Stop Doing This Annoying Habit When Boarding Your Plane (It Can Slow Down Everything)

Flying makes traveling to faraway places so much faster and easier (and, in some cases, outright possible). However, once you're inside a plane, you're dealing with lots of people in an enclosed space and a very tight schedule. 

Anything you can do to keep from annoying your fellow passengers and flight attendants can make life a lot less stressful and more efficient for everyone. Unfortunately, there is one bothersome habit that you should do your best to avoid while boarding that slows everything down: Trying to use the restroom while everyone is getting on the plane. 

It may not seem like a big deal. After all, the plane is on the ground, you're not dealing with turbulence, and well, you've got to go. However, as you try to shove yourself through the narrow aisle, you're pushing by passengers who are trying to find their seats and get their bags in the overhead bins. The plane can't take off while passengers are standing, so, in the worst-case scenario, you may even be the reason behind a flight delay. There are definitely better times to use the airplane bathroom, and here's why you shouldn't while boarding.

Annoying other passengers as you push by them to head to the bathroom is bad enough. On top of that, you may be preventing flight attendants from performing their assigned tasks. "When you're boarding, the flight crew has different tasks to handle, both those you can see and, more importantly, those you cannot," one flight attendant explained to Real Simple. Keeping them from those tasks can hold up the plane, which in turn inconveniences everyone. And in any case, you don't want to be the person flight attendants talk about in code. 

To help avoid these complications, one person in a thread on Reddit's r/flightattendants subreddit advises, "Use the bathroom in the terminal even if you [don't] think you'll need to go," also referencing the potential for delays going onboard can cause. Terminal bathrooms are very likely to be larger and more comfortable than the tiny rooms on the plane.

Of course, this doesn't take into account issues like running to catch a close connection and not having time to attend to the call of nature, pregnancy-related issues, and medical conditions that may make it difficult to hold it. In that case, you may not have much of a choice, though you may want to inform a flight attendant who might be able to help you get through the crowd and back. Finally, if you think you may need to use the restroom often during a flight, it's one of the best reasons to pick an aisle seat if you have the choice.