Southwest Passenger Uses Toes To Open Tray Table—Then Plants Both Bare Feet Where The Next Passenger Will Eat

A passenger on a Southwest flight to Denver removed their socks, used bare toes to release the tray-table latch, and then placed both feet on the table. Photos show both bare feet resting on the tray table. This appears to be around row 3, where the overhead placard says “Reserved for Extra Legroom Seats.” Legroom, sure, not feet which couldn’t manage to stay inside this passenger’s personal area below the seat in front of them. Another nearby traveler was apparently taking pictures as well. Online commenters are almost universally disgusted. Several said this was why they travel with disinfecting wipes. Like Alec Baldwin might bave said in Glengarry Glen Ross, “ABC = Always Be Cleaning.” Beyond grossed out on my flight by u/AdventurousWalrus608 in SouthwestAirlines Southwest Actually Has A Rule Against This This is not just an unwritten rule of etiquette. The airline’s Southwest Contract of Carriage says the airline may refuse transportation or remove: “Persons who are barefoot and older than five (5) years of age, unless required due to a disability.” Southwest does not prohibit taking off shoes while keeping socks on. It does prohibit being barefoot! The word in the contract is “may,” not “must.” They do not impose an obligation on themselves to enforce the rule, but it is a rule. American, Delta, United, Alaska, and JetBlue all publish similar barefoot provisions. 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. I should add, though, that although it may not violate the airline’s Contract of Carriage, socks alone does not make this ok: That Table Belongs To The Next Passenger, Too A tray table is where the next customer may place food, a drink, their phone, or a laptop. It is not a footrest. Southwest aircraft are tidied during quick turns by flight attendants. There aren’t even cleaning crews, and where airlines do have those come onboard between flights they aren’t sanitizing tray tables. And this is a shared food surface. Take your shoes off, fine. Leave your socks on. Put your shoes back on, or use airline slippers flying long haul in premium cabins (or bring your own) when you go to the lavatory because the liquid on the bathroom floor isn’t water. Probably leave them on for takeoff and landing, though, so you’re ready to evacuate in the event of an emergency. But in the end, getting comfortable is fine until it reaches disgusting in a public space. Don’t be a vigilante about it, though. Do not tickle them, poke them, or start painting their toenails. Ask for assistance from a flight attendant (these are their airline’s rules after all!), but mostly your self-help is sanitary wipes. Here’s a passenger with their not-so-lovely foot up on their neighbor’s armrest. Another was clipping their nails and flicking them onto the passenger beside them. And here’s one grinding dead skin off their feet – as a flight attendant just shrugged. I’m genuinely asking here, why are people so awful? Why can’t they just wait to do whatever they wish with their bodies until they have privacy rather than exposing the rest of us to it? Topics on this page