Flight attendant reveals the secrets you should know about traveling

A flight attendant has revealed the tips you need to know while traveling, like the items you should never touch in a hotel room to the best way to win over airline staff. Kat Kamalani, from Salt Lake City, Utah, has built a devoted TikTok following with her videos revealing the secrets of her job. The mother-of-two has more than five years of experience working for a US airline, but she makes sure not to name which one.

In one of her most popular clips, which has racked up more than four million views, Kat shares the simple trick all air passengers can use if they want to get on the right side of the flight attendants. ‘Being a flight attendant is exhausting,’ Kat said. ‘You’re always in different time zones, waking up at different times, and dealing with crazy customers. So I promise you the next time you fly, if you want special treatment from flight attendants this is all you have to do: [give them] $5 Starbucks gift cards.’

‘It means the world when customers give us these. If you don’t have gift cards, you can pick up candy bars, lip balms – anything – and give them to your flight attendants. We will know where you’re sitting, we will know what you look like, and we will make sure you are taken care of.’ 

The video was a hit with viewers, with one saying: ‘Omg, I never thought of that! Thank you!’ Another wrote: ‘I gave my flight attendants donuts and they treated me so well.’ However, a handful of viewers questioned why passengers should have to ‘bribe’ the staff to get good service. 

Elsewhere, Kat reveals the habits every passenger must avoid on flights, from walking around in bare feet to putting your shoes on the armrest of the person in front. She added: ‘This happened to me on a flight, I had a passenger clipping their toenails. Do not do personal hygiene on a flight.’ 

Kat stressed that no traveler should put their feet on the armrest of the chair in front of them.  

Kat also shared her tips for getting comfortable on a redeye flight. She insists on using an eye mask, ear plugs, comfortable clothes, essential oils, a blanket and pillow to prepare for the hours-long trip. 

If an airline overbooked a flight is offering vouchers for giving up your seat, Kat shares that you should never take the first offer. As the takeoff time nears, the offers will just keep rising. 

In another clip, Kat, who also has 115k Instagram followers, shares the three things every traveler should do when they check into a hotel room, starting with the cups in the bathroom. ‘If you don’t have a dishwasher in your hotel room, you should never use the cups,’ she explained. ‘The reason being is you don’t know if they are cleaned properly, or they have just been rinsed out after the last people who used that hotel room. If you have a cup that is fully sealed then you know they’re good to use.’ Kat also suggests packing a packet of instant oatmeal with you so that you always have a backup breakfast you can whip up using boiled water from the hotel room kettle.

Kat also came up with a clever way to cover the TV remote in order to avoid spreading or picking up germs. ‘These remotes are seeing so many hands with how many people are staying in the hotel room and you have no idea if they’re being sanitized,’ she said. ‘Take an ice bag and put the remote [inside].’