Some people assume that the button is for them to press when they need a drink or a snack, but this isn’t always the case.
According to Escape, the call button has become an outdated feature of air travel.
Travel writer James Booth said: “It belongs to a bygone era – a time when airlines actually cared about their passengers, and there was a shred of dignity about travel.”
The travel expert explained how a call button was not a personal helpline for passengers.
And in recent months, flight attendants have taken to TikTok to complain about people wrongly using the call button.
In one video, flight attendant Natalie Magee, who is known as yogimagee on the social media platform, revealed why some passengers push the button – and she wasn’t happy.
She said: “People will ring the call button and no one else around them has a beverage and they will ask us for a beverage.
“People ring the call button right when we get in the air, and I go over and I’m like: ‘Yes, can I help you’, and this one lady told me her daughter was bored right when we took off.”
And Natalie isn’t the only flight attendant who’s complained about passengers using the call button at awkward times during a flight.
In another video on TikTok, former flight attendant Kat Kamalani said: “This drives flight attendants absolutely bonkers when you hit your flight attendant call light button if we are on the tarmac, or going up or going down on the aircraft.
“The reason being it is a huge safety issue for us and we could get injured and the same with you guys.
“So from the tarmac – if you hit this and it’s not some kind of emergency, we are straight going back to our seat.
“If you hit this when we are going up in the aircraft or down and are landing we won’t even come to the light, we will come to it afterwards.”
Other flight attendants and pilots agree with Natalie and Kat too.
Back in 2018, Steve Bazer, a captain for a large US airline, explained on Quora: “It interferes with their cabin service if it occurs during the first hour and a half, or the last hour of a long flight.
“They are generally in the aisle with their carts, and must discontinue service and stow their cart to reach you [so] it then depends on the nature of the reason you called them.”
He added: “Bottom line, call if it’s something important and they’ll understand.
“Call about something totally selfish or trivial more than once, and you might be subject to being ignored by them and despised by every other passenger on the plane.”
Of course, if you need something in an emergency then the call button can be used – otherwise it will be better for both you and crew to get up yourself to get what you need.
These are some other etiquette rules passengers should follow when flying.
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