerns about cleanliness, particularly in relation to how men urinate during turbulence, which could result in unsanitary conditions. Instead, she advises using Kleenex tissues as a safer alternative. “I will always use the Kleenex instead because I do not trust men’s aim during turbulence and I will never trust that its water droplets on the roll of toilet paper,” she says.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.
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