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Jet-setting was once synonymous with glitz and glamour, a luxurious experience that promised both efficiency and adventure. But for many modern travelers, air travel today feels more like a

test of endurance than a journey to savor. “It used to be such a nice experience,” says Michelle da Silva Richmond, a travel writer and the author of _Fleeting Moments__, _a memoir about

being a flight attendant for Pan Am in the 1970s. “The change has been gradual, but it doesn’t feel nice to travel anymore, and people don’t know how to handle themselves.” Cramped seats,

higher checked-luggage charges and ever-shrinking legroom have inevitably led to tense cabin confrontations and unruly behaviors. Comfort is scarce. Patience wears thin. “It all adds up to a

cocktail of stress and anxiety even before boarding the plane,” says Jodi RR Smith, owner of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting. From the battle for overhead bin space to interactions with

intoxicated travelers, flight attendants and frequent fliers offer tips for handling sticky situations and avoiding becoming one of these infamous passengers on your next trip. THE GATE LICE

Gate lice is what the ground crew calls passengers who haunt the area in front of the gate door hoping to board early, explains travel writer Deborah Gaines. “If you’re in Group 2, but

they’re in Group 3 or 4, they’re right next to you, hoping to get in earlier somehow,” she says. BE PREPARED TO CHECK YOUR CARRY-ON BEFORE BOARDING. Gaines suspects many people are trying to

board early because they’re anxious that there will be no room left in the overhead bins to stow their bags. However, if you know that you’re in a late boarding group and are concerned

about finding space for your carry-on, prepare to gate-check your bag from the get-go. THE IMPOSTER Some fliers are so desperate to skip the boarding line that they resort to faking

disabilities or injuries to preboard the plane. “The flights to Florida are often dubbed ‘The Miracle Flights’ because passengers insist on disability preboarding, often with wheelchairs,”

says Smith, “but upon landing, they pop up like jack-in-the-boxes and bound off the plane.” The same behavior occurs at the security line too. “People falsely say that they’re injured to get

a wheelchair, because when you have a wheelchair through TSA, it’s usually a faster line,” says Caleb Harmon-Marshall, founder of the travel newsletter Gate Access and a former TSA agent.

LEAVE THE WHEELCHAIRS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED THEM. Harmon-Marshall explains that whenever a traveler requests a wheelchair, an airline wheelchair pusher accompanies it. When able-bodied fliers

take up these resources, people who actually need them could be forced to wait hours for availability, which might cause them to miss their flight. THE SUPER-SPREADER If you have a cold and

you don’t wear a mask on the plane, you risk spreading your germs and getting other passengers on the flight sick too. And what’s ruder than ruining someone else’s vacation? Gaines recalls

an ill passenger seated behind her on a 14-hour flight who was hacking uncontrollably while unmasked. “So everyone else around her had to put on masks to protect themselves,” she says. MASK

UP. If you’re feeling under the weather, cover your mouth and nose with a face mask. Also, as a courtesy to fliers on future flights in your seat, clean and disinfect areas that you’ve

touched before you deboard the plane. THE ENTITLED ELITIST We get it: Air travel is expensive. According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation

Statistics, the average domestic airfare in the third quarter of 2024 was $366 in inflation-adjusted dollars, up from $345 in 2019. But paying a higher fare “doesn’t entitle you to treat

people horribly,” says Shawn Kathleen, a former flight attendant and the creator of Passenger Shaming, a submission-based Instagram account that curates fliers behaving badly. “It doesn’t

give you the right to treat the staff like your servants.”