Woman Props Her Feet On Delta Air Lines Seat Back Screen, Uses Toes To Change Channels?

Airlines should bring back Covid-era sanitizing wipes since they won’t clean planes between flights. In the meantime I hope this story convinces you to bring your own bleach wipes.

Writer Sarah Bengard shared a photo of a woman traveling on a Delta flight with her younger brother. And she said “he’s gagging.” The woman has her bare feet propped up, rested against the sides of her seat back entertainment screen.

If there’s ever been a good argument for American Airlines’ decision to remove seat back entertainment screens from its domestic fleet, this has to be it.

Here a business class passenger who flew Delta from Turks & Caicos to New York JFK last year shows tremendous dexterity using their feet to control the seat back entertainment system. A reader took video of this skill, and I can’t look away.

One British Airways passenger says that when they set their business class seat up as a bed, and they’re lying down, they find it much more convenient to control their television with their feet. That way they don’t have to get back up. And they wonder if anyone else does this, and whether there are other embarrassing things that they do when the doors to their business class suite are closed?

Oh, and they “like to be barefoot anyway, so why not?”

This is horrible. The airline isn’t sanitizing the screen between passengers. And you have a controller at your seat to change channels and adjust the volume on the screen in business class. You can reach that without getting up. Don’t use your bare feet!

Passengers using their feet to change the channel on the inflight entertainment system are probably also too lazy to put their shoes back on to go to the lavatory. And the drops of wet on the floor there aren’t from the sink. Airlines can help here, and provide disposal slippers in business class to promote hygiene in the lavatory.

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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. Germaphobe Gary. Get over it. Plenty of places to get germs besides an airlines. With as many quirks as you have I’m actually shocked you fly on planes.

    Frankly I couldn’t care less what other people do.

  2. “Frankly I couldn’t care less what other people do.”
    So you’re ok with someone next to you sneezing and not covering, pissing on the lav floor, improper hygiene, smelling like BO, crap, or both??

  3. Heaven forbid people should actual act like humans and respect others. Let’s expect the corporation to fix the problems their rude, arrogant customers create. After all it’s their fault for trying to provide a service to uneducated, obnoxious, entitled public.

  4. Thank you, Gary, for your perspicacity in advising that “airlines should bring back Covid-era sanitizing wipes since they won’t clean planes between flights.” Tinea pedis, also known as athlete’s foot, results from dermatophytes infecting the skin of the feet. Patients usually contract the infection by directly contacting the organism while walking barefoot. Symptoms typically develop in the interdigital clefts of the toes but can also affect the soles and medial and lateral edges. Generally, physicians treat tinea pedis with topical antifungals and advise maintaining proper foot hygiene. If not treated appropriately, tinea pedis can lead to significant morbidity, including cellulitis, osteomyelitis, and lymphangitis.

    Due to a lack of sanitization and cleaning between flights, I postulate that any Delta Airlines passenger who props their feet on the Delta Airlines seatback screen to use their toes to change channels will transmit pathogenic dermatophytes. The long-term sequelae of a pesky tinea pedis skin infection to other Delta Airline passengers who also use their toes to operate their seatback entertainment system may lead to a secondary bacterial foot infection, which can result in ringworm of the feet, impetigo, a fungal nail infection, pyoderma, and more. Skin infections acquired during a Delta Airlines flight may diminish your quality of life. I have included photos of skin infections you might acquire during your next Delta Airlines flight. Safety first, please keep your shoes on during your flight.

    Read more and view the photos: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470421/

  5. The world is dirty. There’s nothing particularly dirty about feet. At least it’s pretty unlikely anyone has sneezed into them.

  6. They need to have a rule about putting your feet on the back of the seat. It’s not good for the airplane and it’s unfair to the person sitting in front of her.

  7. I once endured a 10 hr flight from Heathrow to Phoenix sat beside a man who coughed and sneezed using up all his tissues (throwing the used ones on the floor) then using his blanket to blow his nose. Made me feel sick to my stomach being trapped like that.

  8. Back in the days of cable TV boxes, I recall some people had gotten really skilled at changing the channels using their toes when there was no remote control applicable. Never seen that kind of thing done on a plane but I’ve had the misfortune of seeing passengers put their feet or even backs against the seat back IFE screens and prevent the seat in front of them from reclining. Fortunately, the last I saw that in-flight was on a TATL Air Berlin flight where the cabin crew couldn’t care less about that being done. Perhaps that was because the FAs seemed to be fans of disturbing sleeping people and telling them to put back up their seats upright during meal service.

  9. This is why so many are allergic to every dang thing in the world.
    Nobody heard of all these germs 50 years ago. We didn’t have no fancy pansy toys.
    We rolled in the dirt!
    And we liked it!

    Happy Holidays everyone!

  10. JorgeGeorge Paez,

    Lower public sanitary standards have a correlation with population height. And as publicly sanitary standards rise, people’s height tend to rise thereafter up to a point.

    I’m not sure how “toe cheese” on the airplane IFE screens is going to do anyone any good, but it’s gross.

  11. Señor Leff,

    Do you care more about higher hygiene standards in place for business class passengers than for economy class passengers? Given the generally higher use of the economy class lavatories then the business class ones, wouldn’t those slippers/feet protectors be needed more in economy class than business class?

  12. We flew first class on Emirates A380 a few years back and the guy in the suite next to us was clipping his toenails before we even left the gate. Nasty people are everywhere.

  13. Good point on bringing your own disinfectant wipes on board. I tend to bring extra as others, including the crew, usually ask for a few

  14. I fly economy & I’ve flown barefoot many times. When I spend several hours in close quarters in a metal tube I’m about comfort.

    But I keep my feet on the floor, & while my toes are somewhat dexterous I use my fingers to change the channels.

  15. What is wrong with people? What has happened to common sense? I think the brains of some people are disintegrating.

Comments are closed.