No Class in First Class: Barefoot Passenger on American Airlines Disgusts Flyers

An American Airlines first class passenger had no class, sitting in the bulkhead row feet propped up on the wall. It’s bad enough with shoes, but hers were off for the whole cabin to see (and for their seat opponent to smell).

Another passenger in the cabin snapped a photo, commenting that American’s planes “aren’t [passenger] bedrooms” and that’s true. This is a domestic plane, there aren’t lie flat seats. And while the airline used to talk about its lack of seat back screens, but with streaming entertainment to passenger phones, as a “living room experience” that was never meant to be taken literally.

Back in the fall two women flying American Airlines first class from Charlotte to Orlando did one of the worst things imaginable on a commercial flight. This mother and her adult daughter were propping up a bare foot in two player mode.

Anyone alive after 1982 should know the simple maxim: “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice”. Bare feet on a plane is such an awful thing to do to the rest of the passengers in the cabin that a passenger with smelly feet once drove another so nuts that he got stabbed on arrival in the parking lot.

A United Airlines flight attendant reportedly once offered a passenger a $1000 voucher to take their feet off the tray table. I’m confident this was a bluff, that the airline wouldn’t have made good. But they were trying to creatively solve the problem.

Passengers have even taken the depravity to a whole new degree of difficulty by using their bare feet to control their seat back entertainment system. That’s probably the best argument against seat back screens entirely.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. And some people wonder why I wipe down everything with a disinfectant wipe right away.

  2. I’m surprised that airlines don’t have rules about what you can and can’t do with your disgusting feet.

  3. I’m amazed that snooty passengers would get away with that on flights. Where were the flight attendants at that time ? Isn’t it their job to do checks on passengers

  4. Here’s my problem with your constant barrage of posts of people behaving badly, aside from making me question the future of humanity: why is it always a passive aggressive response, such as filming or second hand accounts, then posting about it after the fact? Does nobody have the cajones to confront shitty behavior directly anymore? You can ask politely for these idiots to correct their behavior without getting into a physical altercation, you know. This behavior won’t stop unless there is immediate pushback. Unfortunately our society is full of cowards, passive aggressive social media influencers, and sociopaths.

  5. Literally just wiped my first class seat area down before sitting. Zero f@cks given to the other slugs.

    What’s ironic, if you look at a FA sideways, you may have to deal with some crap when you land. But put your nasty feet up on the bulkhead? No problems!

  6. You can take the girl out of the trailer park but you can’t take the trailer park out of the girl.

  7. I would agree with an earlier poster. Two approaches – ask the offending person to not do that. If there is a conflict then speak to the flight attendant. Why is that so hard I don’t understand why a person would sit there in a plane having paid a lot of money and just suffer someone’s white trash behavior. Can someone explain that lack of action to me.

  8. Is it ever ok to take off your shoes, even if you wear socks, in domestic first? Asking for a friend.

  9. Supposedly you are not allowed to board a plane barefoot, that is without shoes, sandals, flip-flops, etc. So why can you shed your footware and go barefoot while ON the plane. No consistency!~!

  10. LOL – I am amazed at what some people consider offensive. Since when did someone’s feet carry germs or become unsanitary? Really people, get over your first-world problems.

  11. Gary REALLY needs to stop licking the bulkheads.

    At least I assume he must be licking the bulkheads, based on how often he posts about this.

    But really, who cares? Just realize the bulkhead is basically the same as the floor.

  12. It’s disgusting to look at. There’s an reason that showing your feet is considered nasty and insulting in many cultures. I got a two-fer. A gross huge woman with her gross fat filthy feet on the wall on one side and next to me her little husband watching pervey stuff on his phone and “accidentally” touching me the entire flight. And I’ll tell you why I was consumed with rage and just took it. Because at first I didn’t believe it was actually happening. And when I realized it was it was too late and I had visions of being gaslighted by them and potentially the FA. I think many women can relate to that.

  13. I am gobsmacked by American culture. All you read about is complaints about airlines, their staff and their policies. Everyone expects to be compensated for every irregularity, complaints about meals and service, boarding, overhead bin space and the list goes on and on. Yet the passengers board flights like animals dragging everything they own, scam early boarding with fraudulent use of wheelchairs and like in this story act like disgusting pigs in flights.

    The American public is a disaster and you blame the airlines?

  14. This woman has beautiful manicured feet. The person giving the foot a massage is wearing a smart watch with tasteful jewelry.

    Clean feet deserve to be touched on a stressful flight.

    This woman is lucky, and her observers are mostly jealous.

    Good for her!

    Dave’s Hands
    Registered Massage Therapist
    Houston, TX

  15. The reason why more people do t complain is because it is not worth it. Complainers and people who ask FAs too many questions are thrown off the plane. When I fly, I read a book and keep quiet at costs.

  16. You cant win either way. Ask an FA or ask the passenger the result will be confrontational. I loathe uncouth classless passengers and I agree with Mantis but it seems common courtesy and decent behavior is out of fashion. .

  17. Dave’s hands: YOU are WRONG sir. No one is jealous. There is a time and a place don’t care how much they paid.

  18. Mark; I was brought up with manners and the accepted behavior in social circumstances. It is not a First World problem. We are sinking to Third World status.

  19. My husband had ALS/MND programme about 4 months ago. he no longer requires a feeding tube, sleeps soundly, works out frequently, and is now very active. It doesn’t make the ALS go away but it did give him better quality of life. we got the treatment from vine health centre . c o m

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